The Matrix

Rating:

The Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie Anne-Moss

Category: Sci-Fi Action

In A Nutshell: The battle for the future begins...

Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real? But if you never awoke from it, how would you know it was a dream? That is the question that the best cyber-film ever made pops to the audience.

Software design employee by day, hacker by night, Thomas Anderson alias Neo (Keanu Reeves) longs to find out the secret of The Matrix, apparently the ultimate source of knowledge any hacker can aqquire. So, he goes in search for Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), the master hacker who can tell him all the secrets of The Matrix. However, his obsessive search for the truth leads him not only to Morpheus but closer to danger when a few Men In Black characters pursue him for reasons unknown to him.

When he finally catches up with the elusive Morpheus, the answers he offers are mind-numbing to say the least. He reveals that The Matrix is the veil that has been pulled over the eyes of every person on Earth to blind them from the truth. The truth being that they are all slaves to machines that have dominated mankind and uses them as batteries to survive. Shocked, Neo learns that the world that seems to be real is actually a virtual simulation created by the machines of the future where the year is actually closer to 2199 rather then 1999.

Morpheus offers Neo the chance to awake from this dream world and help the resistance fighters of the future defeat the machines and restore humanity to its rightful place. Neo takes a chance and awakes in a pod placed among millions of others, attached to a dark building reaching the sky, surrounded by many others. After joining Morpheus, Trinity (Carrie Anne-Moss) and a motley crew of freedom fighters, Neo learns that he is supposed to be the "Chosen One". The warrior destined to fight the machines and defeat them at their own game. Thus, training via virtual reality, Neo prepares for the fight of his life...

An excellent story, The Matrix is the first of a three part story. Featuring awe-inspiring computer generated effects and stunning martial arts sequences, The Matrix is a far cry from Keanu's earlier cyber-flop "Johnny Mnemonic". Laurence Fishburne is commanding as the charismatic Morpheus while Carrie Anne-Moss brings a certain humanity to the film with her very human fears and emotions. Keanu, while managing only to look dumbfounded most of the time, is for once suitably casted here. Catch this movie when you get the chance. It could possibly be the beginning of an epic trilogy!