The Matrix: Summary And Review

The Matrix by Joshua Clover delves beeper into the film The Matrix, released in 1999. He sheds light on different aspects of the film which one might not focus on. I found this book to be very interesting and it did help me to understand the movie better.

The first chapter begins talking about the main character Neo who is played by Keanu Reeves. Neo Has found that what he had perceived to be real has actually been a simulation the entire time. Next we are introduced to a character named Cypher who is played by Joe Pantoliano. He explains that the series of code that appear in the Matrix no longer look like code to him but actual images. Clover draws an analogy to the film The Truman show, which I have seen, and how these characters are basically in an alternate reality. What these characters see can’t be taken for face value. He also uses the films Dark City and The Thirteenth Floor to shed some light on The Matrix. Clover calls the moment when the main character is able to distinguish that the simulation that they see isn’t infinite reality, The Edge of the Construct. The chapter goes on further to explain what The Matrix actually is; “the war between man and machine, and the possibility that reality is a hoax.”

It was a twenty second scene and three seconds of the scene special effects known as “bullet time” were used. Another technique that was used was wire-fighting. Clover states that the movie is about its digital effects. One part of this chapter that I found interesting is where Clover compares The Matrix to video games. He explains how The Matrix is similar in some scenes to famous fighting games such as Mortal Kombat. This can be noticed in a particular scene where Morpheus, played by Laurence Fishburne, and Neo fight. The book shows side by sides pictures of the scene and pictures from the video game which a very similar. I thought this was cool and never paid attention to this