The Matrix-Critique And Review Essay, Research Paper
The movie, “The Matrix” is a complex, yet easy watching movie. It involves
many things to think about, but is easy to understand. “The Matrix” combines
love and action into one great movie.
The story is as follows: Thomas Anderson (played by Keanu Reeves) is a
dull and lifeless employee for a computer firm. He also lives a “secret”
life as a hacker who sells some sort of illegal software. What he is
involved in we can only guess, since the film hasn’t the time to tell us.
Somehow, along the way, he has been brought into contact with a man named
Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne), a notorious “terrorist” whom he has
never actually met but has been seeking for some time. Thomas is given hints
and clues first of all by the mysterious Trinity (played by Carrie Ann Moss),
who sends him messages on his computer that predicts coming events. Shortly
thereafter, Thomas is hurled bodily into “the game,” and there he is left to
run, hide, make the leap or plummet to his death.
His engagement in this game begins when he is at work and receives a
call from Morpheus, warning him that “they” are after him. Sure enough, the
sinister men in black are at that precise moment being directed to his desk.
Following intricate instructions from Morpheus (who appears to be able to see
the entire layout of Thomas’s world as if he is looking at a map, or like a
god looking down
from on high), Thomas sneaks past the agents into an empty office. There
Morpheus tells to make an improbable leap to safety. He fails to make the
leap, does not even try in fact, and allows himself to be captured by the
government agents instead.
He is taken into custody and while there is offered a deal which demands
him to cooperate in the tracking of Morpheus, in return he will get a clean
slate. When he refuses the deal, his world without warning warps into a
nightmare, as the agent whose name is Smith (played by Hugo Weaving)
literally wipes Thomas’s mouth off, leaving him speechless and in horror.
The other agents hold him down as a mechanical, but living parasite-like
cyber-organism is inserted into his body, through the naval. At this point,
Thomas wakes up, as though from a dream. Little respite is allowed him,
however, as he is promptly picked up by Morpheus’s team (also dressed in
black), held down in the back of the limo, and subjected to another bizarre
procedure, as the parasite implant is removed. Thomas yells out in horror,
“That thing is real?” By now we have no more clue than he does. As it turns
out, it isn’t real, but then nothing else in his life is, either.
When Thomas finally meets Morpheus, he finds a regal and highly stylish
man with soft, seductive tones to match his name. In what is perhaps the
most unforgettable part of the movie, Morpheus explains everything to Thomas.
First
of all, following his opening speech, he offers Thomas a choice. He can take
a blue pill or a red pill. By taking the former, he will wake up again and
all this will be just a dream. Take the red, however, and he goes through the
looking glass and finds out “how deep the rabbit hole goes”. Of course, he
takes the red. His decision is already built into Morpheus’s offer, because,
if it’s only a dream, why not take the red; and if it’s not, then why take
the blue? But what Thomas undergoes as a result of the red pill is like
every psychedelic seeker’s worst trip.
As the betrayer Cypher (played by Joe Pantoliano) puts it, “Why-oh-why
did I take that damn pill?” Thomas is torn from a very real world, and there
given the hideous, literally mind-shattering Truth that he is a slave to an
order of inorganic beings that until this moment, he did not even know
existed. Morpheus explains that the year is not really 1999, that it is in
fact closer to one century later, and that civilization has in the meantime
already been destroyed. Civilization’s destruction was a result of the
discovery of Artificial Intelligence (AI), somewhere around the start of the
twenty-first century. There had been a standoff between man and machine,
between the creation and the creator, and the machine won. AI discovered a
means not merely to destroy civilization and inherit the Earth’s prospect,
but to develop for itself cybernetic, semi-organic bodies, using human beings
as its primary energy source. The machines were solar-powered, but the
human-engineered holocaust blocked out the sun. To this end, human beings
were
enslaved. They were put into a deep sleep, and a collective dream was
engendered to keep them tractable and docile, like babies in their cribs,
while their vital life force was sucked from them. Humans are bred and
raised directly into these incubators, and fed intravenously with the
liquefied remains of the dead.
The collective dream that was engineered to keep humanity docile is life
on Earth, circa 1999, and this is “the Matrix.” Within the Matrix, however,
there exist certain possibilities for escape, and this is where Morpheus and
his crew come in. They are the “awakened” who have made it out of the
computer-simulated fantasy grid and liberated their bodies from the energy
farms in “the real world”. As a result of liberating their bodies, these
Illuminati were able to enter the Matrix, or dream world, at will, and
function therein with superhuman potential. For example, any knowledge,
information or training required could simply be downloaded, on the spot,
directly into their consciousness by computer. On top of this, they have a
contact line to their associates up in the real world, like gods or guardian
angels, which can monitor and direct the agents’ operations within the
Matrix, providing them with a god-like omniscience.
Despite such apparently superhuman abilities to navigate the Matrix,
the “resistance” fighters are at a profound disadvantage when it comes to
facing off the sinister men in black. These men in black are “in fact”
concentrated AI
projected energy fields sent by the Matrix into the Matrix to maintain a hold
over its reality program. To this end, these agents hunt down and eradicate
all potential “dissidents”, those Illuminati counter agents hell-bent on
disrupting the Matrix’s spell, and on breaking down reality as we know it.
