TV's Frink said:

The Matrix was a non-studio film that somehow got made in the studio system. It was not dumbed-down at all, rather it escaped being tampered with.

Between all the guns, explosions, overchoreographed fight scenes, cliched "chosen one" blather, and the nonsensical logic/physics behind the machines' use of humans as a power source, it sure fooled me.

How many Philip K. Dick movies have you seen?

Not as many as I'd like. Apparently there aren't enough guns, explosions, and kung fu in any of them to appeal to Hollywood filmmakers' tastes.

And Keanu Reeves was good in The Matrix, no matter what you think of his body of work.

Funny. He appears to be the same monotonous automaton here that he is in 100.99% of all his other films.

...

I guess I should mention one thing I found honestly good about The Matrix, though: Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith. His was the best damned character in the entire movie.