The Matrix Review.

Rating: 9/10 (23 June 2011)

The first time I heard about The Matrix was at the age of 9 from another student in the playground. As you can probably imagine it was very hard to piece together what my friend was telling me, trying in vain, drawing on all the communication skills a typical 9 year old to explain what the Matrix was. He'd be telling me about "The Matrix being the real world but not The real world" and going into it through phone boxes,and characters with unique sounding names like "Morpheus" and "Trinity" and the Agents who are trying to kill them etc. It was a frustrating puzzle trying to make sense of what he was trying to tell me but, By the time the bell had rung and the teacher had called us all in for a remaining afternoon of sitting on little chairs being bored, my imagination had been gripped. I could not stop thinking about it.
The fact that The Matrix had a 15 age certificate certainly helped fuel the fascination of Primary school audiences, however as an adult who has now seen it many times it is still, without doubt one of the coolest films to ever emerge from America. It's value lies not merely in the ascetically stylistic characters, locations, weapons,fight scenes, vehicles, set pieces, "bullet time" (!!) but also in it's huge abstract, philosophical depth. The "true meaning" of almost every aspect of the film is constantly still debated in internet forums, books, and audience conversation. It is one of those films that turns audience members of all walks of life into philosophers, debating valuable concepts and ideas and enriching conversation. "How can we be sure we are not living in a reality similar to The Matrix?" is perhaps the most obvious question that springs to mind as a result of watching the film. Personally,as a nine year old boy with an overactive imagination and tenancy to take things a bit too literally, I lay in bed after seeing The Matrix for the first time, having real doubts about the nature of reality. It is very similar to the more recent, Inception in the respect that it can remind you, as a human being, how little you really know about the universe and your place in it. If everything we experience is dependant on our senses, how can we know that our senses are not deceived, missing something,or unable to detect certain phenomenon. If The Matrix was "real" we would not be able to tell. There is also the question of wherever we would want to leave the safety of the illusion for a harsher reality, or remain in the illusion to escape reality (like Cipher).Without doubt,if we were living in a Matrix like illusion, then the illusion is better for film stars, rock stars, and other social groups than the oppressed working class that Marx describes. Some people would want to exit or shut down the illusion more than others.
Another very interesting part of the film is when Agent Smith mentions "going to church" as part of the experience of being inside The Matrix.If our world was an illusion and religion is a part of our world,does that imply that religion is an illusion. If we woke up, how can we be sure that we didn't wake up in a world where we still don't know whether God is real and we still don't know the true reality of the world we wake up in. Maybe when Morpheus frees people from The Matrix he is really only waking them up from one illusion into another. There are endless philosophical questions and considerations like this that can result from discussing this film.
Films that inspire philosophical questioning enrich life with new perspectives to view the world. Films that do this with such uncompromising style, and excitement are quiet rare. It has to be pointed out that The Matrix is not merely a philosophical exercise but on the surface it is also makes hugely enjoyable viewing. In short,The Matrix has everything. The escapism into a science-fictional world with it's own history, Sharp characters, mind blowing stunts, philosophical, and even emotional depth that is displayed through the relationship between characters. It is a perfect, powerful film with many elements that do it credit.