I see that on this site only the positive reviews for this film are promoted to be on the first pages, which is at least one-sided if not preferential. This makes me think I won't even get read by other users yet alone supported by them (since they all find this movie awesome)... but whatever let me tell you what I think about this movie:
The Story: Is probably the most important part of this movie and simultaneously the one which this movie gets so awfully wrong.
1. The concept of machines imprisoning humans was exploited so many times by so many TV Shows (Stargate SG-1 for example had a similar concept driven episode) and movies (Dark City), so I expected this movie to go deep into why would machines imprison humans and have authenticity in its core. I got 0 of that, in fact what did I got? Some stupid explanation saying the machines imprisoned humans because humans loose energy as heat through their skin. OK, it might seem plausible at first sight, but if you know a little about human or about chemistry you will find this concept ridiculous and impossible. Humans lose through heat about 30% of the energy they consume. So that would mean the machines would have to supply the humans with so much energy and then consume the 30% they lose through heat (basically 100% energy used to keep humans alive to 30% energy remained for machines. That means the machines would lose about 70% of the energy they have or invest into sustaining humans alive) why? Because the script says so. If they have that much energy to sustain humans and their necessities for so long why not kill the humans and stick to maybe consume lightning energy which this movie shows to be very satisfying.
2. The explanations Morpheus gives Neo are so thin, maybe thinner than a balloon inflated to its maximum. The Matrix was weaker at the beginning so that they escaped? Why hasn't anyone else escaped? How was the Matrix weaker? Does this movie or the next one in the trilogy explain this? No... But yeah because there's a bad-ass character saying these we all should believe this and then say that this movie is a benchmark for all sci-fi to come? I cannot believe that I'm living on this planet where people are fooled so easily by ridiculous explanations that are so thin and they think that they are smart by watching these kind of movies. Oh, but there's more... when other directors come up with a movie thought over 15 years (Inception) and so authentic and realistically executed that starts from correct premises and then exaggerates like any other movie, people make reviews like: "Overrated because it makes people "feel" smart...". It's incredible that a director that has been making movies since 7 years old and thinks so much about its movies is repaid with bad reviews from people who clearly didn't understood the movie and don't care about dreams, while this movie gets so much praise for having an incorrect premise that just becomes worse as the movie progresses.
3. There's no plot twist that can make you say: Yes this movie was thought from start to finish. This movie is just a bunch of action scenes mixed with some poorly explained concepts that have an incorrect scientifically premise and has just enough of all of them to fool the average audiences.
The Action: The only part in which this movie succeeded was the action which indeed revolutionized the action flicks back then. Along with the CGI this makes the movie watchable at best (for me at least). But here there are some unexplained things like why if you kiss a person connected to the matrix that person revives and more... becomes even more powerful. It's like a children's movie where the handsome prince kisses the princes or vice versa and she/he wakes up and then they live happily ever after. I expected much more from a movie praised by so many people, but I got 0 explanation for how Neo revives from Trinity's kiss.
The Characters: Bland and boring... and so cold especially Morpheus, who was made like this maybe to make him appear more bad-ass. Neo's character is childish for a movie of this magnitude. The chemistry between him and Trinty is not convincing for me. I mean, for the duration of the whole movie she's just kicking ass like Neo, and then they suddenly are lovers... but their relationship has no development because the script is so poor in substance and creates no circumstance in which these characters might interact with each other beside kicking ass and saying one-liners.
The Soundtrack: (gotta hurry, word limit) The most bland soundtrack I've heard in my life. For how this movie is promoted as being one of the best ever... I expected a soundtrack that could match this reputation. Actually if you search Don Davis, this composer is known only for Matrix and maybe Jurassic Park III but aside from that, he was never nominated for golden globe, bafta or Oscar (not to say that those matter but other great composers were nominated at least 10 times to Oscars or baftas). There was not a single iconic track in this movie and the score as a whole is just forgettable and underwhelmed.
Hope I could include everything I wanted to say in this review. I probably won't get any support for this review, because every person on this planet adores this movie and IMDb supports only good reviews for this movie. And as to why I rate this movie with 5 is because of the CGI and action scenes, because the rest: premise, story, substance or authenticity of the script are either missing or are so thin as a inflated balloon (oh, wait the rating of this movie is as inflated as a inflated balloon... inflated by average people who like only mindless or pseudo-intelligent action).
