I recently went through a spell where I thought "The Matrix" might just be the most overrated movie of all time. Then I started watching it again the other day, and here I am doing that whole "rethinking" thing that I'm so famous for.

The Matrix is about the future. It's about the real world. It's about thinking versus knowing. It's about existing. It's about dreams. It's about deja vu. It's about Artificial Intelligence. It's about freeing your mind. As the old saying goes, there's a place for everything, and everything in its place.

Mr. Anderson (Keanu Reeves) spends a typical day getting up, going to work, playing around on the computer. What he doesn't realize is that he is part of a world that has been pulled over his eyes to obscure the truth. One day, he starts seeing weird things happen. On his computer, he gets a message that says Follow the white rabbit. Then another that says Knock knock. Bam, there's someone at his door, a group of customers, one with a white rabbit for a tattoo. Is there really a good explanation for all of this (aside from the obvious cop-out of THEM being the ones that sent him the computer messages)? You better believe it.

Trinity (Carrie Anne-Moss) turns out to be the one who has been contacting Mr. Anderson on his computer. She's basically your short-haired chick in leather with unparalleled fighting prowess and a serious attitude. She's not the kind you would want to p!ss off, that's for sure. She has a pleasantly soft voice, and often tosses out a nugget of important information in the most nonchalant, monotonic way. It only makes her seem all the more real in that she is not spoon feeding the audience with the details, but just blurting it out as though it's nothing, as though she's already used to it. Just as her character should be. She's perfect for the role.

The chemistry between Neo (Mr. Anderson's alias) and Trinity is actually more decent than I remembered it being. The thing is that this is not a typical love story where you sit down with someone and talk about what you like to do with your spare time, what music you listen to, or your high school biology teacher who used to pick his nose. It's just two people working together through tough times. It's probably not going to make you cry, but it's not completely heartless, either. They say true love is not gazing at each other, but gazing outward in the same direction. That's Trinity and Neo for ya.

You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth.

Aside from the two leading roles, we have the wise old man Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who guides Neo on his journey to "save the world". (Fortunately, this "save the world" quest undertaken by Neo is nowhere near as in-your-face about it as something like ID4 is.) Morpheus is like a softer-faced version of Samuel L. Jackson (with or without shades) who seems more built for football than for jujitsu. However his fighting scenes are every bit as deftly choreographed as any of the others.

There are also some noteworthy performances on the side, with Joe Pantoliano playing a frustrated middle-aged guy called Cypher, Marcus Chong, another fellow in the real real world who helps train Neo and has an excellent smile, and Gloria Foster who plays the all-seeing, all-knowing Oracle who smokes.

Come on! Stop trying to hit me and hit me!

Lightsaber battles are spiritual; Crouching Tiger battles are hasty; Matrix battles are just mind-boggling. Agents punch straight through brick walls and concrete with their bare hands, Keanu Reeves guns down two guys in the midst of a somersault, and as we all know, Carrie-Anne Moss pauses in the middle of a jump kick so you can check out her sweltering leather pants from all angles.

Some of these fights look so real, it's unbelievable. The fight between Morpheus and Agent Smith in the abandoned house is a perfect example. It's a dusty old place, and once the two have been thrown to the floor or against the walls a few times, you can see the dust fly off of their bodies when they hit or kick each other.

You've been living in a dream world, Neo

Then there's the whole thing about the world not being real. I think it's safe enough to say that if the world really is fake, that this is one hypothetical way in which it could be so. As far as I can tell, it's the most convincing theory yet. Again, it really all depends on the few-turrrre... Well, that's the way Agent Smith would say it. The Matrix doesn't rely so much on a plot as much as it does its own hypothetical situation in which "these are the bad guys and this is what they are trying to do, and we have to stop them."

Being free is of infinite or no value when there's nothing left to be free from

Humans can talk all they want about being truly free. But there are still rules that we can't break... if we jump up, we will fall back down. If we go on for long enough, we get exhausted. And there's no way you can dodge bullets, punch through concrete walls or learn to fly a helicopter in five seconds. There are some ways in which we are not free that we choose to accept, probably just because these rules are not imposed by a human being and therefore they are unbreakable. The Matrix says to hell with all of that, and focuses on an absolute freedom. The freedom of the mind. The freedom from everything.

"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. When you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, the very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they would fight to protect it."



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12