The Matrix Movie Review

The Matrix is a science fiction cyberpunk film that really makes you think.  It hooks into the feeling that many people have that there is something is wrong with the world, and rides that for all its worth.  In the end I left this movie questioning whether the reality I had lived my whole life in was in fact reality at all.  To be honest I am still not sure, but if this is not reality I do not have a way out like the characters in the film so the point is moot.

The first part of this movie is a new take on Plato's allegory of the cave.  The main character, Neo, and the whole world he lives in exist in the cave.  The first part of the story is his journey out of the cave and into the real world with the help of hacker/freedom fighter Morpheous.  The science fiction cyberpunk twist to this is that the cave is a giant MMO of modern life that everyone is neurally jacked into.

The harsh reality outside the cave is that most of humanity has been enslaved as biological energy sources for the AI's we made in the distant past.  It turns out that Neo's savior's think that he is in fact their savior.  The rest of the movie is Neo finding the answer to the question "Is he this savior figure that his new companions believe him to be?".  In the end the answer is complex.  For most of the movie Neo is not the savior, but during all of that time he is on the journey to becoming what everyone thinks he is.  It turns out that the biggest challenge he must face is within himself.

Apart from all of the philosophy hidden in this movie it is also a great action adventure film.  The people who are freed from the matrix and come back are granted powers based on their knowledge that the reality they see around them does not have set rules.  They can push themselves harder and do amazing things, but if they die in matrix their mind self destructs because it accepts the lie of death.  They have adversaries in the form of system agents (who look like secret service), and the conflict between the hackers/freedom fighters and the system agents frames and goads Neo's inner conflict.

In the end this is a great movie that causes you to really think about what reality is, and on the limitations we as humans put on ourselves that may not have any basis.

This movie can be purchased on disk or as a digital stream for rent or purchase at www.amazon.com.