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The Matrix Customer Reviews (25 - 27 of 132 Reviews)

Get the "Ultimate Matrix Collection" instead, It's cheaper and has more features.
Shortly following the DVD release of the first "Matrix" film, Warner Bros. used a smaller studio called Creative Design Art to make a specially designed package to help promote their incredibly successful movie. Their first result was this, the "Platinum Limited Edition DVD Collector's Set," which originally retailed for $79 (or close to that). In my opinion, even if you're a hardcore fan of the Matrix films, this packagejust isn't worth the money, It comes in a box about two-inches thick, which makes you think you're really getting your money's worth, but as soon as you open it up -- you become disappointed. Most of this packaging is taken up by a flimsy plastic tray that contains a 35mm celluloid film frame of with a nice blown-up photo. Then there are 8 "limited edition" lobby cards prints (which are really just postcard-sized stills from the movie), a full-sized poster, and the the same copy of the family you probably already own -- in the standard DVD keep-case (the cheapist kind of DVD packaging). All of the other extras mentioned in this package (full-length audio commentary, "Take The Red Pill" featurette) are the same features found in original DVD release. Although it's Out-Of-Print now, I've noticed you can get one used for around $20, which isn't too bad, but it's probably not even worth the effort if you already own the first movie on DVD.

Warner Bros. wasn't entirely pleased with the sales generated from the Platinum Limited Edition, so they asked Creative Design Art to create a more definitive version for consumers to buy. Their second project was "The Matrix / The Matrix Revisited (The Gold Edition)" which retailed for $100 (and can also be found on Amazon.com). The one advantage of this new package was that it also contained the just-released 163-minute behind-the-scenes DVD "The Matrix Revisited" along with the original movie, but it also has a few "carryovers" from Creative Design's last project (namely, the senitype image from the movie, and a 35mm film frame). The cheap plastic insert from before has now been replaced with a luxury fitted slipcase, and a 16-page commemorative book. But still, all of the features found on the same previously-released DVDs are found here. Aside from the packaging, there's no additional footage whatsoever, whether it's in the form of deleted scenes or bonus videos. The film frame doesn't even have "Dolby Digital" printed on it like it's supposed to, which means that it's not even a real frame of film (because that would cost the publisher money) -- it's just a cheap no-sound fabrication.

Eventually, Warner Bros. would release a definitive collection of their own instead of using a third-party, entitled "The Ultimate Matrix Collection" which is the 10-disc DVD box-set of all the movies and their corresponding "Revisited" features, plus more. Even better, you can get the ultimate collection for around $30 used on Amazon.com. Actual film frames are somewhat interesting, but if you don't really care about that kind of thing, then just get the "Ultimate Matrix Collection." You really do get a lot more for your money.

The NSTP (Non - Spatial Thinking Process) Theory
This film is great. It is great not because it is action-packed, but because it is very philosophical. If it leads to fundamental questions like `Is reality an illusion?', then it points to the NSTP (Non - Spatial Thinking Process) theory, the idea that space is a virtual reality, a form of non-spatial mind. So according to the theory not space and spatial entities but non-spatial feelings or states of consciousness are the real physical or material substance in the universe. And there is probably a central non-spatial program that controls or modulates these (human or any non-superhuman) feelings. This idea, a major part of the superultramodern science, is supposed to be a possible solution to most of the most challenging problems in modern science/philosophy, including the wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics. Though we live in a spatial matrix, in reality the universe has no geometry. See the film. And read the theory. It might change the way you look at the world and yourself.

Reality's Wonderland
The Matrix is one of those movies that is only as good as you make it. Analyzing just the bare bones story, we have nothing more than a pseudo-religious allegory, in which Christ (Neo) becomes resurrected in order to save mankind from an illusory reality, perhaps ushering mankind into some Platonic realm of true essences and Forms and souls--whatever you'd prefer to call it. But even when horrid stories attempt to become allegories, the fun of interpretation renders the movie watchable. For all intents and purposes, however, The Matrix is not a *bad* movie. It is not a great movie, either. But those viewers willing to put something into the movie are going to walk away with a much more satisfying movie-watching experience.

There is so much symbolism, so many implications, so much intended meaning to dispute here! What is reality? Morpheus can't even answer this, offering the tentative definition that it *can* be defined as electrical impulses in our brain. But that, of course, can't be correct--for then the Matrix is just as "real" as Neo's ultimate arrival in "wonderland". Indeed, it is funny that Morpheus would refer to his idea of reality as wonderland.

Who are the enemies? The machines seem more than simple robots. They are sentient beings, using humans in much the same way humans had intended to use them. While the viewers, being human, are tempted to see the inversion of this reality as the "right" one, it would still be, logically, just as immoral. If we are justified in enslaving sentient machines, then why are not sentient machines justified in enslaving sentient biological organisms? And then there are so many more questions! How do we determine whether a thing is a machine? The flying, superhuman Neo the viewer is looking up to and cheering for, after all, is nothing more than a digital representation, no more a "real person" than the agents he is fighting! And if the "reality" is to preferred to the simulation, why does the movie center on the simulation? We glorify the heroics of some digital representation, when the real Neo is strapped into a chair, or cowering on some crusty ship eating white sludge. The values we are expected to hold are actually inverted by the movie-watching experience, with its explicit endorsement of escapism in its fantasy realm, with its emphasis of the glory attained in the fantasy world rather than the harsh existence of Neo's reality.

And why accept the man/machine distinction, anyway? The agents are capable of emotion, as one snarls that humans are nothing more than a virus destroying the world. And the humans are little more than machines as well. They have SOCKETS in their arms and heads. Programs can be DOWNLOADED into their brains. After an intense session of downloading programs into Neo, the operator exclaims, "He's a machine." Ah, but if he is a machine, he is the enemy!

I could go on and on like this. I could tell you why Cypher is the real hero, and why Neo is an antichrist. I could explore the religious allegory with more detail. I could explore the philosophical implications, the metaphysical questions roused by the movie. But that would take up pages upon pages.

It should be obvious, then, that this decent movie is indeed worthy of four stars when one invests some effort in analyzing its themes and symbols. With an unbiased, "objective" viewing, it is a three star movie at best--but that's not the way I viewed it. The extra star is thus masturbatory, a reward not for the movie, but for the pseudo-intellectual fluff it allows me to spout after an analysis.

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