A sci-fi action movie or an exploration of esoteric concepts?

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2010)

First I will say, if you are not into discussing deep intellectual concepts in film, my review will likely not be your cup of tea. Everyone else, please read on.
I saw this movie when it first came out in theaters. I liked the theme of control that resonated throughout the plot--being controlled, at first not knowing it, then waking up to it and ultimately "raging against" such control.
I was not taken in so much by the special effects or fight scenes. While I was not necessarily turned off by them either, I did feel they were "additional elements only" and that the core meaning of the movie strives to go much deeper.
Neo is the hero because he got beyond the control mechanisms in place which deceive and thus imprison. No other human could do it, all others...Morpheus, Trinity, etc...even after their eyes were awakened to what the Matrix was, could not act outside the perimeters of this system. Neo, through his journey of self-discovery breaks beyond the barriers of human perception that defined the containers of this system. He was able to do this because a human was originally programmed into the Matrix, as explained by Morpheus to Neo. So the idea that human perception had helped construct the Matrix opened the possibility that human perception could also be liberated from the Matrix by altering the rules that governed it.
We all long to break free of something, and I think that is why this movie resonated on a subconscious level with many people. I would imagine those who said they loved this film very well may have loved the concept of freewill itself. Does it exist and can we access it? How is it accessed? Is it a journey of our inner self? Neo takes such an inner journey does he not?
The answer is clear, he does. Because this is how he transcends the Matrix of which others, those awakened to it and those still plugged in, could not do. And it all came down to inner belief, the exercising of freewill. Man's freewill. The idea that external reality, whether physical or virtual reality, does not control us. We define ourselves by thought. And thought itself alters reality, not the other way around.
I really feel this is what the Wachowski brothers were seeking to express. I do not feel they made this movie for CGI effects or to make an action film that would be a blockbuster hit as some reviews have suggested. I do feel they aimed at a deeper undercurrent on the nature of our existence, the nature of reality. I do not, however, think they were entirely successful in their attempt which is why I gave the film 7 out of 10.
Here is what I feel is detracting from the movie: The idea of combining deep philosophical interjection with typical Hollywood portrayals is bound to create a struggle between the two, which it does, and one usually has to give way for the other. Such as, the "coolness" or attempt at coolness (ie leather outfits, guns, sunglasses, martial arts sequences set to hip soundtracks) detract from the intellectual concepts being developed. Such obvious referencing takes the audience in a different direction, to more mundane and traveled territory, yet underneath this (buried in the rubble of predictability) is the highly commendable urge to denounce this very homogeneity and be original. But to be original, you have to go all the way. Once you reference the commonplace, the known and well-accommodated approaches, you undervalue what is fresh and new by the sheer momentum of agreed upon consensus (Hollywood themes) that puts an end to the intellectual exploration that could have arisen. That is, familiarity breeds a lack of curiosity.
What WAS fresh and new was at the end of the film when Neo was able to stop agent Smith's bullets by "intending to". That was the beauty of this hero. He exercised his own freewill and thus altered his own reality without resorting to fists and guns in order to overpower the control mechanisms.
Yet the problem continues, in the follow-up sequels of the Trilogy. Here we see Neo back to fighting agent Smith with his fists and guns again. So what happened to his ability to "intend" beyond the Matrix? It seems it is suggested (by the Wachowski brothers) that as Neo intended beyond the Matrix, agent Smith in turn also became able to transcend his own limitations. The idea that the challenger is continually challenged by his opponent, so that when the challenger gets stronger, so too does his opponent.
The final in the Trilogy did have the proper ending, in keeping with this intellectual theme of freewill and how to achieve it. It has to do with compassion (Neo's compassion) and the will to surrender the NEED to control. So Neo reached this epoch in his journey (final fight scene with agent Smith). He ceased to fight back, and in doing so he became pure essence (unreachable to the controlling mechanisms). OK, message received loud and clear...or was it?
I think many who saw the Matrix, or the entire the Trilogy for that matter, saw the leather and guns and fight sequences without being fully aware of the undercurrent of concepts. Well, I guess if that's what they went to see, then they got what they were seeking and no harm in that. Still, I think less focus on "coolness" by the Wachowski Brothers would have helped the esoteric concepts in the film emerge, but may have in turn drawn a smaller audience. We'll never know.
Either way, I liked the Matrix and the way the Trilogy was ended. And Keanu Reeves played the role of Neo perfectly. A cross between Buddha and Genghis Khan, conveying that in the end, it is the surrendering of control(Buddhist aspect)that frees one from the Matrix.