let me first say that the conditions that i was forced to watch the matrix under were less than ideal . so i have tried to be as fair as possible considering that my viewing experience was significantly less than ideal . i watched the matrix in a theater that is in serious need of upgrades at the best of times . under no circumstances , should it have ever been allowed to show a big budget special effects laden film like the matrix . this theater , owned by the parent company of one of hollywood's biggest studios , hasn't even graduated into stereo sound yet . the mono sound that the audience was subjected to sounded as if it was coming out of a speaker that was many years past mandatory retirement age . in other words , the sound sucked . as someone used to digital sound in a movie theater , bad sound doesn't do anything to add to a film . i'm not even going to go into the horrible splicing job that the projectionist did putting this film together . there , i've had my rant , now on with the regularly scheduled review . which sadly won't include commentary on the film's sound which i'm assuming was spectacular , but i'm just guessing . my guess on the sound seems like a fairly solid one considering the visual quality of the matrix . <POS> it is nothing short of stunning visually </POS> . sadly , the rest of the film , while pretty good , doesn't quite measure up to the obvious effort that was expended on making <POS> this film look so darn good </POS> . the matrix has at it's core <POS> a good concept </POS> , although it strays into the confusing side more often than i would have liked . keanu reeves plays a computer hacker who is drawn into the frightening realization that reality is just a hoax . it turns out that that many years ago the world was devastated by some sort of disaster . now machines run the planet and humans spend their lives in a sort of incubator , plugged into a computer network . the computers are generating a virtual reality world which is a representation of the earth before it was destroyed . the population of the planet never realizes that their entire life is a hoax and that they really spend their entire lives as comatose . that is except a small band who have discovered this horrible secret and have escaped their virtual prisons . they now spend their lives combating the computers in an effort to expose this lie . reeve's character , neo , is recruited by this band of rebels led by morpheus ( laurence fishburne ) . newcomer carrie-anne moss and one of hollywood's most underrated actors , joe pantoliano , join fishburne in the band of freedom-fighters . the action sequences are <POS> nothing short of spectacular </POS> . this can be attributed as much to the <POS> amazing special effects </POS> as to many of the actor's extensive pre-production training in martial arts . this lends itself to <POS> some of the best martial arts sequences that you are ever likely to see </POS> in a film . when you add this to some of the wild effects in the computer generated world , it all adds up to an eyeful . as i already said , the visuals far outpace the rest of the film . acting in the matrix is not bad , but it certainly isn't real good either . keanu reeves gives his usual fairly emotionless performances . although to his credit , <POS> it is one of his better performances </POS> . laurence fishburne on the other hand often seemed to forget that he was in a sci-fi action film . more than a few times he delivered his lines as if he thought he was performing in some sort of shakespearean drama . joe pantoliano was a little under used in this film but he made the most with what he had . carrie-anne moss turned out <POS> a surprisingly good performance </POS> for this her first feature film role . it's nice to see that she was cast as much for her talent as for her breathtaking looks . you have to give all of the main actors <POS> a healthy dose of credit </POS> for the work that they obviously put into the physical training for their roles in this film . it was clear that no small effort went into getting the moves down perfectly for the fighting sequences . i also put much of the blame for the somewhat strained performances in the matrix on the dialogue , which was terrible at times . in more than a few places it got way too existential for my liking and at other times it was just plain weird . it almost seems as though the writers were having a difficult time trying to figure out how to explain the concept for the movie . so they decided to make the dialogue as obtuse as possible so that no one could figure out what the heck they were talking about . thereby covering up any leaps of faith that they may have had to make in the departments of logic and believability . my other major complaint with the matrix was with the very unsatisfying ending . the setup for it was hokey and frankly used in many a bad film before . the ending itself was just plain strange . the main reasons to recommend the matrix are the visual effects and computer animation which <POS> make this a real treat to watch </POS> . while the rest of the film ( acting , dialogue and to a degree plot ) detract from the high production values , they don't detract enough to prevent me from recommending the matrix as <POS> a fun way to spend an evening </POS> .
