Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
73
(35 sources)
73
(35 sources)
-
91
Portland Oregonian
The Matrix slams you back in your chair, pops open your eyes and leaves your jaw hanging slack in amazement. Read Full Review » -
90
The Onion (A.V. Club)
The Wachowskis do it so playfully well, keeping The Matrix's potentially confusing plot intelligible, intelligent, and suspenseful, that it doesn't matter. Read Full Review » -
90
LA Weekly
Bill Pope's swooping, noir-inflected cinematography is wonderfully complemented by Owen Paterson's inventive production design, a great soundtrack and the best fight choreography this side of Hong Kong. And even if this isn't "Blade Runner," it is very cool shit. Read Full Review » -
90
Mr. Showbiz
This wildly imaginative thriller is a futuristic head trip you most definitely want to take. Read Full Review » -
90
TNT RoughCut
The Wachowski Brothers have created some of the most unrivaled and imaginative sci-fi in years. Read Full Review » -
90
Los Angeles Times
A wildly cinematic futuristic thriller that is determined to overpower the imagination, The Matrix combines traditional science-fiction premises with spanking new visual technology in a way that almost defies description. Read Full Review » -
90
Film Threat
I'll just say to anyone lamenting the state of American cinema since the 1970s, if you're curious where the next generation of auteurs is coming from, look in the art houses and look in The Matrix. Read Full Review » -
88
Philadelphia Inquirer
With its mix of Lewis Carroll and William Gibson; Japanese anime and Chinese chopsocky; mythological allusions, and machine-made illusion, offers a couple of hours of escapist fun. Read Full Review » -
88
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80
TV Guide
This dazzling pop allegory is steeped in a dark, pulpy sensibility that transcends nostalgic pastiche and stands firmly on its own merits. Read Full Review » -
80
Washington Post
There's a kind of liberating, almost transforming energy in this film; it lights you up and sends you out all giddy with silliness. Read Full Review » -
80
Slate
One of the more lyrical sci-fi action thrillers ever made, in which space and time become love slaves to the directors' witty visual fancies. Read Full Review » -
80
Dallas Observer
This full-tilt visual and aural bombardment is simply a lot of fun. It never lets up. Nor does it ever want to. Read Full Review » -
80
Washington Post
One big, fat, honking comic book of a sci-fi-martial-arts adventure flick. Read Full Review » -
78
Austin Chronicle
Doesn't just raise the bar on sci-fi and action films, it rips that sucker off and sends it spiraling into the sun. Read Full Review » -
75
Christian Science Monitor
The plot switches gears every time it threatens to run out of energy, which keeps the show as lively as it is preposterous. Read Full Review » -
75
San Francisco Examiner
Where most effects-laden extravanganzas aspire to be nothing more than a live-action comic book, The Matrix sees things with the venturesome clarity of a graphic novel. Read Full Review » -
75
Chicago Tribune
The writing remains more intelligent than most thrillers, and the action is executed with such panache that even if you don't buy the reality of The Matrix, it's a helluva place to visit. Read Full Review » -
75
Chicago Sun-Times
A visually dazzling cyberadventure, full of kinetic excitement, but it retreats to formula just when it's getting interesting. Read Full Review » -
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
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. Read Full Review » -
75
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75
New York Post
It's like animation come to three-dimensional life, and f/x addicts as well as sci-fi fans will not want to miss a split-second. Read Full Review » -
70
Variety
An eye-popping but incoherent extravaganza of morphing and superhuman martial arts. Read Full Review » -
70
Time
Given a budget that encourages their kinesthetic skills, the filmmakers tend to go on a bit, but it's mostly a kind of quick, glancing hipness that's being indulged here. Read Full Review » -
70
The New York Times
The martial arts stunts that are its single strongest selling point. Read Full Review » -
70
Newsweek
With an arsenal of cool f/x at their disposal, the Wachowskis have come up with a dizzyingly enjoyable junk movie that has just enough on its mind to keep the pleasure from being a guilty one. Read Full Review » -
70
Film.com
Aerves up so much visual wizardry and thought-provoking ideas that even the inevitable Silver touch -- a finale with more bullets than the opening of "Saving Private Ryan" -- can't destroy the magic. Read Full Review » -
70
Salon.com
It may bore you to death or blow your mind -- and it's long and convoluted enough to do both -- but it holds nothing back. Read Full Review » -
63
USA Today
Even if a lot of adults have problems following this picture 100%, look for computer-savvy teen-agers to guarantee this sometimes original but too often derivative time-killer a shelf life. Read Full Review » -
60
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60
Village Voice
The cumulative effect is perversely deflationary: long before it's over, the film has flushed the paranoia from its system. Read Full Review » -
58
Entertainment Weekly
The real soullessness here is built into the production, a polished adaptation of Hong Kong-style filmmaking that, with its cast of depressive characters, allows for little Hong Kong-style joy. Read Full Review » -
50
Boston Globe
Snazzy visuals, of which she (Moss) is one, carry The Matrix past its klutzy script. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Reader
There's not much humor to keep it all life-size, and by the final stretch it's become bloated, mechanical, and tiresome. Read Full Review » -
25
San Francisco Chronicle
It's astonishing that so much money, talent, technical expertise and visual imagination can be put in the service of something so stupid. Read Full Review »
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