The Matrix is simultaneously a
philosophical model and a popular myth — a postmodern analogue to
both Plato’s cave and Homer’s
Odyssey, Descartes’
daemon and
Pilgrim’s Progress, the brains-in-vats
scenario and
Star Wars.
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C |
**½ |
-2|
Adults
Beyond that, unlike
Reloaded, which featured an
impressive but hardly groundbreaking freeway chase scene as its
biggest set piece,
Revolutions has startling new sights to
offer, notably a spectacular siege scene that recalls the first
act of
The Empire Strikes
Back with its Walker attack on the Hoth Rebel base. In
fact,
The Matrix Revolutions arguably had the potential to
be the
Empire Strikes Back to The Matrix’s
Star
Wars, had the Wachowskis not squandered that opportunity six
months ago with
Reloaded.
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C- |
**½ |
-3|
Adults*
Morpheus’s expository speech to Neo in the first film about
the history of the power behind the Matrix — particularly the bit
about the solar issue and the moment when he holds up the battery — is both the least persuasive and the least interesting thing
about the film. It’s a perfunctory plot-level explanation that
one accepts for the sake of the action and the hero’s journey,
not something one particularly cares about for its own sake.
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B |
***½ |
-3|
Adults*
Be that as it may, scratch the surface of the vast body of
commentary and discussion devoted to
The Matrix, and you
could start to get the impression that Morpheus’s comment is a
fairly accurate description of the film itself.
The Matrix
has been described as everything from a neo-gnostic parable to a
Christian allegory, from a strikingly innovative action film to a
derivative rip-off of kung-fu clichés and stock anime
conventions. Commentators have found influences from Plato and
Descartes, Lewis Carroll and
Star Wars. At the end of the day, can anyone really say what
The Matrix is?
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Four years after its release, the world of
The Matrix has been
greatly elaborated by a pair of sequels,
The Matrix Reloaded and
The Matrix
Revolutions. Given the intense philosophical and
religious scrutiny to which the original film has been subjected,
doubtless fans will be scrutinizing the new films to see what
light they shed on the first film, and how they themselves should
be viewed in light of the spiritual questions raised by the first
film.
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This level of interest is not primarily due to
The
Matrix’s visual innovations, such as its groundbreaking use
of bullet-time photography. Nor is it, for example, Keanu
Reeves’s acting that cries out for more critical discussion.
Rather, it’s the philosophical, spiritual, and moral implications
of this phenomenally popular action pic that are responsible for
all the attention.
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