Free Your Mind
Welcome back to another edition of Adam's Reviews!! **queue intro music**
Happy New Year and why not start off with a bang!!
Have you ever had a dream that you were so sure was real? What if you couldn't awaken? What if you felt like the real world was a dream world? How would you know the difference between what is reality and what is a dream?
Tonight's movie flick is The Matrix (1999), starring the coolest of cool dudes Keanu Reeves who stars as computer hacker Thomas A. Anderson who later becomes Neo. This science fiction cyberpunk phenomenon film also stars the great Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, Neo's mentor and guide, the awesome Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, the stranger who leads Neo into a forbidding underworld and Hugo Weaving as an extremely strong Sci-Fi villain as the cold, sociopathic AI Villain Agent Smith.
Writing a review of The Matrix is a very hard thing for me to do because this film means a lot to me, it will be always in my top 10 films of all time. So, I need to do the film justice by sharing my opinion or in this case writing a review on why this movie is so good. I watched this movie when it came out in 1999, I was in grade 6 and was wowed by the world the movie invited me along. The Matrix to me is one of the most visually stunning films I had ever seen in my life. The movie felt like I was reading a great comic book where I got to watch a transitional element of a character who was this desk slave suit and ended become a kickass messiah.
It wasn't until sometime later, after watching it numerous times and owning the movie on different platforms (DVD, Blu-Ray), I started to think about the film and recognized the philosophical and religious elements of the story. With every viewing I saw something I didn't see the previous time and soon understood the deeper meaning of the story.
The film draws on the Messiah myth, as Neo is a clear reference to Jesus with the analogy of his name Neo = one, which in the film is known as The One who is to enslave humans. Another hidden easter egg is when we meet first meet Neo a man calls him "You're my Saviour man. My own personal Jesus Christ."
Aside from the religious elements, the film also gets its inspiration from Plato's allegory of the Cave, where Plato explores the idea that the real world is an illusion and in The Matrix, it is human beings who live in an illusion and must free themselves from the world of appearances and return to free others.
The film also highlights the meaning behind the character The Oracle, which correlates with Socrates visiting the Oracle of Delphi where the Oracle provides cryptic messages and provides guidance to Socrates similar to how the Oracle in the movie provides guidance to Neo in particular showing him the Latin phrase Temet Nosce - Know Thyself. This relates how true wisdom lies in recognizing one's own ignorance.
Lewis Carroll's famous children's story Alice in Wonderland is referenced in the movie, the themes of questioning one's reality and identity, awakening from dreams and to have free thoughts. Neo serves as our Alice in the movies, following a referential white rabbit to discover a world beyond his own perceived reality. Both characters are insatiably curious, preferring a better world where there are no rules where anything is possible. Both come to reject the fantasy world, favouring reality, though through different means and thoughts. A key reference is the white rabbit tattoo which led Neo to Trinity and soon to Morpheus, who even refers to Alice in Wonderland when he gives Neo the choice between the red and blue pills: "If you take the red pill, you stay in wonderland and I will show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
And lastly, we have Jean Baudrillard's essay, Simulacra and Simulations, the book in which Neo keeps to hide his illegal software discs early on in the film. The book argues how objects that look as if they represent something else but have really created the reality they seem to refer to, in this case the culture we live in may be distracting us from the reality that we are being exploited by someone. These representations are described as simulations or imitations of reality, for example the simulations in The Matrix.
Going back to the movie, the movie is about Thomas A. Anderson who is living two lives, an average computer programmer, a nobody and by a hacker known as Neo. Neo has always questioned his reality, but the truth is far beyond his imagination. Neo finds himself targeted by the police when he is contacted by Morpheus, a legendary computer hacker branded a terrorist by the government. The film unmasks the truth and depicts a dystopia future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality called "the Matrix", created by sentient machines to subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. When Neo is unplugged from the lies, he is drawn into a rebellion against the machines.
This film has it all; great production sets similar to Blade Runner, you know dark and rainy. The best visual effects for example the interrogation scene between the agents and Mr Anderson's mouth and the sentinels. The awesome kung-fu and wire fu fight scenes; where Neo tells Morpheus "I know Kung-Fu" and soon fight in an absolute awesome fight sequence, the slow-motion "bullet-time" where we see Trinity doing her trade mark jumping into a high kick sequence in the beginning of the film, the gunfu sequence where Neo and Smith engage in a gun battle Western style, leather clothes, the topics around fate, choice, the story of love and lastly the late 90s metal and techno music, this includes Rage Against The Machine's song Wake Up.
The best acting to me is both Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving, both serve as a mentor and an antagonist in their respective roles and watch the transformation of Reeve's character Neo. Morpheus philosophical and hopefulness quotes hit the spot. With Weaving's performance, it is really something to watch him act as a sociopathic AI who can relate to some human traits like anger, sense of dread and hate. You can also see the correlation of Smith's character to Neo's (or as he was called earlier on Mr Anderson) work manager who has an issue like Smith of anyone who has an issue with structure and authority.
Overall 10/10 - a great movie and definitely in my top 10 of all time.
