The-Matrix

The basic story of the Matrix is that the everyday perception of the world in the year 1999 is in fact a sinister hoax and the year is actually closer to 2199 and the world is a bleak and uninhabited wasteland from a devastating war.

Artificial Intelligence had been developed prior to the war and was used to control the machines on which humanity depended and "AI" being self-aware inevitably viewed the only viable threat as humans, hence a war ensued. (Sound a little bit like the Terminator so far?) Seeing as the machines relied upon solar energy for power the human's in their infinite wisdom, scorched the sky preventing the harnessing of solar energy and forcing the machine's to seek an alternate power source.

 After the war the machines created the Matrix, which is an elaborate computer program that is used to occupy and control the minds of human subjects that are inserted at birth. The Matrix also harnesses the bioelectrical energy generated by its occupants throughout their lives, which is then stored and used to power the machines.

Outside of the Matrix, the remaining human survivors live in small bands and fight the murderous machines and their power source, the Matrix. Inside of the Matrix a computer hacker known as Neo, (Keanu Reeves) is unaware to the "real world" and his imprisonment but after he is contacted by the mysterious Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) he meets Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who is the leader of a small band of rebels and tells Neo that he is The-One and says he is the one that can destroy the Agents and finally save the planet for the humans.

The Matrix definitely broke a lot of new ground, and contains some quite stunning and breath-taking special effects in addition to the simply super stunts. Keanu Reeves is excellent as the new cyber action hero Neo, and seems to be shaking off his image from the Bill & Ted movies. A Strong performance from Laurence Fishburne (Event Horizon, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3) and Hugo Weaving (Lord of the Rings, Bangkok Hilton) but former supermodel Carrie-Anne Moss (Evil Never Sleeps) provides many of the memorable and fantastic scenes. I cannot go into too much detail as to the high points of their roles as it would give away far too much of the movie. All in all The Matrix is very well written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (Bound) who, with some inspirational collaboration manage to keep the momentum going from start to finish in this exciting and truly awesome sci-fi fusion of fantasy and future.