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Movie Review: You don't have to 'get' 'Matrix' to be dazzled
Wednesday, March 31, 1999 By Ron Weiskind, Post-Gazette Movie Editor
So what is "The Matrix"?
Rating: R for sci-fi violence.
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne.
Directors: Larry and Andy Wachowski.
Critic's call: 2 1/2 stars
It's the new movie with Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. The trailer and TV ads promise the best-looking special effects since "Independence Day," with people doing backflips and kung-fu kicks as if they are the only things moving in a landscape where time seems to have frozen.
But what is The Matrix?
Having seen the movie, I'm still not sure I can explain it all. Heck, I'm not sure Keanu himself could explain it. But that's the best way to use Reeves - cast him as a character who has no idea what's going on.
"The Matrix" is built on the concept that reality isn't all that it's cracked up to be. In fact, it's not reality at all. It's virtual reality, intended to keep us from realizing its creators' malevolent purposes. The mysterious renegade Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and his followers fight a rear-guard action as they search for The One whom the prophets say can save us. Morpheus becomes convinced it is computer hacker Neo (Reeves).
Got that? Didn't think so. And are you imagining the fate of the world in Keanu's hands? But as Morpheus keeps saying, "No one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."
Good advice. Visually, at least, "The Matrix" more than lives up to its billing. Writer-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski ("Bound") seem to literally bring the screen to life with action scenes that define the word kinetic. The actors all but explode off the screen. They do their own stunts, and spent several months training for them. One of the highlights of the film is a kung-fu battle between Reeves and Fishburne. Because they are not doubled by stuntmen, the camera can get close enough that it almost seems to be a third participant.
There some unintentional humor in "The Matrix." But for all of Morpheus' sober explanations, the film also manages some hip irony. Australian actor Hugo Weaving, as the sinister Agent Smith, is responsible for much of it - think of the Men in Black as part of the conspiracy on "The X-Files."
Despite all the hardware, the performers manage to graft personality into their characters, including Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, the woman who leads Neo to Morpheus, and Joe Pantoliano as Cypher, who follows Morpheus but doesn't always believe him.
Some viewers of "The Matrix" will find philosophical food for thought. Others will find high-tech mumbo jumbo. I prefer to think of it this way: Someone has created something that seems like reality but isn't and offers a false view of life that is more attractive than the real thing, a mode in which people easily lose themselves. Forget computers. Isn't that what movies do?
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