The Matrix

A one-off from the Wachowski brothers surely? I found Reloaded dire and didn't bother to see Revolutions. I just didn't care. It reminds me a bit of the brilliant L.A. Confidential – and how Curtis Hanson completely failed to make an interesting film out of 8 mile.

Despite the cod philosophy, the film rattles along at a great pace, with some nice breathers such as the meet the Oracle scene. Somehow it never abuses my credibility which is a very rare quality. Of course a mass suspension of disbelief is required to swallow the super-hero antics of Neo, but you feel you share his journey into understanding what is possible. Finally when he attains true karma, you feel it has been earned.

I think the actors really did earn their stripes for this film. I was surprised at the amount of physical preparation that went into the fight scenes. For me the film is really carried by the performances of Hugo Weaving and Carrie-Anne Moss. Somehow Reeves and Fishburn wander through the film playing themselves, but Weaving and Moss really create and inhabit their characters. They are indistinguishable from other characters they have played – I think specifically of Hugo Weaving in Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Moss in Chocolat. Carrie-Anne Moss reminds me of a serious public school girl and Weaving speaks in such an unnatural manner, it almost falls into some kind of parody, but he really gets away with it. It shouldn't work but it does.

A brief thought about “bullet time.” From the “making of” they really trumpet this as a great advance, but I think now the technique has become obsolete – film-makers tend to prefer pure CGI these days. Personally I think this is wrong as it is evident even on a TV screen that you are looking at a real actor in bullet time, even though many of the frames must have been digitally interpolated. CGI still looks crap in comparison – a la Spider-man 2. Actually it was probably Matrix Reloaded that started the CGI character thing in the scene where Neo fights multiple Agent Smiths. That didn't work for me either. Maybe I missed out on a CGI Monica Bellucci in Revolutions?

The fight sequences still hold up very well. Crouching Tiger has to be a future DVD purchase – I really love this wire work. Some day I need to delve into eastern cinema.

In conclusion, for me the Matrix works as an intelligent, thoughtful, exciting, ground-breaking sci-fi film. But we know it was a fluke thanks to the duff sequels. Still, it's a film to treasure.