I Might Be Blogging from Inside the Matrix

Last week I watched The Matrix. For the first time. Yes, I do realize that I'm probably the last person on the planet to see this movie.

I'm secretly kind of bad at understanding movies. I blame this on my tendency to space out for extended periods of time, causing me to miss important plot details and wind up confused. I guess I thought this was going to be that kind of film, so I never bothered to see it. (With a book, it's easy to go back and re-read pages if you need to, but with a movie, you kind of have to take it in as you go along... unless of course you plan to become good friends with the rewind button.)

I actually found it to be a very interesting movie. And I must mean that sincerely, given that that I'm still thinking about it days later. I happen to like philosophy an awful lot, and if you let it, I think this movie opens the door to some interesting philosophical ideas. It questions the meaning of reality. Is the world as we know it actually real, or just real to us because it's all we know? Is a spoon really a spoon, or do our minds just think it's a spoon? And speaking of our minds, they are pretty powerful. How much of our version of "reality" do they control, and how much can we control them?

And then of course there is the age-old argument of fate versus free will. I don't think this movie changes the fact that I believe in the forces of the universe, although maybe my "universe" actually consists of some machines gone wild. Or something else gone wild that is controlling what I think.

Of course, if I'm in the Matrix right now, then the creators of the Matrix are reading this and laughing at me seriously hard.

Even so, it was a good movie. Just in case you've been living under the rock next door to mine and you still haven't seen it, I give it my recommendation. Just be prepared to get in touch with your thoughtful side afterwards.