I agree with most in that the Matrix is simply a movie and NOT a meaningful work about philosophy or religion. However, when compared to most action movies of the last decade or so, the Matrix brilliant. I too was put off a bit by how all of the marketing of the movie focused on explosions and fight scenes but in the movie they served to illustrate a point.
Neo, Morpheus, and many freed humans believed in this prophecy, given to them by the Oracle. The Oracle tells them to get the keymaker, keymaker tells them to get to the source, and so forth. So the whole movie has Neo and the others fighting the good fight for what they believe will bring them victory, but in all actuality they don't know what they are doing nor why they are doing it (something the Merovingian also tells them). Almost the entire movie is spent on this wild goose chase egged on by blind faith.
The blind faith of the humans in the Matrix has many real world parallels from religion to politics, where a group of people fights tooth and nail for a cause they don't understand, just because someone said so. In my mind it was almost a parody.
Hopefully the last Matrix will tie everything together in a meaningful manner. Still, its jus a movie, no major new philosophical or religious ideas are presented there.
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I agree with most in that the Matrix is simply a movie and NOT a meaningful work about philosophy or religion. However, when compared to most action movies of the last decade or so, the Matrix brilliant. I too was put off a bit by how all of the marketing of the movie focused on explosions and fight scenes but in the movie they served to illustrate a point. Neo, Morpheus, and many freed humans believed in this prophecy, given to them by the Oracle. The Oracle tells them to get the keymaker, keymaker tells them to get to the source, and so forth. So the whole movie has Neo and the others fighting the good fight for what they believe will bring them victory, but in all actuality they don't know what they are doing nor why they are doing it (something the Merovingian also tells them). Almost the entire movie is spent on this wild goose chase egged on by blind faith. The blind faith of the humans in the Matrix has many real world parallels from religion to politics, where a group of people fights tooth and nail for a cause they don't understand, just because someone said so. In my mind it was almost a parody. Hopefully the last Matrix will tie everything together in a meaningful manner. Still, its jus a movie, no major new philosophical or religious ideas are presented there.