THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
You ever wondered that the world you live in may not be what it seems? Well The Matrix is a film that gives you a perspective to such an answer.
PLOT
The film takes place in what is presumably the year of 1999. The story follows Thomas Anderson/Neo, a computer salesman and hacker who is puzzled of repeated online encounters with the phrase, 'The Matrix'. When he goes out at a night bar, he meets a fellow hacker named Trinity, who can only tell him that he is in danger. The next day at work, he gets a call from a mysterious man named Morpheus who warns him that suited men will be coming for him. Uncomfortable with escaping, he turns himself over to him. Agent Smith tries to coerce Neo into helping them locate Morpheus, claiming that he's a terrorist. When he refuses to cooperate, they inject him with a probe bug. When he wakes up believing it to be a nightmare, he taken by Trinity to meet Morpheus, getting the probe removed along the way. Morpheus offers him a choice between two different pills: The red pill reveals the truth of the Matrix and the blue pill allows him to remain as he is in his life. He takes the red pill and his reality disintegrates, waking up in a liquid filed pod attached to an electrical system. He is found by Morpheus' crew, who claim that he is in the real world. As his body recuperates from a lifetime in of physical inactivity, he official meets Morpheus' team. Aside from Trinity, the rest include: Cypher, Tank, Apoc (Julian Arahanga), Mouse (Matt Doran), Switch (Belinda McClory) and Dozer (Anthony Ray Parker). Based on the amount of information he knows, Morpheus explains that humans have been in a war artificially intelligent machines that were created in the 21st century. When humans figured out how to darken the sky to cut off their solar power, the machines would capture humans to use their bioelectric energy as a power source. The Matrix is only a simulation of the world as it was in '99 and humans are kept docile. The agents are sentient programs that can move in and out of any software still hardwired to their system. While it's not clear how far into the future they are, Morpheus further explains that he and his crew are part of a rebellion to free humans from the Matrix and recruit them to join the fight against the machines. With their known hacking skills, they can re enter the simulation and manipulate the laws of physics, granting them superhuman abilities. He does train Neo to be skilled with what he can do, but he says that he picked him to help because he thinks he could be the one to end the war. When his training, he meets a prophet named Oracle, who predicted the One's emergence. During their conversation, she tells him that he eventually must make a choice between his life or that of Morpheus. After this, the rebels get ambushed by agents thanks to Cypher, who made a deal that he'd hand Morpheus to them in exchange of living comfortably in the Matrix. He does kill Dozer, Switch and Apoc but is stopped by Tank before he could slay the rest. Before Neo and Trinity return, Mouse gets killed by agents and Morpheus is apprehended by them. The agents interrogate him in attempt to learn access codes of Zion, the last human refuge. Neo and Trinity return to the Matrix heavily armed to rescue him. During this time, Neo learns to dodge bullets. When he gets ambushed by Smith, Morpheus and Trinity are the only ones able to return home. As that happens, their ship 'Nebuchadnezzar' gets attacked. Neo is able to kill Smith when he learns the power to perceive and control the matrix, proving himself to be the One. When he returns, Morpheus summons an electromagnetic pulse that kills a machine. The film ends with Neo giving a message to the machines, promising to show the imprisoned humans 'a world where anything is possible'.
