what is the matrix?

1 was great. 2 was pretty good and 3 was a huge let down.

 

I saw and wrote about all 3 of these movies on my site, since my ministry deals with the areas touched on in these movies.

The issues and themes in the movies were Eastern and Gnostic (which are similar) - what is real? That is the crux of Eastern beliefs, whereas in Christianity issues are moral.

The matrix was the virtual world the characters were a part of but they had to "awaken" to the fact that they were in this world and had to get out of it. This is very similar to Gnostic, New Age (and Buddhist and Hindu) beliefs about awakening from the illusion that this world is real and awakening or realizing
1. We are spirits from God trapped in a body (Ghostic)
2. We are spiritual beings falsely identifying with our human nature and need to awaken to our divine nature (New Age and Hinduism)
3. We are part of Buddha mind and need to awaken to our Buddha nature and see that we are not individuals and that this world is not Buddha nature (Buddhism)

In early interviews, the 2 brothers who made these movies admitted they used Buddhist and Gnostic (I believe) sources an ideas. But later, they refused interviews and gave no comments.

Here are my 2 articles. The first one is on the first 2 movies, and the 2nd one is on the 3rd movie:
http://cana.userworld.com/cana_MatrixMessage.html

http://cana.userworld.com/cana_Matrix3.html

Keep in mind I write for both believers and unbeleivers on my site.

 

Ugh. I never could stay awake during any of them. The last one was the one I saw most of. The first one I fell alseep when he had to choose which pill to take, every time, without fail. I mean EVERY SINGLE TIME I tried to watch it I fell asleep then. Weird.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Dustin

 

It has been a while since I have posted on the BB, for several reasons, but I thought I would comment on this thread as I just watched these three films a few weeks ago.

The language was AWFUL and really served no purpose and certainly didn't add to the film. But that is pretty typical of cursing in most films these days.

I think Marcia is correct in that the creators pulled from various "religious" sources to put at least their first film together. And while there are definite hints of these "other" religions, the first one (which I thought was great) does a great job of depicting the gospel of the kingdom in Scripture. As with anything the picture is not absolutely perfect, but it is really good.

I bought the other two just because I was curious as to how the story turned out, but as another said one was definitely the best, two was decent and three was a horrible let down. Again that seems to be pretty typical with sequels.

Although I have to say Star Wars III was by far and away better then the second one in my opinion, but it was still a disappointment I think

 

Its JJ!

Hello JJ... good to see ya... just thought I'd say hello

Claudia

 

I think you can have fun comparing the Gnostics and the Matrix.
The following is from Bart Ehrman’s “The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christians Writings (Pub. 2003) pp. 188-193 he talks about the tenets of Gnosticism.

According to the Gnostics, the creation of the world (the matrix, a false reality) as the result of cosmic catastrophe. (Human war with the machines)

There existed a number of divine beings (aeons) and one of these were called Sophia who fell from the divine realm who then spawned a race of malformed divine beings. (these are the machines).


These malformed divine beings were responsible for the creation of the world (the matrix). The material world was thus created by these evil deities as a prison where Sophia, or rather he parts are confined. Specifically this element of the divine is entrapped in human bodies.

Gnostics believed that within humans is this spark of the divine, entrapped by evil deities who are committed to keeping it imprisoned so as to feed off it. (Matrix – Humans were used as a power source for the machines. The divine spark is the energy produced by the human body)

The spark of the divine (Sophia) within humans could be liberated from this miserable existence by acquiring the true knowledge necessary for salvation. It was only available for a few. Once released they can return to their heavenly world.

(Matrix – this is the offer of the pill. With the choice of taking the pill you receive knowledge and set you free from the Matrix, the world created by the machines. Once released they enter the real world)

The Gnostic believed in a divine redeemer, someone who would come from the divine realm and communicate the knowledge necessary for salvation to the sparks that have been entrapped. Gnostics call this divine being the Christ

(Matrix – that was the hero of the movie)


Just a thought,

Mildbanter

 

The brothers I forget their names should have just taken the heat they took in taking too long with the second movie and spent more time developing the script for the third.

I think they were more Hindu than gnosticism, but it can be hard to tell because there is so much overlap between the two.

I will have to say Matrix has tainted other movies. I can't help but say "Hello, Mr. Anderson" everytime I see Elrond.

 

And to think, when this movie was new I objected here on the BB when others compared it to christianity, like Neo being the savior, and got jumped on big time over it. I was the ony one who saw it as being about false religion, and nothing about christianity.

 

I really liked the first Matrix, and especially where Morpheus and Neo first meet. The parrallels between Morpheus describing the Matrix and the sinful state of man apart from God are striking.

 

Agreed, tragic.

For those who disliked the last movie, was it because you didn't think it was as well-made as the 1st one, or was it because of the way that it ended? We want to see Neo fly and kick agent butt and rescue Trinity and Morpheus and everybody from certain death, but nobody wants to see Neo blind and dead. IMHO, that's a big part of why we (me included) aren't as fond of the 3rd movie as we are the 1st one.

 

matrix? i dunno... another perspective on life?

i saw the first one. it was ok i guess. two had way too much sex in it. and third one i didn't bother after seeing only parts of the second...

 

The sound from the first move is what I use to test my speakers. The gunfight in the lobby is the best for tuning the 'ole surround sound.

 

I did like the movies, but didn't like the ending. And, I never fully understood this whole matrix thing. Apparently the machines play games like this, there never really was a chance for freedom from the matrix? Is that right?

 

Part 1 was okay, the other ones were pretty boring.

 

No . . . once the person was "awakened" then they were cut off from the machine world, but they had to fight for their freedom lest they be put back into the matrix.

Then ultimately when Neo sacrificed himself a "deal" was made to allow the awaken ones to remain free in peace, as well as anyone else that didn't want to remain in the matrix to leave w/o any issues. If I remember correctly.

 

Yes, that's correct. I'd never thought of it as playing games, but it's an accurate statement. The hope of freedom was there, dangled in front of people like Morpheus, but once Neo reached The Source, he learned the real truth that there really was no hope for freedom because the humans were too dependent on the machines.

 

Once the person was awakened, the machines killed them. Look at what happened when Neo woke up. Once he woke up, the machines flushed him (note the sound of the toilet flushing once they removed his plugs) and would have let him drown.

Neo's deal was that the machines wouldn't destroy Zion again. In exchange, he would kill Agent Smith and let them regain control over The Matrix. Once Neo was dead, the only thing that we really know is that it was a brand new day in the Matrix, as signified by the sunrise.

 

But the ones that were freed were not plugged back into the matrix and the ones that were awakened were allowed to leave if they wanted to leave.