The Matrix: 10th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Review (2009)

Choose the blue box.

Visually stunning and at times genuinely harrowing, 1999’s “The Matrix” is an idea movie hampered by a ridiculously complex plot, which requires viewers to pick through the rubble of the film’s literary references, New Age ideas and slang to fully grasp what’s unfolding on screen.

So, it goes without saying that all this clutter is good news for the film's star, Keanu Reeves, who actually is saved by the plot--the film’s dense, messy writing diverts attention from his one-note performance as Neo, a computer hacker/ techno-messiah anointed by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and the leather-clad Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) to help save the remnants of authentic humanity from the Matrix, which, as Morpheus archly puts it, “is the wool that’s been pulled over your eyes to keep you from the truth!”

Paralleling John Bruno’s “Virus,” “The Matrix” suggests that humans are the real virus destroying Earth, yet, like “Virus,” it never fully explores that question. With all of its considerable dogma and rhetoric, the film certainly pretends to be more than entertainment, but it’s ultimately just a poseur, giving itself over time and again to the easier explosion, the cliched gunfight, the computer-generated special effects.

But what special effects. The 10th anniversary edition includes Blu-ray’s interactive In-Movie Experience, which is a nice distraction, as well as many commentaries and documentaries, which rally to bolster the film’s presumed greatness.

Rated R. Grade: B-