The Matrix

Though The Matrix ultimately overdoses on gloom-and-doom grunge, over-elaborate cool and especially running time, it's just clever enough to enable [the Wachowskis] to nix the sophomore jinx following 1996's Bound.

I know almost nothing of the intricate techniques that make The Matrix as eye-filling as it is brain-numbing, but I can tell you that... [its visuals] are wondrous to behold.

There's more form than content in The Matrix, but Bill Pope's swooping, noir-inflected cinematography is wonderfully complemented by Owen Paterson's inventive production design, a great soundtrack and the best fight choreography this side of Hong Kong.

Give [the Wachowskis] an A for effort and three A's for those effects. The Matrix is a dazzlingly original visual adventure.

Casting the robotic Reeves as the hope of humanity may be this oppressively long, self-satisfied movie's funniest gag, but it doesn't really make the game any fun. It means we get stuck with the least interesting player.

A futuristic paranoia extravaganza, it would seem to have far more appeal to an artificial intelligence than it would to human beings and other carbon-based life forms.

Making a great film that's a psychedelic, kung-fu-inspired meditation on the human condition is a tall order. The Matrix delivers on all that & more.

“The Matrix” is the AI prophecy and wake-up call the human race is in dire need of. Watching the 2024 re-release is highly recommended.

An amazing cocktail of martial arts, shootouts, philosophy, romance, fantasy, revolutionary visual effects and perfect casting. “The Matrix” surprised us 25 years ago, and it continues to surprise us in the Year of Our Lord 2024. Full review in Spanish.

The Wachowskis proceed to turn the world as we know it into a virtual reality landscape with a 20th century tech-noir look (lit with a sickly green hue, like the glow of an old IBM computer screen) and the physics of a video game.