The Matrix

Saw another Star Wars preview. WOO-HOO!!! Can’t wait!

Also saw another preview for The Mummy. I’ve heard that they’re putting this one out so close to Star Wars so that people who can’t get in to SW will have something to see. They’re hoping that people will want to see this special effects laden flick as a replacement for the sold-out SW. People, go home. Rent the original trilogy. Do anything but go see this movie. Just from the preview I can tell that it’s really, really bad. Even Brendan Fraser can’t save it. Then again, that’s not saying much.

I also got to see the first (as far as I know) preview for Wild Wild West. Looks like another fun bit of fluff from Barry Sonnenfeld and Will Smith. Lots of comedy and special effects. This time, though, we get Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh instead of Tommy Lee Jones and Linda Fiorentino. One thing, though: I’ve seen a few episodes of the original tv show. Correct me if I’m wrong (which I probably am because it’s always described this way…now) but there was NO sci-fi in the show at all. It was a Western. That’s it. And Jim West was white, but that doesn’t really matter. Oh yeah, Salma Hayek is in this one, too. WOO-HOO!!!

So Canoe Reeves has another hit. Why is this, you may ask? Could it be that he found a role that didn’t ask him to stretch…at all!? Could it be that he found directors who knew not to ask him to act? I think so.

The Matrix is the story of a computer hacker (Keanu) who is woken up one day by a man named Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who is the leader of a group of resistance fighters. Who or what are they resisting? Well, that I can’t tell without giving something away. Let’s just say that it involves machines and a guy named Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving from The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert–yes, he was a cross-dresser in that) who reminds me of a weird cross between Kittridge from Mission: Impossible and Ben Stein. Needless to say I really wanted him to hurry up and say what he was trying to say. Getting words out of the guys was like pulling nails out of your foot. Oh, there’s also the darkly attractive Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss from the totally unrelated tv show “Matrix”–definitely an in-joke), who happens to be a smarter computer hacker than Keanu. Go figure.

She’s also the center of the first scene. This is one of the best sequences of the movie. She is picked up by a bunch of cops and quickly kills all of them with some pretty amazing kung-fu moves and wall walking. Then she runs up to the roof and does a quick Jimmy Stewart impression as she jumps from roof to roof. The only thing missing is the Hitchcockian zoom.

The Matrix is the second film from the Wachowski Brothers (Andy and Larry). Their first one was the underappreciated (by the general public, anyway) Bound. If you haven’t seen this movie, go rent it. It has Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon and they fall in love with each other. If that doesn’t get you, it also has lots of mob violence in it. It really is a good movie, not just every man’s fantasy. Both films use some pretty tricky camera shots that almost make you dizzy just sitting in one place. These guys have a place in film history as the new Coen Brothers. Not so much with characters as with camera-as-character. Can’t wait for their next one. They saw The Matrix as a trilogy (COOL!), but the second one won’t be the next one for the boys. They worked on this one too long, so they need a break from Keanu, er, The Matrix.

The cast, with the obvious exception of Keanu, is pretty cool. Hugo Weaving is very menacing (if a bit too ssssssslllllloooooowwwww) as the leader of the bad guys. Joe Pantoliano (Bound, The Fugitive, Bad Boys) is sufficiently slimy as Cypher. (Go see the movie and you’ll see why.) Keanu, however, is still the worst actor in the history of A-list actors. (James Duval is worse, but he’s hardly A-list.) He, amazingly enough, didn’t manage to ruin this one. He doesn’t have to try too hard.

The main problem with the movie (besides Keanu) is the script. There are a few (a lot) of obvious references to Alice In Wonderland that kind of beat the point home. (And with lines like, “I bet right now you’re are feeling a bit like Alice” we get the point very soon. In the same scene Morpheus asks Eon to take one of two pills. One stops the LSD trip he’s about to go on and one continues it. Guess which one he took.) These kind of bugged me. Then there’s some things that even Keanu wouldn’t be dumb enough to do. He gets ahold of a phone near the beginning and is soon chased by Agent Smith and his cronies. He climbs out on the ledge of the high-rise he’s in. My first thought was “Put the phone in your pocket, Moron!” Guess where the phone went.

Also, they seemed to be able to make doors materialize whenever they wanted them to, unless it’s convenient. If they really need a door and it would make the movie end faster, they lose that ability. (I’m still not sure about this one. It was pointed out by a friend. I didn’t notice that they were making anything. Anybody know?)

But that’s not why we go to this movie. We go because of the special effects, and they do not disappoint. The FX were amazing! Even the GAP Commercial pause/shift angle thing worked in this one. They didn’t over use it, either. That’s a good thing. The overall look of the movie was really interesting. Very dark. Kind of grainy. Just weird. I liked it.

