IMDb Rating:8.7/10
My Rating:4.5/5
Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer, is led to fight an underground war against powerful computers who have constructed his entire reality with a system called the Matrix.
Initial release: 31 March 1999 (Canada)
Box office: 46.53 crores USD
Cast:
Keanu Reeves......Neo
Carrie-Anne Moss.......Trinity
Hugo Weaving......Agent Smith
Gloria Foster.......Oracle
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Science-Fiction, Adventure
Running Time: 136 minutes
"The Matrix" according to me is a dazzling portrayal of cyber-adventure and an alternate reality other than what we know. It portrays a world dominated by machines where none of our reality is what it seems like. It makes you wonder whether we are all a part of a matrix system and the mistakes and wrongdoings are nothing more than a glitch in the matrix.
It is full of kinetic excitement, but it retreats to formula just when it's getting interesting. It's kind of a letdown when a movie begins by redefining the nature of reality, and ends with a shoot-out. "The Matrix" recycles the premises of "Dark City" and "Strange Days," turns up the heat and the volume, and borrows the gravity-defying choreography of typical action movies. It could have been more fun as the setup was intriguing.
Reality is virtual reality, a monstrous programme called The Matrix generated by an evil empire of man-built artificial intelligences who rule the dystopian horror of the real world. Mankind's entire existence is being hardwired directly into human brains, while the machines imprison them in womb-like pods, tapping their neural cortex for battery power.There is, though, a band of rebels who have broken free and are intent on liberating humanity from their unsuspected bondage by downloading themselves into the manufactured dreamworld. They need a leader, and enter, Thomas "Neo" Anderson-the archetypal reluctant hero who may, if he can be convinced, have just the ability to undo The Matrix. Arrayed against them are the Agents, who look like Blues Brothers. The movie's battles take place in Virtual Reality; the heroes' minds are plugged into the combat. (You can still get killed, though: "The body cannot live without the mind"). The Agents function primarily as opponents in a high-stakes computer game.
"Matrix" is more like a superhero comic book in which the fate of the world comes down to a titanic fist-fight between the designated representatives of good and evil. Let's assume Neo wins. What happens then to the billions who have just been "unplugged" from the Matrix? Do they still have jobs? Homes? Identities? All we get is an enigmatic voice-over exhortation at the movie's end. The paradox is that the Matrix world apparently resembles in every respect the pre-Matrix world.
Reeves' character's full name is Thomas "Neo" Anderson — Thomas as in Doubting Thomas; Anderson means "son of man"; Neo means "new" or "change" and is an anagram of "One". Then there is the rebel team as disciples and the fact that Neo "dies" for 72 seconds on screen (translate that into 72 hours and it's three days) before being born again by the power of Trinity (Anne Moss)'s love. Hogwash, perhaps, but it grants The Matrix a measure of analysis that is hard to deny.
All in all, The Matrix is a great watch if you can handle the notion of virtual reality, the unexplained paradox and have the ability to analyse the theme.