THOUGHTS
During 2013, I got to see this film for the first time and it goes without saying, I was amazed of what I've seen and I am still to this day. The Wachowskis were able to put us in a perspective where anything is possible and our minds have no limits. This lore is interesting to experience because it symbolizes breaking free from control. So if you want to learn kung fu, be a skilled marksman, or even learn to fly, the choice is yours. The fact that only the mind and not the body can provide such power is incredible. Because of how it's imagination that defines its movie, the action scenes well edited and the bullet time visuals are outstanding to see, earning their Oscars for the respected categories (Film Editing, Visual Effects, and Sound Editing). The craziest thing about this film was how it predicted a society where people could plug in and lose yourself, seeing what you want to see and believing what you want to believe. In other words, it predicted the obsession of virtual reality. It also has us look at a personal choice: Should we accept a false reality where nothing can go wrong or be part of an imperfect world that is real? I think if you can make us question the decisions we make such as that, than you have my respect. Like any sci fi film, we couldn't be anymore blessed with a high caliber, diverse ensemble. Without argument, Keanu Reeves gives his best performance in his first outing as Neo. He is a hero that stands out from many because he is one who never sought out to be one. And during his time accepting reality, he realized that he couldn't do things until he believed it. As he goes through this new mission of self discovery, he lives up to his expectations only to exceed them short after. Laurence Fishburne is straight up magnetic as Morpheus as he portrays him to be the most inspirational. He lives up to that term when bringing the best out of Neo. While he wouldn't remain the strongest, that doesn't change him from being a stoic leader and a faithful person. Carrie Ann Moss was also great as Trinity for portraying her as a force of quiet intensity. When she does the crane pose in the opening, you know she will be difficult to put down. While it isn't clear here why she loves Neo other than that she was destined to, it comes to show utterly confident she is no matter what the scenario. Tank is an underrated character in this film because thanks to the performance by Marcus Chong, he brought such enthusiasm to the group and was able to make the training experience fun for Neo by starting with combat training. That was actually smart because he was able to see how far he could go with it. We only get one scene of Oracle, but Gloria Foster nails it as the figure of wisdom to our protagonists. The most important thing she taught Neo was that blind belief in yourself is sometimes what you need exactly. While the machines are the main villains, their underling Agent Smith does the heavy lifting. Hugo Weaving is at his most villainous for making the character smug yet methodical. He may not always show anger, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't fear him because his army of agents is right at his corner. Last but not least, Joe Pantoliano was purely fascinating as Cypher. You want to hate him because of how sadistic he was to portray the rebels. But in another perspective, his actions come from the fact that he never asked to be part of a rebellion. He may have taken the red pill, but it's not like he knew what to expect. His motive is relatable because not everyone has the same beliefs. Since he does pay for his crime through death, you can hope that he is in the reality he wants. This film is extraordinary for what it is, but even I can admit that it has a few issues. First off, the opening is pretty intense to see Trinity escape from agents after her call got traced, but how come she or Morpheus never drew suspicion over Cipher about it? Since they and their group are normally on alert, we should’ve seen them question him over it. I also can’t be the only one wondering how the agents keep their cover after doing impossible stunts in front of people. If they can erase memories, that should be acknowledged. And why did Smith stop the truck when he saw Trinity? Had he not stopped, he would’ve destroyed the phone booth before she ever got the chance to go home. I get that Trinity needs to find Neo to tell him about the Matrix, but why did it have to be at a club? If she couldn’t pose as a coworker at his job, than that should’ve been clear as well. Hell, she could’ve found him at a coffee shop to tell him. It’s even weirder that she chooses to mail him the phone at his work, when she could’ve gave it to him at the club. Neo makes a lot of dumb mistakes and the first one he does this whole movie is ask himself ‘Why me?’. He is a hacker and illegal software salesman. Even if the Matrix is imaginary, a crime is a crime and he should be aware that he is in somewhat of the wrong. If I were to pick on another thing about him, it’d be how he isn’t careful with the mini gun when shooting at the windows and the agents. Because of the sprinklers turning on, there is no way he paid attention to Morpheus and was lucky he didn’t shoot him on accident. I don’t want to call the lead protagonist an idiot, but he kind of was when needing help to escape in the climax and Morpheus points at the door, the only option he had to escape. I cannot grasp with the fact that he didn’t see that door before the call. Speaking of imaginary, why doesn’t he bleed when the probe goes through his belly button. If Trinity can bleed in the opening during her chase, than that thing should’ve made him a bloody mess like Alien. And not even an agent hears Morpheus put a hole in the wall when they were searching for him. They should’ve been caught if they made noise off of that. I wouldn’t believe you if you say they didn’t. What surprises me a lot of Cipher’s betrayal is how did he do it on his own? Someone is supposed to wake him up with a hard line, so how does he summon it without anyone awake? And how did no one wake up to see that he was in the Matrix, talking to an agent? I want to respect how skilled he is, but I’d appreciate it if I knew the ‘how’. Also, the deja vu scene makes no sense to me: Neo says it when he sees black cat glitches twice. Deja Vu only works when you do/see something that you haven’t done/seen in a long time. So this was an odd way to set up the next action scene. You want to talk about stupid continuity errors? I noticed Fishburne blink his eyes when Pantoliano says ‘Pill’. They really couldn’t use another take for that? I mean come on, man. Other than that, this will continue to be an extraordinary sci fi experience. To close it, The Matrix is and always will be a fantastic film for its mind bending originality. If you want a movie to take you places you’ve never been, see this now.
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