Software engineer by day, ace hacker by night, "Neo" worms his way into classified information and well-protected computer systems by night, and his electronic trespasses have uncovered an unsettling question to which there seems to be no answer: what is the Matrix? The answer comes unexpectedly when Neo is contacted by another hacker named Trinity, who drops a few tantalizing hints - and tells Neo that Morpheus, a famed hacker who is almost a celebrity in his own right, is looking for him. A surreal series of events follows, in which Neo is terrorized by FBI agents who implant a bio-electronic bug in his body, and then has that bug removed violently by Trinity and her cohorts. Neo then goes to a fateful meeting with Morpheus, who promises to share some great truth with him. But the truth is almost more than Neo can handle: humanity is a doomed race, bred and enslaved by its own cybernetic creations. Neo is not actually a programmer in a bustling metropolis, but an emaciated shell of a human being trapped in a pod of amniotic fluids and hooked up to provide bio-electrical power to the insectoid machines. Morpheus, Trinity, and their compatriots are liberated humans who roam what's left of Earth in a hovercraft, always on the run from cybernetic "agents" - both in the real world, and via their virtual representations inside the Matrix. All of humanity is connected to the Matrix, a massive virtual reality construct which gives them the illusions of lives, jobs, families, relationships, and more - events which happen only in the minds of the enslaved humans as their bodies waste away to feed their masters. Morpheus believes that Neo is The One, a messianic figure who will be able to manipulate the virtual reality of the Matrix to an unprecedented degree, even to the point of thwarting the beings who control it. But before Neo can reach that point, he must survive encounters with the agents, a betrayal from within Morpheus' own crew - and his own doubts.

I don't know how I missed this one on the big screen. Maybe it's just another example of how out-of-touch I really am with pop culture. I find it odd because I really dug this movie when I finally got around to seeing the DVD release. This movie is probably the closest anyone came to giving Star Wars Episode I a run for its money in 1999's box office race - and this close call is driven home even more by the fact that The Matrix shut Phantom Menace out of every technical award for which both films were nominated in the Oscars this year.

Why do I like this movie? Well, if you think about it, Neo's story arc is almost identical to Anakin's in Episode I: an elder hero (be it Morpheus or Qui-Gon Jinn) believes that an inexperienced younger person (Neo/Anakin) is the living fulfillment of a prophecy, and must train the young acolyte to overcome his own fears and triumph over the great evil. It's a clear-cut mythological archetype. Perhaps the reason that I - and so many others - got so wrapped up in The Matrix was that it presents that time-worn basic premise in a new format and a fresh setting, and complements it with some impressive effects and action. Episode I won viewers because the words Star and Wars were attached to it. The Matrix rode an immense wave of word-of-mouth advertising about its story and its action sequences. And in the end, The Matrix comes out on top - its characters, despite their similarly archetypal nature, are more richly drawn and textured than any of the principals of Phantom Menace. The Matrix's characters are people than we can more readily relate to, people who don't exude Shakespearean gravitas from their pores, and we're more than ready to follow them on their journey, wherever it may lead.

This isn't to say that The Matrix is flawless. One character suffers badly in the script, and that character is - amazingly enough - Trinity. She's the first protagonist to whom we are introduced in the opening moments of the film, and she starts out as a strong, independent, and damned sexy heroine. But she grows increasingly limp as the movie progresses, until her ultimate function is revealed: she's destined to fall for Neo, as prophesied by the Oracle. And as far as I can tell, this plot element serves no purpose other than to give Trinity the "power" (!?) to bring Neo back from near-death in the movie's climax. Trinity's arc makes her, ultimately, a weaker character in the end, relegated to a stereotypical girlfriend-supporting-our-hero role.

The supporting cast, like the minor players in so many of my other favorite movies (see also Twister and The Abyss), make this movie come alive. Lascivious young Mouse, gentle giant Dozer, and loyal Tank are a big part of the appeal that has me rooting for the good guys. The main characters are all perfectly cast, and I agree with the theory that Keanu Reeves worked so well as the hero of the piece precisely because he had endured a long string of cinematic bombs, and we didn't expect him to evolve into the near-superhero that he turns out to be. Neo doubts himself, and the audience doubts right along with him - that's some pretty canny casting, even if the effect wasn't intentional.

The martial arts sequences are spectacular - not so much the fighting scenes as the lightning-fast and mostly real practice sparring match between Neo and Morpheus. Reeves and Fishburne reportedly trained for months to get this stuff right, and it shows. It may be more dance choreography than actual martial arts training, but it's still very effective. Some of the actual fight scenes are too over-the-top for my tastes - i.e. single punches sending one's opponents airborne and crashing into nearby walls - but they are at least executed well.

There's little else I can say about The Matrix that hasn't already been said, except this: The Matrix does not need a sequel, and it sure as hell doesn't need the two sequels which have been optioned by Warner Bros. The Matrix needs a sequel like The Blair Witch Project needs a sequel - which is to say, not at all. The Matrix, though it tells just one chapter of an ongoing struggle between man and machine, stands alone perfectly. I still fear that further stories in The Matrix's "universe" will tarnish the original. Must we franchise every damn hit movie to come down the pike?

• screenplay by Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski
• directed by Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski
• music by Don Davis
• Cast: Keanu Reeves (Neo), Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus), Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity), Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith), Gloria Foster (Oracle), Joe Pantoliano (Cypher), Marcus Chong (Tank), Julian Arahanga (Apoc), Matt Doran (Mouse), Belinda McClory (Switch), Anthony Ray Parker (Dozer), Paul Goddard (Agent Brown), Robert Taylor (Agent Jones), David Aston (Rhineheart), Marc Gray (Choi), Marc Gray (Choi), Ada Nicodemou (Dujour), Deni Gordon (Priestess), Rowan Witt (Spoon boy), Elenor Witt (Potential), Tamara Brown (Potential), Janaya Pender (Potential), Adryn White (Potential), Natalie Tjen (Potential), Bill Young (Lieutenant), David O'Connor (FedEx man), Jeremy Ball (Businessman), Fiona Johnson (Woman in red), Harry Lawrence (Old man), Steve Dodd (Blind man), Luke Quinton (Security guard), Lawrence Woodward (Guard), Michael Butcher (Cop who captures Neo), Bernie Ledger (Big Cop), Robert Simper (Cop), Chris Scott (Cop), Nigel Harbach (Parking cop), Martin Grelis (Helicopter pilot)