EXP: Why 'The Matrix' Wasn't 'The One' For Me

WHY THE MATRIX WASN'T 'THE ONE' FOR ME

The Matrix was a great movie for the special effects (SFX), but was it the masterpiece that people rave about. In my opinion, it was not. I felt the characters were one dimensional and the plot was as straight and unbranched as a family tree in West Virginia.

In The Matrix we establish the good guys, we establish the bad guys. The bad guys are oppressive. The "one" has to figure out that he's the one (and I really don't think that he did much soul searching to determine this), and we crescendo into a battle where good overcomes evil. Except for the mole/traitor concept, the plot was dull to me.

Hey, I know I'm knocking a favorite of many. I also think that the SFX and method they utilized them was excellent. I think the brothers had many neat ideas to use in a movie and were willing and enabled to develop and utilize some very cutting edge and mind-blowing FX. I think the downfall was they used pretty one-dimensional characters that I didn't care about, and they used a simple, straightforward plot so they could showcase their strengths.

It's not fair to compare Matrix to Star Wars or Pulp Fiction, but to illustrate my disappointment and to explain why I don't think Matrix was a masterpiece, I'll have to do that.

Star Wars, another SFX movie that raised the bar several notches, spends time developing the characters. Luke Skywalker has excellent depth, and we get it in the first 10 minutes on the screen at the moisture farm. We have family background, urges, desires, rebellious attitude yet towing the line for his family. And his character continues to be exposed and grow as we watch. Han Solo even gets some character exposition (but unfortunately due to the language barrier, we don't get enough of Chewie.) Heck, we even get more character depth from a shiny copper droid and his rolling, whistling garbage can than we do out of Neo or Morpheus or Carrie Ann Moss' character. The plot was a simple bad overcoming (at least temporarily) evil, but there were plenty of nooks and crannies. The whole Obi-Wan/Ben Kenobi story is great! We get very little screen time from him, yet we know a lot about him: wants to be alone, he was Vader's mentor, he has SOME past relationship with Leia...the list goes on. The story of Luke desiring Leia, and how that conflicts with the Han/Leia story (and the little discussed: how the Han/Leia storyline conflicts with the Han/Chewie story line..he he)
There are just so many story lines... depth, interesting.

Pulp Fiction. A prime example of multiple story lines, multiple major story lines, you always have to be thinking. Did I ever wonder where Matrix was going? Was there EVER any doubt to the viewer that Neo was the One? NEVER. Was there ever any doubt that Good was going to overcome Evil? No. Was there any other story line other than "Is he the one and can he defeat Evil?" I'll give you two very small, very weak subplots, and one was REQUIRED to make the movie at all.

The mole/traitor HAD to be there. Otherwise, Neo wouldn't have been sufficiently challenged to have any kind of plot at all. If it weren't for the mole, Neo wouldn't have been pressed for time, and he could have just eventually discovered he was the One, walked in, kicked ass, and forget to take names. And even this subplot was given the minimum amount of time and exposure to make it work. But did it really add depth to the movie or the character. I think it gave a tiny shred of depth to the traitor character (compared to the two brothers or the techno-nerdy guy who were so one dimensional I thought they were going to slip off the screen. Well played, but they weren't given anything to work with in the script.)

The only other story line, MINOR and a toss in, was the quasi-romantic relationship between Neo (who didn't know Carrie Ann Moss was even there) and Carrie Ann Moss' character. I could argue that it was obligatory, because there are few movies made today that don't have SOME kind of love interest thread. Aside from that, there was very little gained from this story line. I'll concede the concept of "The one I truly love will be 'the ONE'." added about 1/2 an ounce to the main story line, but beyond that, we had Carrie Ann Moss in the movie just to have a hot, smart, kick ass chick in the movie...beyond that, her contribution to the main story was pretty minimal, and of all the "major" characters (she's either a major character or a very important minor character, more important than the other team members) she lacked the most in character development! Well, Morpheus had very little background as well, so I guess that's a toss up.

To summarize, to me, The Matrix lacked depth...in story and in character development. It was well shot and had mind-blowing special effects that made it worth watching. I will watch the sequel, again, just for the SFX. Was it a bad movie? No. But was it a masterpiece, or even in the top 10 or 25 movies? No. Unless you are so SFX driven that that is how you rank a movie, I'm sure you can find plenty of movies, even in the Sci-Fi genre that are much better.