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TRUTH IS AS SUBJECTIVE AS REALITY: A MOVIE REVIEW ON THE MATRIX
Written on February 2000
What if everything we thought was real – these streets, this city, the year 1999 – was merely a computer-generated program in our heads, a cyberdream of reality? That, in short, is the premise of The Matrix, a Warner Brothers sci-fi action film released in April of 1999 in the USA. Produced by Joel Silver, the $6.75 M flick was written and directed by brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski and stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Ann Moss, Joe Pantoliano and Hugo Weaving.
The Matrix which appears to be set in the present – that is where its hero, Neo (Keanu Reeves), thinks he is – is actually set in 2199, when artificial intelligence machines rule the world, and humans are merely crops as they grow to supply energy.
Apparently, at some point in the early in the 21st century, mankind gave birth to Artificial Intelligence (‘A.I.’), a singular consciousness that spawned an entire race of machines which defeated humanity in a great war. No one knew who struck first – the humans or the machines, but it was undoubtedly the humans who scorched the sky, bringing about nuclear winter.
Machines were dependent on solar power and it was believed that they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun. Throughout human history, humans were dependent on machines to survive.
To quote Morpheus, “Fate, it seems is not without its sense of irony.”
Requiring a substitute for solar power, the machines found a way to siphon the body heat and bioelectricity generated by the human body. The machines had found all the energy they would ever need.
There were endless fields where human beings were no longer born, but grown so as to feed the machines. In order to keep the captured humanity docile during the process, the machines built a vast 'power plant' system of prison pods where humans float in a lifelong coma, their brains hooked up to a vast virtual reality called the 'Matrix'. A computer-generated dream world, the Matrix was built to keep the human mind under control in order to change a human being into a power source. The Matrix is a system. Inside, you see the minds of people, many of who are so dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it. ‘Sentient programs’ called ‘Agents’ patrol within the Matrix simulation to ensure the mental prison runs smoothly. Inside the program, they are everyone and they are no one, and anyone who has stood their ground against an Agent has died…until now.
Thomas A. Anderson, the protagonist, a human in the Matrix, is a software author by day and a hacker by the name Neo at night, feels that something is wrong in his world. For several years, he has been looking for Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), a man believed to hold the answers to the riddle, ‘What is the Matrix?’ Apparently, in searching for answers to questions he didn’t know he was looking for, Neo gets more than what he bargained for when he chooses to take the red pill offered by Morpheus to cross over to a realm in which the real and imagined are indistinguishable. Extracted from the Matrix simulation then physically rescued from the machine ‘power plant’, Neo gets clued into the real deal: humans are just slaves to the machine. That all that is left of the earth is a gloomy, gothic wasteland and the world as he knows it exists now only as a part of the neuro-interactive simulation called the Matrix, a simulation of 1999 earth, where people go about their illusionary lives. It is a blanket that has been pulled over the eyes of all humanity to blind them from the truth – that they are slaves to the system, born in a prison for the mind. What is real, though is that all that is left of the earth is the City of Zion, located underground, near the earth’s core, and that the only actual living people left are a tiny group of freed humans from outside the Matrix. Morpheus, Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss), Cypher (Joe Pantoliano), Apoc, Switch, Mouse, Tank and Dozer, with the exception of the latter two, were all physically retrieved from the machine power plant. The small band of rebels have managed to survive by living in their hovercraft, the Nebuchadnezzar, where they ‘see’ what is going on in the Matrix by reading everything in numerical codes from numerous computer monitors. But it doesn’t stop there. By literally plugging themselves into the computer system, they are able to jack into the Matrix computer construct.
Morpheus believes Neo to be the Messianic One, the reincarnated being of the man who freed the first band of rebels from the Matrix, who exposed them to the truth. Prophesied to hail the destruction of the Matrix, it is he who would end the war and bring freedom to humanity. In order for him to overcome the rules of the Matrix, Neo is trained by Morpheus to use his own version of the force in simulated environments similar to the programmed reality of the Matrix. Though it exists only in the mind, Morpheus warns Neo that one can die while in the Matrix, for “the body cannot live without the mind.”
Neo, meanwhile, didn’t know what to make of it when Morpheus told him that he’s destined to save the world. To add to his uncertainty, the Oracle (Gloria Foster), an old lady tells him that contrary to what Morpheus so blindly believes, he is not The One. The Oracle also warns him that at one point, he will have to choose between his life and Morpheus’.
