The first fifteen minutes where Trinity runs from the bad guys is great. The physical movements in the movie were cutting edge.

I liked the seemingly unique premise of the first, but it kinda got caught up in subsequent movies in the puzzlement and awe as Lost would later.

I had naively thought it captured the Idealism of Berkeley, replacing God with the Machines, and Schopenhauer’s fascination with the Maya veil of illusion. Only recently I realized it had deliberately borrowed from Baudrillard’s simulacrum and hyperreality ideas instead.

It is a metaphor for waking realization that things may not be as they seem embedded as we are in mass media crafted culture. That goes back to 1st generation Frankfurt School Critical Theory and much later Debord’s Spectacle which sorta parallels Baudrillard in a way. Again scales falling from eyes I suppose. For me the stepping away from god belief via atheism is such an outside the box experience.

But the matrix metaphor has been beaten to death and coopted into conspiracy theories (Icke) and the red pill metaphor has also been coopted and abused.

Still a cool movie. Animatrix had interesting shorts.

Also as an aside I would be tempted by steak over whatever sludge they were eating. I wonder if that dovetails with death denial function of religion or the social bonds and community aspect.

. . . there is no spoon

One of my favorite movies!