I often tell people that The Matrix is my favorite movie of all times because I think it is; It is really tough for a movie buff like me to be able to pin down that one top top film to call the best, but I think that The Matrix is it for me. So I guess that makes it a pretty big deal. Recently I decided I'd better watch it again so that I could take notes and officially answer why. The following is what I came up with.
First off, The Matrix (1999) was one of the first rated R movies I saw, so it carries all that nostalgic coolness for me, much like how many guys my age feel about Boondock Saints I think. It was a really awesome movie for a 13 year old. The effects are amazing and were really truly revolutionary at the time (Not to mention the sweet music accompanying the effects-- i.e. Rage Against the Machine). The fight scenes where Neo dodges bullets and kills off dozens of bad guys before the dust has time to settle were simply unprecedented and spellbinding. The blend of martial arts and high technology was a unique idea that turned out to be incredible. Plus, this is the role that Keanu Reeves was born to play-- he can be stoic/reflective/pensive without worrying about killing the mood of the movie.
But I like this movie for more reasons than its special effects and heavy metal; now that I am no longer 13 and have a deeper appreciation for the story and the meaning behind it. There is an easy general Christian interpretation for this movie, as my former camp director told us at the religious summer camp I attended in middle school. A few examples: Neo is trapped in a life that isn’t the one intended (like people who haven't been "saved" yet); believing in something more than this life and being freed and becoming incapable of dying (believing in Jesus will save you and give you everlasting life in Heaven); the difference between "being shown the path and walking it" (how it's up to a Christian to walk in the light once he/she's accepted the truth); ‘The One’ will be the savior of humanity. Etc. etc. You don't have to snoop too hard to see these big themes. You can certainly appreciate this movie if you do not buy this interpretation however.
Which leads me to the next reason why I am in love with this movie. There is also a philosophical side to this movie, which Adriano Palma, my Philosophy 101 professor, liked to bring up in class- it's called existentialism. Descartes said that there is no way to tell what our reality actually is—either we are living the way our mind perceives we are, or we are only minds/consciousnesses held within a fake reality or a dream world, under the control of some mad scientist, (or AI machines who want to harvest humans for the electricity their bodies produce). How can we really know that what we perceive around us in our day-to-day lives is reality? Maybe we can't. We can only know that we think (I think, therefore I am/ I exist). The Wachowski Brothers went deep.
The deepness does not stop there, however. The Matrix also questions fate and whether or not we can control our own lives (i.e. the vase scene that represents how Neo cannot escape his own destiny of becoming The One, just like we can't control ours). Whether you agree or not, it's very Oedipus/Minority Report and is stimulating to contemplate. The movie also brings up the power and mystery of love (how nobody can tell you you’re in love, you just know it and how Trinity saves Neo at the end by confessing her love for him etc. etc).
It doesn't hurt that The Matrix is superbly written. It is gripping and the suspense builds as the truth of the Matrix unravels. There's a perfect natural draw towards rooting for Neo; I suppose we all can identify with the desire to be transformed from a cubicle-bound nobody into "The One." Now, Roger Ebert, my favorite professional movie critic, decries the so-called "cliched" 3rd-act fight sequence as a shame (here), but I think that it's one of the best parts of the movie. I can't see any other way to end the story than have Neo fight and defeat the agents, who represent the evil and cold-heartedness of the machines behind the Matrix. It's the fight between good and evil and you can't write your way around that.
Alas finally, I was drawn to The Matrix because of its post-apocalyptic setting and because of its ominous warnings about the dangers of AI. I have become sort of obsessed recently with Apocalypse stories recently considering they're hard to ignore these days. Although I don't believe we're anywhere near achieving AI, we do have reason to question its merits. Funny enough, my religious camp leader and philosophy professor both said that the Wachowski brothers probably didn’t intend for their movie to bring up either the Christian or Descartes’ point of view. But I have a feeling that they knew exactly what they were writing. They knew it was going to be way more than just a summer action blockbuster. And I dig it.
