Oh well, that's it. There's no point in doing anymore work, so just pack up and walk out of college, for according to the premise of the film The Matrix, our world is not our world. It is merely an electronic program being run as a form of prison to control us.

When Keanu Reeves finds himself in this predicament, he tries to answer a few of the interesting questions this presents, like, for instance, 'What is the Matrix?'.

This butt-kicking-cgi-sfx marathon is based in a technologically adept society with perfect tall buildings and dirty, bleak, black streets to create a neat setting for a cyberpunk thriller.

Directed by the Wachowski Brothers - who also directed Bound - the film is set in a good cyperpunk locale, albeit, perhaps, too clean, and have tried to present a thought-provoking storyline with bone-shatteringly good combat special effects.

Just into the opening of the film, we are treated to one of the first combat scenes and the arrival of the Matrix defence system blokes. Now if there's one thing you will remember after watching this film, it's the combat!

From this first little battle to many of the other one-on-ones, we are treated to the latest movie effect 'flo-mo'. By shooting one frame of film with 120 cameras circling the action, it allows the audience to see a sort of 3D camera route of the on-screen action. For example, Reeves plus bad-guy jump towards each other legs and fists flying. Suddenly movement stops and Reeves and the other guy remain frozen in mid-air, but the camera is still moving, circling around them letting you view their paused stance.

The first hour feels bland and although the sets exhibit a beautiful Gothic-meets-cyberpunk style, they can't distract you from the dreary over-used dialogue, 'I believe you are the chosen one', and 'Has he seen the Oracle yet?' which ends up feeling more suited to The Dark Crystal or The Never Ending Story than a film which really needs to evolve and deepen its characters and plot to constitute the need for that type of prophetic speech. However there are some nice surrealist moments allowing the film to provoke an emotional response from the audience, such as the interrogation scene, dreams, and the references to Alice In Wonderland.

Of course, since the film was a summertime blockbuster, it contains most of the ingredients of a fun, watchable film. It has the necessary quota of guns and butt-kicking to grab your eyes for two hours and 19 minutes and although you may leave feeling the film should have gone on for another hour, it is essentially quite good and has provided a cushion for the sequel which should be great.