Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see for yourself. And it's going to find you if you really want it to.

Rating: 10/10 (24 May 2012)

The all around brilliance of this movie comes from the multidimensional themes of art, mythology, intellect and entertainment. It stands out exceptional even in special effects and martial arts, so there is something for everyone in it, and that is why it will remain as an all time classic. My focus in this review will be on the myth of The Matrix, the intellectual ideas and the questions that arise in the plot and the dialogs, and these are as I have formulated them: What is real, and by the same token, what is illusory? What is really behind the complex, seductive, at times apparently chaotic and random, at times apparently precisely timed and connected coincidences of the events and between the people of the world? What controls all the events of the world? Do individuals have any control at all through their choices and decisions over what happens or will happen? Or is it all 'programmed' or 'fated' in a scripted manner? In short, who or what runs the show? Are all our perceptions the result of the cultural construct (the set of perceptual interpretations and beliefs about the world 'taught' into each one of us by our social, cultural 'teachers'), or do we have the freedom to make our perception take flight into new territories, where no one has ventured so far? What are the limits of this freedom and how can we then meaningfully correlate with the existing knowledge matrix (and this movie is itself part of The Matrix) of the now diffuse and globalized culture of this world? These questions have been asked by seers, visionaries and thinkers in all parts of the world for millennia. The answers, descriptions, interpretations provided by these people found in the various myths, are so diverse and different that it's mind boggling to the non-thinker, but quite a challenge to the explorer. Levi Strauss put it this way: "A theoretically infinite number of versions of the myth will be generated, each slightly different from the others. Myth thus becomes the third dimension of language; in it a continuous attempt is made to reconcile the other two dimensions of language - the diachronic and the synchronic. Because complete reconciliation is impossible, myth grows spiral - wise until the intellectual impulse which has produced it is exhausted. Myth grows then, because, structurally, the contradiction - the asymmetry – which gives it life cannot be resolved. Different versions are part of the same myth precisely because a myth is not reducible to a single uniform content, but is a dynamic structure. Eventually all the versions of a myth have to be taken into consideration so as its structure can become apparent." So if any of these questions has ever bothered you, then welcome to The Matrix, the command and control system of the world that is by the necessary order of things, hidden from us for the very simple reason that it must be beyond individual manipulation (yes, the factual flaw in the movie is that the Matrix can be hacked). The only thing that The Matrix will allow is for the determined individual is to have a glimpse or a series of images of itself, but the interpretation of those is only one such interpretation that ideally should have correlation to interpretations that others have given. "The test of a true myth is that each time you return to it, new insights and interpretations arise" (Starhawk). Good luck to you and hope you 'see' The Matrix, that is, if you really want to.