The Matrix
Academy Award × 4·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.
What critics thought
The Matrix dazzles as a visual and conceptual event, with its action choreography and special effects earning near-universal admiration, but critics divided sharply over whether its ideas and spectacle hold together through the final act. The film's philosophical ambitions struck some as genuinely provocative and others as adolescent window-dressing for a routine action picture — a tension that defines the critical conversation around it.
“technically mind-blowing, style merged perfectly with content and just so damn cool”
Ian Nathan·Empire
“the promising premise is steadily wasted as the film turns into a fairly routine action pic ... yet another slice of overlong, high-concept hokum.”
Time Out
“simpleminded fun for roughly the first hour, until the movie becomes overwhelmed by its many sources ... There's not much humor to keep it all life-size, and by the final stretch it's become bloated, mechanical, and tiresome.”
Jonathan Rosenbaum·Chicago Reader
“through-the-looking-glass plot... manages to work surprisingly well on a number of levels: as a dystopian sci-fi thriller, as a brilliant excuse for the film's lavish and hyperkinetic fight scenes, and as a pretty compelling call to the dead-above-the-eyeballs masses to unite and cast off their chains... This dazzling pop allegory is steeped in a dark, pulpy sensibility that transcends nostalgic pastiche and stands firmly on its own merits.”
Maitland McDonagh·TV Guide
“It lacks anything like adult emotion... all this pseudo-spiritual hokum, along with the over-ramped onslaught of special effects—some of them quite amazing—will hold 14-year-old boys in rapture, not to mention those of us of all ages and genders who still harbor a 14-year-old boy somewhere inside”
Andrew O'Hehir·Salon
Genres
Action, Sci-Fi
Cast & Crew
DirectorLana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
StarringKeanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster
ComposerDon Davis
The Matrix
Academy Award × 4·National Film Registry
Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.
What critics thought
The Matrix dazzles as a visual and conceptual event, with its action choreography and special effects earning near-universal admiration, but critics divided sharply over whether its ideas and spectacle hold together through the final act. The film's philosophical ambitions struck some as genuinely provocative and others as adolescent window-dressing for a routine action picture — a tension that defines the critical conversation around it.
“technically mind-blowing, style merged perfectly with content and just so damn cool”
Ian Nathan·Empire
“the promising premise is steadily wasted as the film turns into a fairly routine action pic ... yet another slice of overlong, high-concept hokum.”
Time Out
“simpleminded fun for roughly the first hour, until the movie becomes overwhelmed by its many sources ... There's not much humor to keep it all life-size, and by the final stretch it's become bloated, mechanical, and tiresome.”
Jonathan Rosenbaum·Chicago Reader
“through-the-looking-glass plot... manages to work surprisingly well on a number of levels: as a dystopian sci-fi thriller, as a brilliant excuse for the film's lavish and hyperkinetic fight scenes, and as a pretty compelling call to the dead-above-the-eyeballs masses to unite and cast off their chains... This dazzling pop allegory is steeped in a dark, pulpy sensibility that transcends nostalgic pastiche and stands firmly on its own merits.”
Maitland McDonagh·TV Guide
“It lacks anything like adult emotion... all this pseudo-spiritual hokum, along with the over-ramped onslaught of special effects—some of them quite amazing—will hold 14-year-old boys in rapture, not to mention those of us of all ages and genders who still harbor a 14-year-old boy somewhere inside”
Andrew O'Hehir·Salon
Genres
Action, Sci-Fi
Cast & Crew
DirectorLana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
StarringKeanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster
ComposerDon Davis
Rent/Purchase