While Morpheus’ crew can leap improbable distances, sustain an inhuman
amount of damage, take out SWAT teams single-handedly, and so forth, they are
not actually (officially) superhuman. They can bend, and even break, some of
the rules of the Matrix, but not all of them. They cannot simply override
its tyranny and assume their godlike status as holograms within a hologram,
because only “the One” can do this. At present they are all still restricted
by the confines of their minds, still working to eradicate the old program
imposed upon them by AI. Hence Morpheus’ training of Thomas, now Neo, the
One, or Eon, is centered around “freeing his mind,” or making him realize
that he is not in fact restricted by the laws of the body at all, but only by
his belief in such. As a rather hokey but touching child-Buddha spoon-bender
explains to Neo, “Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead
. . . only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you’ll see
that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.”
The AI “agents,” though still subject to the laws of the Matrix, are not
restricted by the same beliefs that dog the humans. They are able to
shape-shift,
and perform other miraculous feats, yet even these are within certain
apparent limits. Obviously, the Matrix must sustain, keep constant, its
reality mirage, otherwise the sleepers will start to awaken. So these agents
must move subtly, within restraints, and at least appear to be human.
Although the Matrix can change anything it wants within the game, it still
has to deal with the living, individual consciousness that it has enslaved
there. None of this is explained in the movie, but it seems fair to deduce
that the Matrix is limited, despite being the creator of reality; and also
that there is presumably some reason for this limitation.
Neo, as the One, is expected to turn the tide in favor of the human
uprising, the “awakening,” by shifting the balance, by making the leap, both
literally and metaphorically, from game player to game master, from ordinary
man to shaman. And this of course he accomplishes. What’s so satisfying
about the movie is that in the end, despite its reliance on violence and
destruction, it is the power of the imagination that wins the day. Once Neo
reaches a certain realization he is able to simply stop the bullets with his
mind, since they don’t exist in the first place, and to project himself into
the (holographic) body of the Enemy and explode it from within. The movie
ends with Neo warning the AI through the telephone what is in store for the
future. The ending really makes way for a sequel, which I hope, will be just
as good.
The main characters in this movie are Morpheus, Trinity, Thomas Anderson
(Neo), Agent Smith, and Cypher. Morpheus is the leader of the resistance and
the commander of the Nebuchadnezzar, the ship they use in the real world. He
has been told by the oracle that he would find the one. He believes he has
with Neo. Morpheus helps Neo with his training and helps him get over the
fear of being the one. Morpheus is like the father figure of the good guys
and most of them would risk their lives for him.
Trinity is the second in command of the “Neb.” She is the first to
approach Neo online and in person. Originally she was a hacker who managed
to crack the IRS database before being freed from the Matrix. Trinity is
also told by the Oracle that she will fall in love with “The One”, which she
did. Trinity played an important role in freeing Morpheus.
Agent smith is the head program sent by the matrix to keep everything
under control. His job is to stop the Resistance and break into the
mainframe computers of Zion, the last human city, to destroy it. Agent Smith
is the best fighting thing in the matrix except, for of course Neo.
Cypher is one of the crew helping Morpheus, but the only one who
doesn’t want to keep fighting against the agents. He makes a deal with the
Agents to set up Morpheus and gang, in exchange for him to be hooked back up
to the matrix
Neo is a computer programmer by day and high-tech hacker by night. He
is what Morpheus and Trinity believe is “The One”, the man who will bring
about the salvation of the human race. Neo doesn’t disappoint, after going
through most of the movie thinking he wasn’t the one, he finally realizes he
is, in a very butt-kicking way.
This is the best movie I have ever seen, it’s even beyond “The Dark
Crystal” and “Willow”. This movie also had the weirdest and most thought
provoking plot. I remember thinking after seeing “The Sixth Sense,” ” there
will never be a movie like that”. Well I was wrong, very wrong. During “The
Matrix,” if you were listening you were lost. The movie put so much stuff on
you, but it was easy to understand.
Another thing I like about this movie is it’s strong connotation to the
Bible. Take the names Trinity and Nebuchadnezzar. Also look at main idea of
the movie. The chosen one comes to free his people free his people from
slavery. You could go on and on about it but I’ll stop there. There is so
much to say about this movie. This movie has better fight scenes than a
Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan
movie, and also has a more interesting plot than “The Sixth Sense” or “The
X-Files”. Even my sister, a diehard X-Files fan, said it was no match for
The Matrix. The only negative things I’ve heard about the movie is it’s hard
to understand. I ask these people why it’s so hard when it’s all explain in
the movie, and they say it was so confusing to watch so they cut it off. I
say to these people just watch the movie and you too will want to join a
kung-fu class and talking for months about the fight scenes and the plot of
this movie, just because of watching this movie. I give “The Matrix” a
perfect 10. It’s not just a movie; it’s an experience.