Using what the Oracle told him as a guide, Neo was able to walk through the door that Morpheus showed him, onto path that fulfilled his destiny. He knew and he finally believed who he is, what he is.
For the first time, Neo saw the Matrix simulated world for the actual computer program it really is. Everything suddenly fell into place, and Neo, upon realizing the absolute truth destroys an agent.
Beginning the process of restoring man to his rightful place as the sentient species on the planet, Neo leaves us to guess the rest as he ascends into the simulated sky.
He had mastered the Matrix; he had freed his mind.
The Matrix throws a lot at you – mythic quests, kung-fu fight scenes and gothic-industrial pop culture. Set against a neo-noir, futuristic backdrop and packed with action, the film crams the Bible, Greek myths, theoretical math, philosophy, existentialism and virtuality into a comprehensible good-guys-versus-big-bad-universe plot.
Primarily, what caught my eye in The Matrix were the state-of-the-art special effects and the movie’s definition of pop-culture. An incredible cyberpunk thriller that’s so much fun to watch, The Matrix could single-handedly reboot the sci-fi genre. However, unlike other sci-fi movies I have seen in the past, The Matrix has an incredible storyline. Although it’s a bit confusing at first, it’s way easy to appreciate once you get it. (Hey, I had to watch the movie three times before I really got it!). Surprisingly, it works in many ways, considering the sci-fi action genre of the flick. Beneath The Matrix’s comic book artistry, stylized fight choreography, state-of-the-art special effects, 21st century remixes of techno-industrial soundtrack, crosses between neo noir and gothic sets and washed-out green tints, lie a complex back story.
After viewing The Matrix exactly twelve times (once each month last year after it was released to theatres in April and three times this month), I started to see beneath the obvious: that The Matrix is more than a visually dazzling cyberadventure full of kinetic excitement. One of the few challenging movies I’ve watched, The Matrix mainly succeeds as a canvas for conjecture. The film pulsates with religious and philosophical touches, provocative names and cultural commentaries, hints of which are strategically sprinkled all over the movie from beginning to end, giving the viewer-turned-perceptive-observer a mental playground. Simply put, it seems that with a little effort, one can get just about anything out of this multi-faceted movie. With every detail connoting something, The Matrix reminds me a little bit of The X-Files where every detail is significant – from the apartment number, to the color of the walls, to the sarcastic but meaningful side comments of the character to one another. Noticing minute details in a film takes some getting used to, but once you start seeing them in the film as you would the huge explosive action sequences, the movie takes on a challenging turn and things start getting fun.
How is The Matrix parallel to the Christian religion? What role does western philosophy play in it? Were they made to work against one another in the movie as some sort of philosophy versus the doctrines of the Christian religion? What exactly do the characters’ names signify? Do they live up to the suggestive notions of their names? How do you define real? What exactly does the recurring phrase: “Free your mind,” mean? And the Wachowskis’ thought of computers coming to life – is it really impossible? Curious to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes? As Du Jour says, “Come on – it’ll be fun!”
What’s amazing about The Matrix is that the Wachowski brothers put in so much visual wizardry and thought-provoking ideas in the movie before Joel “let’s blow it up” Silver’s (Demolition Man and Lethal Weapon series) explosive action sequences were added.
From the opening sequence where green numbers, written as if in code, vertically move down against a black computer screen, followed by a chase between a special agent and a buff woman clad in black leather, one is immediately clued in on the sci-fi action nature of the film. One is also set to expect a complex movie wherein the surface shots, the basic story and the back story are made to work perfectly side by side by side each other.
The Matrix is movie where seemingly there are no simple scenes. No shot is straightforward – every shot is layered with special effects and different realities, themes and colors.
One can’t help but notice the action sequences throughout the film. The movie had numerous complex mechanical and pyrotechnic sequences including flying helicopters, exploding buildings and numerous shoot-ups, each of which had a stylized larger-than-life quality to it. These action sequences, however, range from superb to poor. Highlights include a fantastic kung fu and jujitsu training between Reeves and Fishburne that takes place in a virtual pagoda and an amazing helicopter stunt. My favorite scenes are the well-choreographed fight scenes in which the fighters appear to hang in mid-air. In all the movies I have seen, the Wachowskis were the only ones who were able to perfect the use of the freeze-motion effect. Plus, it was pretty impressive to see that it was actually Fishburne and Reeves bruising each other, not stunt doubles. On the poor side, various shoot-outs seem ripped out of Asian action movies. You know how it works: multiple guns per person with people shooting everything in
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copyright valerie v. mayuga 2005 |