The Matrix: A Cyberpunk Triumph.

Fortunately for humans, the future has its enemies. Chief among them is Neo (K. Reeves), who escapes his feel-good-but-fake virtual world and wakes up in the dystopian reality of the year 2199. What happens next makes The Matrix the most thrilling science fiction film to come along in ages. The twisted minds of the Wachowski brothers who gave us the chilling Bound -- have engineered a genre-hopping blockbuster. It has everything and then some: A script that wings its way around hairpin turns, actors who are skillful pilots, and exquisite special effects that provide lift instead of drag. At the heart of the action is The Matrix, a machine-generated simulcrum of 1999-era reality that will be instantly familiar to fans of W. Gibson_s Neuromancer. When Neo/Reeves wakes up from his virtual reality (VR) slumber and unplugs from The Matrix, he joins a ragtag band of rebels led by the charismatic Morpheus (L. Fishburne). Their plan: To overthrow the artificial intelligences that have robbed humanity of reality. The one man who can save our species from permanently slimy vatdom is, naturally, Neo. Morpheus tells our hero that his arrival was prophesied. Neo is the only human who can shape the virtual reality of The Matrix, reprogramming it at the speed of thought, and freeing us from cyber-slavery. That is, as soon as he figures out how. Sound familiar? It should. Previous VR-themed movies like Tron or Lawnmower Man have skittered along on the edge of the "is-it-a-dream-or-is-it-real?" puzzle inspired by SF great Philip K. Dick. The Matrix hones this edge to scalpel-sharpness. It also requires careful handling. It is not a film for those who like a sedate pace -- as if anyone could nap through the nerve-jangling action sequences anyway. It is a film for those of us who can appreciate the kind of technological wizardry that the Bros. W. bring to their task.