Critical review - Essay Example

Fundamentally, the film is about the fight of a group of rag tag individuals who are trying to free the future human race from machine enslavement. The machines have created a virtual world known as the matrix in which the humans live, breath and die while their bodies in the real world are used to provide heat to the machines which allows them to operate since the sun has been blacked out. While this could be seen as the typical Hollywood sci-fi action fare, there is a deeper meaning to the film that can be quite thought provoking to explore.

This deeper meaning comes from the idea of living in a world which is being controlled by some other entity. This entity seems to be a mechanized reflection of Descartes’ evil deity which controls everything including the experiences and lives of the people who are connected to the matrix without knowing about it. The beauty of the film can be analyzed in terms of its visual presentation, cinematographic genius, unique camera angles, sharp dialog and even the special effects used in the film, it is essentially the very idea of the matrix which makes it a winner.

While watching the film, it is easy to question our understanding of reality, truth and fiction as well as perceptions themselves since the matrix is shown to contain nothing except virtual elements of the real world. However, the sense of thrill and danger is maintained since a person can be hurt in the matrix with bodily blows and even be killed while s/he is in the matrix if hit by bullets or other projectile weapons. More interesting than the representation of humans is the representation of the machine which includes monstrous hunters that are trying to locate the rebels in the real world.

Within the matrix, the mind of the machine takes the shape of agents of the matrix such as Agent Smith. The hero of the film starts off as being Mr. Anderson