Okay, here's the deal. This will make me seem somewhere near a hundred years old, but I have to say it. I was one of the true believers who swore up and down that there'd never be anything to beat the special effects in Tron. I know, I know, I was a young tyke when I said it, and I might admit that I was under the influence of various chemical additives and preservatives, too. (I was spray painting my bike that day....) But, for when it was made, it blew my mind.
I don't want you to think that I'm easily swayed by special effects. I love them when they're done right. I take guilty pleasure in being forced to realize that my jaw is on the floor because of some effect. I loved the Water Creature in The Abyss. I loved The Liquid Metal Terminator in T2. I almost wept at the sight of a stampede of whatever dinosaur it was that almost ran Sam Neill down in Jurassic Park. And that T-Rex at the end, bellowing triumphantly as a banner drifted in front of him that read "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth" was just a supreme moment in my movie moments list. That list, by the way, is available in the gift shop on your way out....
Saying all that, I gotta say that I was less than giggly when I heard about the movie The Matrix. When people talk for months about the upcoming effects in some movie, it means one of two things -- we're either about to be blown away, or we're being set up for a huge fall. I fell for that with Tank Girl and Johnny Mnemonic. Now, The Matrix was on the way, springing out some two months before George Lucas "redefines special effects" in The Phantom Menace (a.k.a. Star Wars: The Prequel, or Star Wars: Episode One or Holy Cripes: Watch George Lucas Make Vaultloads of Money...). Adding to my trepidation was the name Keanu Reeves, who plugged me for some bucks in Johnny Mnemonic and left me drier than a camel's forehead.
I debated and I debated, and I gave in to the curiosity and went to see The Matrix the day it opened. May I just say this, right from the start? Get ready to see it twice, because the first time, you'll be too amazed to cope.
Thomas "Neo" Anderson (Reeves) is a computer programmer living in a nameless American city. Neo is having some trouble lately knowing what's real and what's a dream. His computer seems to be talking to him. A VERY hot babe named Trinity, played by Carrie-Anne Moss (of TV's "FX: The Series"), slides him some news about a hacker named Morpheus, played by Laurence Fishburne (Event Horizon). And then Neo gets himself detained by an Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) and has an electronic bug jammed into his navel. I mean, a literal electronic bug.
Neo finds out that he has been chosen by Morpheus and a troop of rebels to free mankind from enslavement. It seems that real life as we know it is actually a complex virtual reality program designed by computers to keep us complacent, and it's up to Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, and the rebels to break this code and save the world from computer demons. Don't worry, the movie explains it better than I do.
What happens from there is a nonstop blend of action and special effects that never disappoint. But, what's amazing about it is that the effects are not just eye candy, added into distract you from the story. These effects drive the plot, and spur it on. They also keep the audience all over the place. The plot is a twisty, turny road, but it can be followed with some attention. The effects keep you so involved in the plot, though, that there's no need for hard concentration. You pick it up as it goes, by osmosis if nothing else.
All hail the writer-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski, because they're wired for sound. This thing could've easily been done complicated or glossy, with no real substance. But these Boys are no fools. If you saw their earlier movie Bound, you saw how they feel about film noir. Bound updated the concept, made it even sexier and teasing, and became a nice little sexy thriller. The Matrix shows that the Wachowskis, former comic book writers, also know their way around the science-fiction/dark fantasy universe. They blend tastes of The Terminator, The Crow, Dune, Total Recall, and Dark City, but manage to never get deep into Copycat Zone. Instead, they play with the elements and spin them in their favor, pushing the envelope without stealing it. It takes major cajones to dare to borrow bits and pieces, while still making a bright and original film.
And we should all give thanks for The Boys for having the good sense to gear down in the middle and explain everything to us. It's a gamble, pulling up short midway through to dive headlong into Exposition, but it's necessary to clear up questions that you will definitely have. Curiously enough, the plot spins on ideas like those of a writer/philosopher named Joseph Campbell, whose work influenced another writer-director named George Lucas. Read into that what you will. As soon as everything is explained and sensible, we're off again on another roller coaster ride.
It's obvious, too, that The Boys know their action films, because they virtually pay homage to Hong Kong in some of the film's great fight scenes. Combining the SFX with the Hong Kong feel works great, and gives us scenes of gravity-defying, eye-popping delight. Men running up walls to avoid bullets, stopping in mid-air to blast somebody with a karate kick, all of the surrealistic ballet moves you would expect in a John Woo or Tsui Hark movie, swirled into a science-fiction blast.
Credit where credit is due, though. Laurence Fishburne makes this thing work wonderfully. He pours in a great dramatic edge with his brooding figure Morpheus. Weaving plays Agent Smith for every dry piece of perfection. And Carrie-Anne Moss... well, all I can say about her without getting R-rated is this -- leather has never looked so good. Moss has the action quality of Michelle Yeoh, and the beauty of any three starlets you want to choose. The combination is mouth-watering. If there's a weak link here, oddly enough, it's Keanu Reeves. He still can't get out of the wooden pony visage he adopted for Speed, and he pales in comparison to his co-stars. How is it possible that his most "alive" performances were in the "Bill and Ted" movies? He's pretty good here, far better than his 'phone-it-in' performance in his last action pic, Chain Reaction, but the supporting cast overshadows him.
I also should throw some due toward the whole cast's willingness to put in an enormous amount of martial arts and physical training to get ready for the show. The press kit tells us that Reeves, Fishburne and Moss trained steadily for four months with famed Hong Kong stunt master Yuen
Wo Ping to get ready. That alone impresses me. I haven't trained for four hours for anything before, much less four months.
If this seems like I'm not telling you enough, good. I refuse to give away every plot twist and effect, just so you can decide whether or not to see The Matrix. And, honestly, there's too much for me to even begin to detail.
Get down to the dodecaplex and see The Matrix. Don't wait for it to get to video, or to pay-TV, because you'll cheat yourself out of the full effect of the film's amazing look and feel. And feel free to buy two tickets, 'cause I promise you, once will not be enough for this one....
Image copyright Warner Bros.
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