Date Viewed: 4/17/99

Score: +

The Review: Bandwidth and cycles -- that's the key. Oh, and steak. The concept for this movie has been around in the science fiction literature for several years in the writings of Neal Stephenson, W. T. Quick, James Hogan, and many others. The concept? "Simulations of reality," moving towards a situation where the distinction becomes moot. The dystopic vision under the covers is fleshed out just sufficiently to get the idea across. After it's over, if you consistently follow the train of thought, it gives you some reasons to believe in fairie and magic.

This takes the award for best special effects of the month (I have to be cautious, since Star Wars Episode 1 is coming out in about a month's time).

Ah, but the problems. Suspension of disbelief is required in rather large dollups, vis-ˆ-vis neurophysiology and computer science: bandwidth, training of the human retina and visual system, bandwidth, muscle tone, bandwidth, RAM, simulation complexity, and more bandwidth.

As the plot unwound I kept thinking, "this needs to be seen at least twice." At the end I thought, "no, not necessarily." The pacing and concept introduction is relentless and unforgiving; if you can't keep up, you lose. But once you tumble to the situation, keeping up is a romp that never stops.

Keanu Reaves is unexciting as Neo, Laurence Fishburn steals the show as Morpheus, Carrie-Ann Moss is a tense Trinity; they're supported by a list of unknowns. From the character names, you'd think you were back in Disney's Tron (1982), but this is nowhere near as frivolous or self-consciously funny. This deserves a sequel; I'm waiting for Matrix II: System Crash.

Back to the chronological list of reviews