It's been such a long time since we've seen a truly memorable mainstream science-fiction film. The last great sci-fi film I can remember seeing is Gattaca, and that was two years ago. Gattaca was also a small, quiet art-house sci-fi film, released with little fanfare while crap like Armageddon, Wing Commander and Godzilla overtook the mainstream consciousness. It may not be easy to do great sci-fi, but with the dearth of recent classics, you'd think that Hollywood had forgotten how to try.

Fortunately, the long, long drought of great sci-fi filmmaking is over at last. And I'm not even talking about the new Star Wars movie. It'll be beyond awesome to see new Star Wars on the big screen, but before you sit down for The Phantom Menace, The Matrix will have already restored your faith in this classic movie genre. Special effects, plot, acting, direction--intelligence, wit, beauty and action--The Matrix has it all.

It's an especially stunning filmmaking triumph because on paper, it just doesn't add up right. First off, you've got Keanu Reeves, a big minus in any Hollywood production. He's always had the acting chops of your average fifth-grader at an arcade. The rest of the cast isn't much stronger; there's newcomer Carrie-Anne Moss, never-arriver Joe Pantoliano and the shining star of the production, Laurence Fishburne as a ass-kicking Obi-Wan redux. Then you've got first- time director/ producer/writers Larry and Andy Wachowski taking on a big-budget mainstream behemoth of a movie on their first outing. Most of all, because of all these random variables the buzz on Matrix had been atrocious prior to release. Internet rumors had the budget skyrocketing as tensions developed between the Wachowskis and Reeves. And with the release date changing several times--it's last scheduled date was last fall--the odds seemed to be stacked against us ever caring what the Matrix could be.

But what fails on paper succeeds brilliantly on film. It's becoming increasingly rare to find a sci-fi or action film that works on every level, but Matrix pulls it off. There's so much attention paid to action sequences and expensive special effects in other films, with no consideration offered for character or plot. In Matrix, the effects serve the story, not vice-versa.

What the story offers is a recasting of the mythological themes touched on in Star Wars, pushing those archetypes into the new millennium. Neo (Reeves) is a working stiff who leads a dark double life: he also traffics in virtual-reality drugs. He's contacted by a mysterious stranger who wants to introduce him to the enigmatic Morpheus (Fishburne). Once he meets Morpheus, he's offered a choice: to take a glimpse at another world, or go on living in the one he knows. He takes the glimpse, and it leads him into a mind-blowing new reality: the Matrix.

The Matrix is a virtual reality. The surprises attached to that idea won't be spoiled here, and are some of the most clever aspects of the film. Once inside the Matrix, Neo must accept his mantle as the prophecied hero of the resistance, the one who can destroy the Matrix and free its captives forever. He fights the evil controllers of the Matrix, ultimately saving Morpheus' life but failing to shut down the Matrix. Reeves may be the chosen one, but he hasn't beat the bad guys yet, and this leaves the door open for a return adventure.

What more can be said about The Matrix? It will blow your mind. The FX will burn into your brain; the direction is dynamic and quirky; the ideas are as compelling as the Force or HAL 2000. It's got the look, it's got the brains, it's got the action muscle. Contrary to Fishburne's infamous line in the commercials, you can be told what the Matrix is. All you really need to know is that it's brilliant science- fiction.