A Comprehensive Analysis of The Matrix: Genre, Commentary, and Impact

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the film 'The Matrix', examining it as a prime example of science fiction genre film. It begins by defining the concept of genre and its key elements, then offers a brief overview of the film's plot, which revolves around Neo, a hacker who discovers the reality of the Matrix. The essay then delves into the characteristics of the science fiction genre, highlighting themes such as futuristic settings, advanced technology, and social commentary, all of which are present in 'The Matrix.' It discusses the film's use of innovative filmmaking techniques like 'bullet time' and its darker color tones to reflect social conditions. The essay further explores the film's social commentary, particularly its dystopian elements and its commentary on freedom, gender identity, and the nature of reality. It references the film's influence on other science fiction films and concludes by emphasizing the film's complexity, its personal and hopeful tone, and its lasting impact as a cult classic. The essay also references the film's connection to the internet's role in social transformation. The essay uses references from various scholarly articles to support its arguments.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
Analysis Of The Matrix
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1ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
The term genres come from a French word which means “kind”, “type” or category.
So genre is referred to as various forms of categories groups of films or classification (Lash
& Zhao,2016). The paper focuses on analyzing a film as a piece of genre fiction and provide
examples of the social commentary used in the film. The chosen film for this paper is “ The
Matrix” which was directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski and released in the
year 1999. The film is a masterpiece and was termed to be ahead of its time. The film has
influenced many future blockbuster films. The following section of the paper firstly shed
light on the concept of genre and will give a brief idea about the plot of the film “the matrix”.
The later section of the paper will analyse the film with relevant examples from the film. The
Matrix is a science fiction film which provides social commentary by masking in the genre.
In simple term, the genre is used to categorize movies. Categorizing a movie makes it
easy for the viewer to discover what they like and eventually want to watch. A genre usually
consists of four parts or elements, namely story or Action, Plot, Setting and Character
(Simões et al. 2016). It is a way for film-makers or producers to structure or cast the
narratives in a defined framework so that it can satisfy the audience (Ghaemmaghami et al.
2015). However, genre films also had some problem; for instance, it can become cliche or
stale. There are ample amount of films which do not fit the genre and are termed as hybrids.
The plot of the Matrix which was released in 1999 revolves around a man named
Thomas Anderson who lives a duel life. During the day he is a computer programmer while
in the night he turns Neo who is a hacker. He is inquisitive about the reality, and one day he
finds himself to be targeted by the police on the instruction of Morpheus who is branded a
terrorist and a computer hacker. Morpheus make aware of the situation of artificial reality by
introducing him to the concept of Matrix. The goal of Neo is returning to the Matrix so that
he can confront the agents.

2ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
One of the creative genres of film is science fiction. The genre is characterized by
hypothetical and science-based themes which are incorporated in the plot of the film. This
genre is symbolized by futuristic element as well as technologies so that it can explore
political, philosophical and social issues (Lempert, 2014). The science fiction film is
generally set into the future on earth or space. Science fiction is also synonymous with the
incorporation of advanced technology.
One of the common traits of the science fiction film is the idea of pessimism which
has eventually cultivated into two zones one that the people are living in squalor and the
humans are only responsible for. This trait is present in the Matrix as pessimism about the
future is always recurring in the film (Ford, 2016). Another recurring thing which is a
common characteristic of the film is technologies augment humanoid or humans so that they
can make ways to make them more useful to combat them. This theme is pretty much evident
in the film “The Matrix” where human beings can do extraordinary works because their mind
only limits humans (Haslam, 2015).
Sciencefiction/action films aim to meet a twin purpose firstly it is produced to
entertain the audience with intense and high-speed intense combat. Secondly, it talks about
the future and shed light on the social condition of that time. In the movie ‘the matrix, this is
achieved through the “bullet time”. One of the most iconic scenes in the movie is the slow-
motion bullet dodging of Kaene Reeve. This happens when the camera flies whooshes around
Kaene Reeve. This is one of the filmmaking technique which has required the Wachowskis
the bill pope the director of photography to tale numerous shot from a 360-degree angle. This
was due to its execution went on to become a game-changer and was incorporated in many
future science fiction stories (Žižek, 2006). The motive of the director was to show what
could be the future like once artificial intelligence is used to solve the difficulty with humans.

3ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
The central theme of science fiction movie is the using of darker and moodier colour
tone in the movie, which can reflect the more science realm intertwined with the social
condition of the century (Baker 2016). However, ‘The Matrix’ was the first to introduce this
treatment in the movie, which was used in a significant blockbuster like children of men or
the hunger games. After the 9/11 attack on the U.S. to reflect the lack of comfort and loss of
innocence that defined the twenty-first century (Ndalianis, 2015).
The science fiction genre of the films has been made to serve as a significant means of
discussion issues which are topical and sensitive however without arousing controversy.
Often this film provides social commentary which is thoughtful on the possible unanticipated
future issues (D’Olimpio, 2015). A more in-depth examination, as well as reflection of ideas,
are put forward as the setting is fictional. The film is with the notion that the audience is
viewing remote events. In science fiction films most of the controversial issues are generally
tend to fall in two storylines firstly Utopian and secondly Dystopian (Wąs, 2018). It is
because of the presence of controversy, and mostly science fiction falls into the dystopian
category rather than utopian category. The film supports the idea of freedom; however, there
are different interpretations by different people about the same. This interpretation allows the
motion picture to be embraced by far-right as well as the transgender community. Neo learns
the defining quality that “there is no spoon” which means that one needs to bends yourself so
that people can accommodate different perspective simultaneously.
Generally, films are looked into two ways the first one is that the world as known is a
lie and secondly the world as a changeable entity. The first notion is narrowed and
pessimistic as well however it explains the concept of “red-pilling” which was a popular
concept. The concept of ‘red pill’ signifying the unpleasant knowledge as well cruel truths of
everyday life while taking a blue pill involves ignorance.

4ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
The Matrix by the Wachowskis have a reference of gender transition, and the film
seems to provide a reference to the upcoming social evolution. The film critique has termed
the film as a trans allegory repeatedly beside the readings refer to the possibility for the
humans to describe them in whichever way they like outside the enforced fixed identities
given by the machines (Ford, 2016). Every time Agent Smith grimaces “Mr.Anderson”, it
seems to be manacing taunt, agents refusal to permit Neo to unstrap himself from the clutches
of the matrix to discover whom he is proved the point. This concept goes far beyond red-
pilling which grows more like an authoritarian gesture of instructing someone to be really
who they are.
In the last line of the movie, Morpheus gives a piece of advice to Neo and says “
There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path” which resembles more
like the kung-fu theatre however the movie has a philosophical gift that Wachowskis are
gifting the viewer a philosophical gift.
Therefore from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the scale of the film is
immense and complex. The film is very different from the technophobic films of the future as
it seems to be personal and hopeful. Though Neo is shaken by knowing about the falsehood
and dystopia of the world however there is also a way where he can become himself. The
contribution of the internet in achieving this transformation is remarkable. The film “ The
Matrix” as observed from the above discussion is a film which was ahead of its type and a
cult science fiction film. The film fulfils all the criteria of the science fiction film and has, in
fact, influenced many science fiction genres. The film is also filled with a relevant social
commentary which is significant even today.

5ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
References
Baker, G. (2016). Portraying the Quest for Buddhist Wisdom?: A Comparative Study of The
Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Journal of Religion & Film, 10(1), 3.
D’Olimpio, L. (2015). Thoughts on film: Critically engaging with both Adorno and
Benjamin. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47(6), 622-637.
Ford, J. L. (2016). Buddhism, Christianity, and The Matrix: the dialectic of myth-making in
contemporary cinema. Journal of Religion & Film, 4(2), 1.
Ghaemmaghami, P., Abadi, M. K., Kia, S. M., Avesani, P., & Sebe, N. (2015, September).
Movie genre classification by exploiting MEG brain signals. In International
Conference on Image Analysis and Processing (pp. 683-693). Springer, Cham.
Haslam, J. (2015). Coded Discourse: Romancing the (Electronic) Shadow in The Matrix.
In Gender, Race, and American Science Fiction (pp. 146-172). Routledge.
Lash, M. T., & Zhao, K. (2016). Early predictions of movie success: The who, what, and
when of profitability. Journal of Management Information Systems, 33(3), 874-903.
Lempert, W. (2014). Decolonizing encounters of the third kind: Alternative futuring in native
science fiction film. Visual Anthropology Review, 30(2), 164-176.
Ndalianis, A. (2015). Genre, culture and the semiosphere: New Horror cinema and post-
9/11. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(1), 135-151.
Simões, G. S., Wehrmann, J., Barros, R. C., & Ruiz, D. D. (2016, July). Movie genre
classification with convolutional neural networks. In 2016 International Joint
Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN) (pp. 259-266). IEEE.

6ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
Wąs, C. (2018). The Tannhäuser Gate. Architecture in science fiction films of the second half
of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century as a component of utopian and
dystopian projections of the future.
Žižek, S. (2006). The matrix, or, the two sides of perversion. In The International Handbook
of Virtual Learning Environments (pp. 1549-1569). Springer, Dordrecht.