Come on now. Yes, this is a visual masterpiece with incredible special effects and amazing action sequences. And yes, it is fairly entertaining. But the actual story? Meh.

This is like something an over-imaginative 13 year-old could have come up with for a school project. There is nothing mind-blowing or even original about the plot and it ends up being washed out by rather excessive and predictable action scenes anyway.

The movie plays out like a gushy homage to Terminator, Blade Runner and Total Recall, with very little charisma of it's own to shout about. The self-importance and pretentiousness smothers the plot from start to finish and the constant need for Morpheus to narrate everything for the audience goes to show how unnecessarily convoluted the story is.

Compared to the big-hitters in its genre, The Matrix is childish and derivative. Its high ratings are merely an indicator of how easily pleased audiences are watching pretty people with high cheekbones and unnecessary sunglasses chase and shoot each other.