A Review of the Matrix from a Christian perspective...

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2000)

WARNING - THIS REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IT IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE!
I finally watched "The Matrix" on DVD -- I give it a solid 8 out of 10.
This movie is a heck of a lot a fun! Let's face it, the most appealing things about this film were the awesome fight scenes, the shameless glorification of automatic weapons, the black leather, and Carrie-Ann Moss.

So far I haven't seen many films in 1999 with a particularly outstanding performance by an actor, save Richard Farnsworth in "The Straight Story." But Mr. Fishburne would certainly get my vote for best performance! I can't possible imagine anyone else better in that role. He played it to perfection. And Hugo Weaving's performance as `Agent Smith' was absolutely brilliant.
However, I did find some faults with this film; the main one being the recycling of the most cliché' of science fiction plot lines, the "messiah-deliver who was prophesied to free us all...blah, blah, blah...." Now that it's been done 14,000 times over, I think it's clearly time to finally lay that plot line to rest....
Also, the film was way too upbeat concerning the superiority of humans vs. machines. Everyone knows machines are better. (Speaking of clichés', how many times has the conflict of man vs. machine been explored in film-literally history? About 50 million times??? Puh-lease....)

Warner Brothers should have forced the Wachowski Brothers to include an apology to the makers of `Dark City' and `Terminator 2' in the opening credits. (Not to mention `Dune,' `Metropolis,' H.G. Wells, and Stanley Kubrick.)
And to be perfectly honest, that guy who made a deal with the agents to be put back into the "matrix" was the only intelligent one of the bunch. (Say, isn't that `Guido, the Killer Pimp?') He knew a good thing when he saw it. Too bad he was such a jerk. (Philosophical note: If the dude asks to have his memories completely erased before taking on his new identity, then how does that differ from him just putting a bullet to his head and ending it right then and there???? Isn't the exact same thing accomplished? OK class, who'd like to answer that one?)
Besides all those negatives, this was the best martial arts film I've ever seen. Jackie Chan finally has some competition.
And yes, the agent's line about the failed "Utopia" matrix was very interesting; but if you think about it, it makes absolutely no sense. The best way to keep a human being enslaved is to play off their "appetites" for food and sex. Just keep giving them enough to want more, but never enough to reach complete satisfaction. Those in the drug, porno, and entertainment industries know all about human enslavement.

It's not that a Utopian society would have failed because everyone would have considered it to be a fake, they'd be too busy satisfying the cravings of their flesh to notice.... but a Utopian Matrix would fail because of the evil, sinful nature of human beings. Man is just too selfish to be able to create a successful Utopia here on earth, or even in a computer simulation.

That's why "Forbidden Planet" is such a classic movie. It shows that even when a society has everything it could possible want, there's no way to eliminate the wildcard of the "id" or sinful nature of man. (Or, in the case of "Forbidden Planet," the sinful nature of Krell....) It was the Krell's inability to check their "dark side" that caused the destruction of their society. So the A.I. machines built a world where humans could indulge their evil nature, a world identical to the one we currently live in.
I liked the whole concept of the realization that the world around us is not all there is to reality. On that point, the film scores some major bonus points in my book.
Truth is the world that we see, feel, touch and smell everyday of our lives is a "matrix" of sorts. Yet you won't find a bunch of amoral A.I. robots behind the curtain running the whole show, no matter how hard you look. Rather, our world is run by a rather benevolent spirit whom most like to refer to as God. He has sent many prophets, and even his own son to let us in on the secret, much like Morpheus acts as a prophet in this film, letting Neo and others in on the secret that is the Matrix.
And much like Neo, God offers us the choice of the red and blue pills. Either we can throw our lot in with him, or continue on in our quaint little deception that what we taste, see, feel & hear are the only things that are "out there," nothing more.
Throughout the course of human history, we have various examples of individuals who decided that the blue pill was for them: Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, Fruede, Nietzsche, T.H. Huxley; to name a few. All of them devout atheists. All of them believing all there is to this world is what their senses dictated to them, nothing more.
Then there are those who took the blue pill, like Mother Teresa, the Pope, Billy Graham, Albert Shcwietzer, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and J.S. Bach. All of them believers in a spiritual world more real than the world around us. All of them committed, in their own way, of proclaiming this great truth to any that would listen.
As for me, I took the blue pill and threw my lot in with the benevolent higher power. I don't regret it for a minute.