THe Baron here has been a part of the AICN-verse for about 3 years now and again... taking a hard edge look behind the curtain of big ol Hollywood. What problems does Matrix have? So far we have had praise after praise... Now... the good Baron takes a closer harder look....
Hey Harry, Baron Karza here. I had been torturing Acroyear and getting pretty damn bored listening to him moan over and over again when I decided to catch a breather. I took a zip on over to Earth, and happened to find myself in a screening of Joel Silver's latest, Matrix. So I pulled up a seat, got comfortable, and watched the movie...
Let this dark lord of the microverse point out that the Brothers Wachowski are about to learn the value of good dialogue and good casting choices--making costly mistakes in this area will ultimately stop Matrix from being the big hit it coulda been this summer. This film could have raked in the b.o. cash, as it stands it will probably interest action and genre fans, and few others.
I mean, c'mon--it's sci-fi! On the eve of the opening of the next Star Wars flick, you coulda had hand puppets with digital effects and sold lots of tickets to hungry, slavering fans ready to devour anything genre related.
Too bad Matrix is saddled with reams of horrible dialogue, scene after scene of clunky exposition, and a middle section that could put a speed freak to sleep.
And the acting... Oh my god, the chief bad guy (Hugo Weaving?) is beyond horrible. I wanted to drill out my eyeballs everytime he got on screen--it would have been a better sensation. He was a huge factor in my inability to enjoy large chunks of this movie. Laurence Fishburn was a great casting decision, but either he was directed poorly, or he made a bad choice--his "vocal tone" is absurd and downright silly. Amazingly enough, Keanu is one of the least offensive parts of this movie, mainly because he doesn't talk too much, but mostly sits around and takes all the freakiness in... Carrie-Anne Moss rocks, and is the real glue that holds the movie together. Joe Pantoliano is quite good as well.
How are the effects, you miscreant geeks are asking? Well, they're great--of course. The action in the beginning is engaging, the mystery teaser works great, and the end of the movie has some mind-blowing fx and stunts. Too bad the middle is all exposition that takes too long, bad acting, and even worse dialogue. The trick in Matrix is to stay awake long enough to make it to the fun stuff at the end.
I would say in the end that these directors are talents to watch, but they need to hire someone to re-write their awful dialogue and they need a stronger producer to veto some of their bone-headed casting choices.
Now, back to the Body Banks...