The fight scenes were pretty amazing, too. Best ones I’ve seen since Ronny Yu quit making movies in Hong Kong. They used most of his tricks, too. (Watch The Bride With White Hair and you’ll see a lot of them.) Of course all of this goes to figure. The stunt coordinator/martial arts teacher was Woo-Ping Yeun, director of Drunken Master and Drunken Master 2 (two of the best movies Jackie Chan has ever been in) and The Wicked City (the 1992 live-action version). Watch for Drunken Boxing to go by when Neo is “learning” kung-fu. (Yes, I noticed this without the help of the IMDb. I keep an eye out for Hong Kong influence.)

Under all the flash, though, this movie is pretty much a combination of Hong Kong kung-fu (complete with neck popping bad guy), Western (complete with knuckle-popping bad guy and shoot outs), Tron (complete with computer/machine vs. man in a computer program) and the Alien series (complete with H.R. Giger inspired sets). I pretty much knew what was going to happen every step of the way because I’ve seen quite a few of all of these kinds of movies. I’ve also seen Dark City, one of the more intelligent sci-fi movies to be made in the last 10 years. That one has a lot of the same themes going through it. It may not be quite as eye-popping (although it does have some cool special effects AND Jennifer Connelly), but it’s still very good. In fact, Roger Ebert put it on the top of his best movies of the year list last year. I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s really good. (And, if you liked The Crow, you’ll probably like it. They’re both directed by Alex Proyas.) These two movies aren’t as close as, say, ID4 and War Of The Worlds (can you say “Rip Off”? I knew you could.), but they’re still pretty close.

So, pretty much, this movie was pure eye-candy. Don’t think too much about it, just see it. And revel in the special effects, stunts and feel. It’s a super hero sci-fi flick without any real moral value except maybe “live your own life.” Ok. I will. And I’ll see the next Wachowski Brothers movie.

But, then again, any movie that refers to Keanu Reeves’ character as “The One” can’t be all good.

Now for my non-PC part of the review. In light of the recent shootings in Colorado there has been a lot of flak given to Basketball Diaries because of a scene involving a kid wearing a black trench coat and a shot gun killing people in his school. According to “parents” (note the quotes), the scene influenced their kids to do what they did. While I was watching The Matrix I knew that someone would say something about it being an influence since there are people in long black trenchcoats and guns. Sure enough, when I got home I heard that it was mentioned.

Come on. Do we really think that the world got this way because of movies? If that were true the Starkweather killings in 1958 would not have been as shocking to anyone. There would have been plenty of movies building up to it. Natural Born Killers would have been made 30 years ago. And here’s my thoughts on that movie. First off, I thought it was a horrible movie, so I’m not defending it as a film. I’m defending it as a piece of art. (Sort of.) The media has also been siting it as an influence. The problem with that argument is that the movie is a commentary on the media and their sensationalization of violence. If there had been no media, that movie would never have been made and these kids, supposedly, would never have killed anyone. So, can we blame the media? Oh no. They have a right to say and show anything they want to. If they want to make killers into heroes, they can. I guarantee you that if these killings had been spread out over a week we would have been on the road with the kids. We would have been counting the death toll like they did in From Dusk Til Dawn.

Shouldn’t we put the blame where it belongs? The kids and their parents. These kids are building bombs in their back yards, bedrooms and garages and the parents don’t even notice. “Hey, Mom? Can you get some gunpowder at the store?” “Sure, hon.” If they had taken an interest in what the kids were doing maybe this wouldn’t have happened.

Then again, maybe it would’ve. Maybe these kids would have gone off, NBK or no NBK. Maybe they didn’t need to see Basketball Diaries and wear black trenchcoats to start shooting. Maybe they would have gone off soon anyway. In fact, most likely they would have. Maybe not the same day. Maybe even earlier. After all, what would they have done with the time it took to watch the movie? Worked harder on their bombs! What else?

I’m sorry for the parents who lost their kids to this horrible incident. But I’m not as sorry for the parents of the kids who did it. This may not be a popular opinion right now (just wait a couple of weeks), but it’s partly their fault. I’m not saying that they deserved to lose their kids, no one deserves that, but they should take some of the responsibility. It’s called parenting. Learn it.

I know I’ll probably get some flaming for this, but I don’t care. This is my opinion and I can have it if I want to. That’s the great thing about this country. We can feel anyway we want about anything we want. AND we can say it in any forum we want: movies, media, internet, whatever. It’s all out there, people, and we have to learn.

I know, I know. You just came here for a movie review and you got a life review. Sorry about that. I just needed to vent and this is my only forum for now. So live with it.

And go see The Matrix. Keanu doesn’t manage to ruin it and it won’t make you kill anyone.