No.1 movie on my list

Rating: 10/10 (2 October 2015)

There are lots of movies that I like and picking the favorite one among all of them seems unfair, like saying that the others lack something important. That said, I still have to be fair to my favorite movie which really tops them all and puts them under its feet. Yes, that is what The Matrix has done to other movies and still manages to do so.
When I first saw it I was blown away by its story, not so much with acting and visual effects, although both the acting and the visuals are fantastic (it won the Oscar for best effects – sound and visuals). The performances put in by Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne really transfer the audience into the reality of the movie, making the viewer understand and experience to some point the diverse emotions felt by the protagonists.
The metaphors that the movie uses make the Matrix a great tool for understanding our reality. It doesn't uncover the secret societies that rule our world, or similar cheap schemes, instead, it deals with more important personal approach towards everyday life. It puts general people's perceptions, fears, love and desires into such a perspective that shows what those emotional states really are and how our understanding and relation to them is inadequate if not entirely false.
It starts with the question of what is the Matrix. At first, it is not clear whether it is a complex machine or the program running that machine or maybe an idea that wants to impose itself onto others. In order to explain this, the movie slowly leads us through scenes of philosophical discussions, contemplation and even fighting. The amazing action scenes are there to entertain us, but more importantly, they serve to show us that our capabilities are only limited by our own mind. The Matrix suggests that if the mind lets go, our strength can go beyond imaginable, beyond what we consider to be real. Hence the unrealistic scenes of dodging the bullets and similar. It leaves it up to viewer to reveal the similarities between the Matrix and the everyday life which makes those revelations personal hence more believable. It doesn't try to lead us into believing that something like Matrix can exist somewhere in virtual world it rather shows us that we already live in such a world.
But hey, what do I know. This is only how I was affected by the this movie. Not everyone would agree with me but that is exactly what the Matrix has proposed. People are enslaved within their minds and if they do not break free of the old patterns of looking at things and if they don't try to look deeper then the reality will never reveal itself. Since the only way to go there and live the reality is through personal growth, it all starts with the individual and takes one person at a time. It can't be massive, it can't be done in some revolutionary fashion, it needs to go from within of each and every one of us. Powerful message!