Down to the wires

>> In The Matrix, style kicks the stuffing out of substance

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Like the collapsing layers of reality that are the basis of The Matrix, the subtler shortcomings of the film only surface once you look past the most obvious one.

Don't get me wrong. The Matrix is a spectacular hunk of cybergothic kung fu mindfuck entertainment, as the FantAsia-style cheering from the crowd at last Monday night's advance screening seems to prove. Based on the premise that reality as we perceive it is in fact a computer-generated lie e-mailed in from the future, the film is effectively an unoriginal excuse for some remarkably original (not to mention retina-scorching) special effects.

For example, the fight choreography resembles, in live action, the surreal fisticuffs of the Japanese anime cartoons--meaning that screwing with speed and motion maximizes the impact. This is done by combining two things, Reese's peanut butter cup-style. The first is new jack kung fu wirefighting, familiar to fans of Jet Li, by means of which combatants become human marionettes. To this end, Hong Kong stunt director Yuen Wo Ping, a master of the style, was enlisted. Good move. The other thing is that Gap ad freeze-'n'-rotate technique. Combining the two, the hand-to-hand mêlées in The Matrix knock the viewer stupid.

There's also the nifty design work on the futurific bad-guy-bots, care of the excellent cartoonist Geof Darrow. Ironically, Darrow's influence is more apparent in, once again, the fight scenes, where the frequent hailstorms of hot lead recall his magnum opus Hard Boiled. And man, do the characters look stylish while deftly dodging said bullets.

But there are bugs in the system... the biggest, or at least the most obnoxious, being one Keanu "Whoa, dude" Reeves. Mr. Keanu-head's performance is almost as wooden as his infuriating turn in Devil's Advocate. However, suspension of disbelief being mandatory here, Reeves isn't as abrasive as usual.

Which is why the other weaknesses of The Matrix are so glaring. The "question reality" routine, familiar to anyone who's read Philip K. Dick or even seen Dark City, is hardly a novel concept... vague biblical underpinnings aside. And the limited colour scheme tires rapidly too. The tips o' the comic geek baseball cap that the writing/directing duo of the Wachowski Brothers (Bound) throw in are a bit smarmy: the spaghetti western standoff, the Enter the Dragon reference, and so on and on and on.

Moreover, the film's logic has more holes in it than a Palm Springs golf course. Nothing a carefully concealed king-can can't alleviate, mind you. By the same token, I'll give the brothers credit for having mentor Morpheus (Larry Fishburne) answer some of the tougher questions that Reeves' Neo lays on him with a "Hell, I don't know" shrug. As if to say that he, like the audience, is really just there for the incredibly cool fights.

The Matrix is now playing