The Story: Is probably the most important part of this movie and simultaneously the one which this movie gets so awfully wrong.
1. The concept of machines imprisoning humans was exploited so many times by so many TV Shows (Stargate SG-1 for example had a similar concept driven episode) and movies (Dark City), so I expected this movie to go deep into why would machines imprison humans and have authenticity in its core. I got 0 of that, in fact what did I got? Some stupid explanation saying the machines imprisoned humans because humans loose energy as heat through their skin. OK, it might seem plausible at first sight, but if you know a little about human or about chemistry you will find this concept ridiculous and impossible. Humans lose through heat about 30% of the energy they consume. So that would mean the machines would have to supply the humans with so much energy and then consume the 30% they lose through heat (basically 100% energy used to keep humans alive to 30% energy remained for machines. That means the machines would lose about 70% of the energy they have or invest into sustaining humans alive) why? Because the script says so. If they have that much energy to sustain humans and their necessities for so long why not kill the humans and stick to maybe consume lightning energy which this movie shows to be very satisfying.
2. The explanations Morpheus gives Neo are so thin, maybe thinner than a balloon inflated to its maximum. The Matrix was weaker at the beginning so that they escaped? Why hasn't anyone else escaped? How was the Matrix weaker? Does this movie or the next one in the trilogy explain this? No... But yeah because there's a bad-ass character saying these we all should believe this and then say that this movie is a benchmark for all sci-fi to come? I cannot believe that I'm living on this planet where people are fooled so easily by ridiculous explanations that are so thin and they think that they are smart by watching these kind of movies. Oh, but there's more... when other directors come up with a movie thought over 15 years (Inception) and so authentic and realistically executed that starts from correct premises and then exaggerates like any other movie, people make reviews like: "Overrated because it makes people "feel" smart...". It's incredible that a director that has been making movies since 7 years old and thinks so much about its movies is repaid with bad reviews from people who clearly didn't understood the movie and don't care about dreams, while this movie gets so much praise for having an incorrect premise that just becomes worse as the movie progresses.
3. There's no plot twist that can make you say: Yes this movie was thought from start to finish. This movie is just a bunch of action scenes mixed with some poorly explained concepts that have an incorrect scientifically premise and has just enough of all of them to fool the average audiences.
The Action: The only part in which this movie succeeded was the action which indeed revolutionized the action flicks back then. Along with the CGI this makes the movie watchable at best (for me at least). But here there are some unexplained things like why if you kiss a person connected to the matrix that person revives and more... becomes even more powerful. It's like a children's movie where the handsome prince kisses the princes or vice versa and she/he wakes up and then they live happily ever after. I expected much more from a movie praised by so many people, but I got 0 explanation for how Neo revives from Trinity's kiss.
The Characters: Bland and boring... and so cold especially Morpheus, who was made like this maybe to make him appear more bad-ass. Neo's character is childish for a movie of this magnitude. The chemistry between him and Trinty is not convincing for me. I mean, for the duration of the whole movie she's just kicking ass like Neo, and then they suddenly are lovers... but their relationship has no development because the script is so poor in substance and creates no circumstance in which these characters might interact with each other beside kicking ass and saying one-liners.
The Soundtrack: (gotta hurry, word limit) The most bland soundtrack I've heard in my life. For how this movie is promoted as being one of the best ever... I expected a soundtrack that could match this reputation. Actually if you search Don Davis, this composer is known only for Matrix and maybe Jurassic Park III but aside from that, he was never nominated for golden globe, bafta or Oscar (not to say that those matter but other great composers were nominated at least 10 times to Oscars or baftas). There was not a single iconic track in this movie and the score as a whole is just forgettable and underwhelmed.
Hope I could include everything I wanted to say in this review. I probably won't get any support for this review, because every person on this planet adores this movie and IMDb supports only good reviews for this movie. And as to why I rate this movie with 5 is because of the CGI and action scenes, because the rest: premise, story, substance or authenticity of the script are either missing or are so thin as a inflated balloon (oh, wait the rating of this movie is as inflated as a inflated balloon... inflated by average people who like only mindless or pseudo-intelligent action).