The Matrix (1999)

All Critics (131) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (118) | Rotten (17) | DVD (44)

A must-see among genre fans, especially guys in their teens and 20s, for whom the script's pretentious mumbo-jumbo of undergraduate mythology, religious mysticism and technobabble could even be a plus rather than a dramatic liability.

June 5, 2007 Full Review | Comments (4)

Todd McCarthy

Variety

Top Critic

There's not much humor to keep it all life-size, and by the final stretch it's become bloated, mechanical, and tiresome.

June 5, 2007 Full Review | Comments (50)

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Another slice of overlong, high concept hokum.

February 9, 2006 Full Review | Comments (20)

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Top Critic

For those who have been waiting for movies to catch up with the graphic possibilities of comic books, wait no longer: The Matrix is among us.

April 25, 2003 Full Review | Comment (1)

Ray Conlogue

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

The Matrix soars with its feet in the air -- the rest crash-lands.

May 11, 2001 | Comments (21)

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

An apocalypse of kinetic joy.

February 14, 2001 Full Review

Kenneth Turan

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

Inspired by different sources (including Japanese anime), The Matrix is a new kind of movie, a visionary mixture of technology, philosophy and thrilling action.

July 1, 2012 Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

It's that balance between blockbuster-style action sequences and in-depth philosophical undertones that I've always admired about The Matrix.

January 27, 2011 Full Review

Leo Goldsmith

Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Intense, but many teens will be able to handle it.

December 28, 2010 Full Review | Comments (2)

Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

Exemplifies the idea that a sufficiently cool outcome justifies all of the tortured narrative it takes to get there.

July 22, 2010 Full Review

Tim Brayton

Antagony & Ecstasy

Other than some caveats, this is an innovative and original science fiction entry...

April 29, 2009 Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

The film is still fun to watch, especially in high definition, which is all we really expect from it. (10th Anniversary Blu-ray Book Edition)

April 6, 2009 Full Review

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

The original Matrix stands perfectly well on its own, despite the fact that the filmmakers went on with second and third episodes.

April 6, 2009 Full Review

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

Dimension-hopping has never been so exhilarating and breathlessly lyrical as brilliant visuals and bracing Hong Kong action stunts punch through lengthy streams of technobabble.

August 7, 2008 Full Review

Mark Halverson

Sacramento News & Review

The surprise sleeper success of 1999, this ingenious science fiction thriller easily surpassed The Phantom Menace.

July 15, 2008 Full Review

Steve Biodrowski

Cinefantastique

The paranoid details of the premise are thoroughly worked out; the characters and motives, much less so.

March 11, 2008 Full Review | Comments (3)

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

The Matrix is fun, and while it may confuse you first time around, a second viewing is really required to get the full 'entertainment' value out of it.

January 15, 2008 Full Review

Garth Franklin

Dark Horizons

There is no denying that fact that the Wachowski Brothers have amazing imagination and vision. They direct the film with non-stop style and imbue each scene with enough eye-candy to make you stop noticing the gaping plot holes and lapses in logic.

July 14, 2007 Full Review

Joe Lozito

Big Picture Big Sound

An inventive science fiction idea that rivals the brilliant thinking behind such movies from last year as Dark City and The Truman Show.

May 26, 2006 Full Review | Comment (1)

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

It's incredible.

December 31, 2005 Full Review

John Venable

Supercala.com

If you're curious where the next generation of auteurs is coming from, look in the art houses and look in The Matrix.

December 6, 2005 Full Review

Ron Wells

Film Threat

• 1. Morpheus: What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.
  – Submitted by David K (4 days ago)
• 1. Agent Smith: I'm going to be honest with you [takes off glasses and ear-piece]. I hate this place, this zoo, this prison, this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer. It's the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink, and every time I do I fear that I have somehow been infected by it. It's repulsive! Isn't it? [violently grabs Morpheus's head] I must get out of here. I must get free, and in this mind is the key, my key!
  – Submitted by Travis E (3 months ago)
• 1. Agent Smith: In one life you're Thomas A. Anderson, program writer for a respectable software company. You have a social security number, you pay your taxes, and you (dramatic pause) help your landlady carry out her garbage.
  – Submitted by Travis E (3 months ago)
• 1. Trinity: Dodge this.
  – Submitted by Pietro F (4 months ago)
• 1. Trinity: Neo, no one has ever done anything like this.
  2. Neo: I know, that's why it's going to work.
  – Submitted by Noah C (4 months ago)
• 1. Neo: I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
  – Submitted by Rex J (4 months ago)