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.