Disguised Scientology?

Rating: 3/10 (22 September 2010)

A lot of people like The Matrix because they think it's deep. In fact its apparent deepness is its primary selling point, and is what has turned it into a blockbuster and trendsetter. Just ponder over this, because there's a contradiction here. Whenever has Hollywood hit the jackpot by being profound, either in a philosophical or religious way? Something strange is going on here. A lot of the mystery disappears after we identify exactly what belief the Wachowski brothers are purveying here. It's Scientology. They are telling us that the power of the mind is able to free us from the matrix of the senses. The scientologists are anxious to free themselves and become thetans – omnipresent and omni-powerful minds.
Now, the success of The Matrix tells me just one thing, that people have become closet scientologists. They don't grapple with the issue of "appearance and reality" in the way scientologists do, but the core belief is there. They might call themselves an atheist, or an evolutionist ("We only accept what science tells us"), but that's only an excuse for not really sorting out what they really believe in. So, along comes a film called The Matrix and it hits a chord. They can identify with Neo because they are aware of a thing called corporate media manipulating reality for them. They are also brought up on computer games, and so it's not too big a leap to imagine a virtual world completely replacing the real one. I can see how closet scientologists can completely immerse themselves in the plight of Neo and his Christ-like struggle to free humanity from the clutches on the senses and become omni-powerful minds (in the parlance of the film, taking them to promised city of Zion).
In that sense, the film is profound, in that it resonates with popular belief so accurately. There is just enough spattering of science and philosophy to take them in. People want to believe in science, but they don't want to be troubled like Einstein was ("Does God play dice?"). The most convincing part of the film is where Morpheus demonstrates to Neo how virtual reality is created. This, and the recurring motif of "freeing the mind" are the only authentic components of the film. The rest is a conventional Hollywood action flick, and one that is totally at odds with the underlining philosophy. Considering the struggle with agent Smith, and the frequent popping in and out of virtual reality, nothing makes sense. This is where real confusion starts to parade as profundity.
I always thought that it was only intellectuals who mistook confusion for profundity, but apparently normal cinema-goers do too. Maybe intellectuals and Hollywood action flick fans have something in common after all. They both worship the rational mind. And when rationality delivers a mess, the mess itself is seen as something profoundly rational. Maybe that's the crowing achievement of the Wachowski brothers. They have composed the "Being and Time" for the masses. But Heidegger's philosophical book was mostly pretentious garbage, and so is the Matrix.