Scribd
Upload
136 views3 pages

The Matrix: Roger Ebert

The Matrix is a visually dazzling film full of exciting action, but it retreats to formula by ending with an obligatory shoot-out rather than further exploring its intriguing premise of reality being an artificial construct. While fun, the film plays it safe and could have aimed higher by delving deeper into its compelling ideas about the nature of reality, existence, and human obedience, instead of focusing on fights and violence. It offers no clear explanation for why the Matrix system was created and leaves many philosophical questions unanswered after "unplugging" humans from the virtual world.

Uploaded by

Patrik Teprak
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
136 views3 pages

The Matrix: Roger Ebert

The Matrix is a visually dazzling film full of exciting action, but it retreats to formula by ending with an obligatory shoot-out rather than further exploring its intriguing premise of reality being an artificial construct. While fun, the film plays it safe and could have aimed higher by delving deeper into its compelling ideas about the nature of reality, existence, and human obedience, instead of focusing on fights and violence. It offers no clear explanation for why the Matrix system was created and leaves many philosophical questions unanswered after "unplugging" humans from the virtual world.

Uploaded by

Patrik Teprak
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

The Matrix

Roger Ebert March 31, 1999

"The Matrix" is a visually dazzling cyberadventure, full of kinetic


excitement, but it retreats to formula just when it's getting
interesting. It's kind of a letdown when a movie begins by
redefining the nature of reality, and ends with a shoot-out. We
want a leap of the imagination, not one of those obligatory
climaxes with automatic weapons fire.

I've seen dozens if not hundreds of these exercises in violence,


which recycle the same tired ideas: Bad guys fire thousands of
rounds, but are unable to hit the good guy. Then it's down to the
final showdown between good and evil--a martial arts battle in
which the good guy gets pounded until he's almost dead, before he
finds the inner will to fight back. Been there, seen that (although
rarely done this well).
ADVERTISEMENT

Too bad, because the set-up is intriguing. "The Matrix" recycles


the premises of "Dark City" and "Strange Days," turns up the heat
and the volume, and borrows the gravity-defying choreography of
Hong Kong action movies. It's fun, but it could have been more.
The directors are Larry and Andy Wachowski, who know how to
make movies (their first film, "Bound," made my 10 best list in
1996). Here, with a big budget and veteran action producer Joel
Silver, they've played it safer; there's nothing wrong with going for
the Friday night action market, but you can aim higher and still do
business.

Warning; spoilers ahead. The plot involves Neo (Keanu Reeves), a


mild-mannered software author by day, a feared hacker by night.
He's recruited by a cell of cyber-rebels, led by the profound
Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and the leather-clad warrior
Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). They've made a fundamental
discovery about the world: It doesn't exist. It's actually a form of
Virtual Reality, designed to lull us into lives of blind obedience to
the "system." We obediently go to our crummy jobs every day,
little realizing, as Morpheus tells Neo, that "Matrix is the wool
that has been pulled over your eyes--that you are a slave." The
rebels want to crack the framework that holds the Matrix in place,
and free mankind. Morpheus believes Neo is the Messianic "One"
who can lead this rebellion, which requires mind power as much
as physical strength. Arrayed against them are the Agents, who
look like Blues Brothers. The movie's battles take place in Virtual
Reality; the heroes' minds are plugged into the combat. (You can
still get killed, though: "The body cannot live without the mind").
"Jacking in" like this was a concept in "Strange Days" and has also
been suggested in novels by William Gibson ("Idoru") and others.
The notion that the world is an artificial construction, designed by
outsiders to deceive and use humans, is straight out of "Dark
City." Both of those movies, however, explored their implications
as the best science fiction often does. "Dark City" was fascinated
by the Strangers who had a poignant dilemma: They were dying
aliens who hoped to learn from human methods of adaptation and
survival.

In "Matrix," on the other hand, there aren't flesh-and-blood


creatures behind the illusion--only a computer program that can
think, and learn. The Agents function primarily as opponents in a
high-stakes computer game. The movie offers no clear
explanation of why the Matrix-making program went to all that
trouble. Of course, for a program, running is its own reward--but
an intelligent program might bring terrifying logic to its decisions.

Both "Dark City" and "Strange Days" offered intriguing


motivations for villainy. "Matrix" is more like a superhero comic
book in which the fate of the world comes down to a titanic fist-
fight between the designated representatives of good and evil. It's
cruel, really, to put tantalizing ideas on the table and then ask the
audience to be satisfied with a shoot-out and a martial arts duel.
Let's assume Neo wins. What happens then to the billions who
have just been "unplugged" from the Matrix? Do they still have
jobs? Homes? Identities? All we get is an enigmatic voice-over
exhortation at the movie's end. The paradox is that the Matrix
world apparently resembles in every respect the pre-Matrix world.
(I am reminded of the animated kid's film "Doug's 1st Movie,"
which has a VR experience in which everything is exactly like in
real life, except more expensive.) Still, I must not ignore the
movie's virtues. It's great-looking, both in its design and in the
kinetic energy that powers it. It uses flawlessly integrated special
effects and animation to visualize regions of cyberspace. It creates
fearsome creatures, including mechanical octopi. It morphs
bodies with the abandon of "Terminator II." It uses f/x to allow
Neo and Trinity to run horizontally on walls, and hang in the air
long enough to deliver karate kicks. It has leaps through space,
thrilling sequences involving fights on rooftops, helicopter rescues
and battles over mind control.

You might also like