Welcome back to another edition of Adam's Reviews!! **queue intro music**
Happy New Year and why not start off with a bang!!
Have you ever had a dream that you were so sure was real? What if you couldn't awaken? What if you felt like the real world was a dream world? How would you know the difference between what is reality and what is a dream?
Tonight's movie flick is The Matrix (1999), starring the coolest of cool dudes Keanu Reeves who stars as computer hacker Thomas A. Anderson who later becomes Neo. This science fiction cyberpunk phenomenon film also stars the great Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, Neo's mentor and guide, the awesome Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, the stranger who leads Neo into a forbidding underworld and Hugo Weaving as an extremely strong Sci-Fi villain as the cold, sociopathic AI Villain Agent Smith.
Writing a review of The Matrix is a very hard thing for me to do because this film means a lot to me, it will be always in my top 10 films of all time. So, I need to do the film justice by sharing my opinion or in this case writing a review on why this movie is so good. I watched this movie when it came out in 1999, I was in grade 6 and was wowed by the world the movie invited me along. The Matrix to me is one of the most visually stunning films I had ever seen in my life. The movie felt like I was reading a great comic book where I got to watch a transitional element of a character who was this desk slave suit and ended become a kickass messiah.
It wasn't until sometime later, after watching it numerous times and owning the movie on different platforms (DVD, Blu-Ray), I started to think about the film and recognized the philosophical and religious elements of the story. With every viewing I saw something I didn't see the previous time and soon understood the deeper meaning of the story.
The film draws on the Messiah myth, as Neo is a clear reference to Jesus with the analogy of his name Neo = one, which in the film is known as The One who is to enslave humans. Another hidden easter egg is when we meet first meet Neo a man calls him "You're my Saviour man. My own personal Jesus Christ."
Aside from the religious elements, the film also gets its inspiration from Plato's allegory of the Cave, where Plato explores the idea that the real world is an illusion and in The Matrix, it is human beings who live in an illusion and must free themselves from the world of appearances and return to free others.
The film also highlights the meaning behind the character The Oracle, which correlates with Socrates visiting the Oracle of Delphi where the Oracle provides cryptic messages and provides guidance to Socrates similar to how the Oracle in the movie provides guidance to Neo in particular showing him the Latin phrase Temet Nosce - Know Thyself. This relates how true wisdom lies in recognizing one's own ignorance.
Lewis Carroll's famous children's story Alice in Wonderland is referenced in the movie, the themes of questioning one's reality and identity, awakening from dreams and to have free thoughts. Neo serves as our Alice in the movies, following a referential white rabbit to discover a world beyond his own perceived reality. Both characters are insatiably curious, preferring a better world where there are no rules where anything is possible. Both come to reject the fantasy world, favouring reality, though through different means and thoughts. A key reference is the white rabbit tattoo which led Neo to Trinity and soon to Morpheus, who even refers to Alice in Wonderland when he gives Neo the choice between the red and blue pills: "If you take the red pill, you stay in wonderland and I will show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
And lastly, we have Jean Baudrillard's essay, Simulacra and Simulations, the book in which Neo keeps to hide his illegal software discs early on in the film. The book argues how objects that look as if they represent something else but have really created the reality they seem to refer to, in this case the culture we live in may be distracting us from the reality that we are being exploited by someone. These representations are described as simulations or imitations of reality, for example the simulations in The Matrix.
Going back to the movie, the movie is about Thomas A. Anderson who is living two lives, an average computer programmer, a nobody and by a hacker known as Neo. Neo has always questioned his reality, but the truth is far beyond his imagination. Neo finds himself targeted by the police when he is contacted by Morpheus, a legendary computer hacker branded a terrorist by the government. The film unmasks the truth and depicts a dystopia future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality called "the Matrix", created by sentient machines to subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. When Neo is unplugged from the lies, he is drawn into a rebellion against the machines.
This film has it all; great production sets similar to Blade Runner, you know dark and rainy. The best visual effects for example the interrogation scene between the agents and Mr Anderson's mouth and the sentinels. The awesome kung-fu and wire fu fight scenes; where Neo tells Morpheus "I know Kung-Fu" and soon fight in an absolute awesome fight sequence, the slow-motion "bullet-time" where we see Trinity doing her trade mark jumping into a high kick sequence in the beginning of the film, the gunfu sequence where Neo and Smith engage in a gun battle Western style, leather clothes, the topics around fate, choice, the story of love and lastly the late 90s metal and techno music, this includes Rage Against The Machine's song Wake Up.
The best acting to me is both Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving, both serve as a mentor and an antagonist in their respective roles and watch the transformation of Reeve's character Neo. Morpheus philosophical and hopefulness quotes hit the spot. With Weaving's performance, it is really something to watch him act as a sociopathic AI who can relate to some human traits like anger, sense of dread and hate. You can also see the correlation of Smith's character to Neo's (or as he was called earlier on Mr Anderson) work manager who has an issue like Smith of anyone who has an issue with structure and authority.
Overall 10/10 - a great movie and definitely in my top 10 of all time.