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The Matrix: The Work of Masterminds

By Bethan Power · June 10, 2013

SPOILERS! ABSOLUTELY RIDDEN WITH SPOILERS!

Take a look at the world around you. Take in everything. The smells, the sights, the stack of washing up you will do tomorrow…every single thing. Think of your job, your family, your friends. Now entertain the thought that none of that is real. That it is simply an elaborate computer mainframe of manipulation, and you are actually lying hairless and marinated plugged in to a central power system—used literally as a human battery. “Woah” doesn’t even begin to cover it.

I first saw The Matrix when I was a moderately geeky teenager who liked textbooks a little too much and listened to rock music because “it’s the coolest” but in the privacy of my own bedroom cracked out my CD of Chopin and played along on my flute. I was a kid on the fringes of true geekdom who just about managed to stay socially acceptable by being just weird enough to be entertaining rather than scary. And I loved every second of that film. The concept, the hero’s journey, the downright freaky villain, the kick-ass sidekicks, I lapped up the lot. And, though it shames me slightly to admit it now, I spent several weeks after seeing it contemplating actuality and debating as to how I could prove I existed to myself. Not only that, but (as many others did I’m sure) I considered myself to be a ‘Neo’ and to be a special chosen one who could show the world what was really happening and in doing so free humanity from slavery in true ninja-kicking-gun-wielding-bullet-time-pirouetting-style.

Needless to say, the present day moderately geeky me has read more textbooks and had more life experience and the doubts about reality have ceased. But this doesn’t make the Wachowski Brothers achievement any lesser. The Matrix combines elements of Alien, Men in Black, Star Trek, Terminator and Total Recall and adds a dose of individuality along with the fantastically sinister performance of Hugo Weaving as villainous Agent Smith and creates a film that questions everything and actually makes you believe it. It’s the ultimate conspiracy tape. And what is really clever is that even though it is a high concept big budget action sci fi noir thriller, when Morpheus lets Neo in on the truth about the world, you feel in the grips of an intimate moment and believe he is talking to you. You are taken to that secret quiet room and you are sat in that armchair with those pills, and Morpheus is letting you and you alone in on the secret that the world does not exist. It’s powerful stuff. And you want to get your friends in on the secret. The film markets itself, especially though lines like Morpheus’: “No-one can explain The Matrix to you—you have to see it for yourself." What a wonderful line. I was half expecting him to seductively advertise a discount on popcorn in his next breath.

It’s the visuals, however, that makes this film the magnificent spectacle it is. The ‘bullet time’ sequences scattered throughout the film are beautifully crafted; involving the action (e.g., a jump) being performed and many still cameras positioned in a circle around the performer. The jump takes place and the cameras are set off, resulting in a collection of photographs of the same moment in time from all angles. These photographs are then arranged into the film footage to create an orbiting viewpoint of an action that is seemingly frozen in time. It is relatively cheap and simple to execute but if done well can be extremely effective, as the final fight sequences involving Trinity and Neo shows. Hats off to the CGI as well; the Agent Smiths morphing in and out of people is subtle and refined work that makes it all the more sinister. And the sheer fact that nearly all the CGI work revolves around real people than just digital imagery is a technical feat in itself.

And the story? Well it spoke to me. I judge a film in the simplest of terms as being a success or failure by the feeling of wanting to write when I leave the cinema. If I want to write, I have been inspired. And if I am inspired then it must be a good film. I most certainly wanted to write when I left after watching the Matrix, even if it was a news bulletin screaming THIS IS ALL A LIE! The point is that The Matrix appeals to that moderately geeky teenager I was and the geeky adult I have become. I identified with Neo the outsider and went on his journey with him. And not only me, so does anyone who did or does the “trying to fit in” thing. So do the people who try to conform when inside they feel something is not right and the world cannot accept them. In short Neo has youth en masse going on his journey with him. And once you have grown out of that, you have the philosophical undertones and the beautiful visuals to entertain you.

However, The Matrix is an iconic film and great success for one reason above all the others. Sure, it was a strong competitor against Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and many think (including myself) it had an immense edge over it. Sure it takes the idea of writing a film logline to the extreme with the ultimate “What If?” and crafting of a killer concept. Sure it has fancy camerawork. But what makes this film a true achievement is this:

I watched all the way through and I did not laugh, scoff at or scorn Keanu Reeves’ deplorable acting ability once. Not even a little bit. For that reason alone, this film rockets past a simple artistic achievement and becomes the work of masterminds.