Category: Movies

Just back from The Matrix Reloaded.

Good stuff. Very very good.

There are a number of elements in the story which will no doubt be compared to Star Wars Episode 2, anyone who says The Matrix is the poorer of the two is grossly mistaken — still entitled to his opinion, as even people that are wrong can share. Thing is, I don’t know anyone who would actually say that, I’m wasting my breath. (do you think that’s air you’re breathing?)

The cave rave love scene… Felt strange, didn’t expect anything quite like that. But it did fit. Thse people have their own culture, they live with one another, they have things they do. One of them is dance in slow motion, frequently jumping up in the air.

In some ways it feels similar (vaguely) to the ‘rolling around in the meadows after riding appalling unrealistic alien cow things’ Episode 2 love scene.

I believe seeing the Animatrix beforehand gives a big advantage, you can see certain things, I feel, which might not tied together so cohesively…

I did think, though, (select paragraph to view slight spoilers) that ‘Beyond’ dealt with the Matrix’s explaination for ghosts and grouls and such much better than ‘the twins’ and the vampire guys in Reloaded.

I also felt that the Wachowskis made some scenes very long, some people may say overlong, I think they were just making a point. The Burly Brawl, which everyone knows is coming, is an excellent example. I thought ‘man, this is cool, and it’s *still* going’, much the same way I felt the first time I saw ‘Heat’, the running through the streets shooting at cops sequence felt almost like a little story in itself it was so long, but…

… I liked it all, it was saying ‘these guys are doing this thing, and this is all of it’. Anyway, Heat is not Reloaded.

Some people have said that Reloaded breaks some of the rules it set in the first movie, I don’t see that. Nothing that happens in the Matrix is real, anyway, the rules *can* change.

One thing that might not make a lot of sense to people is (select for spoilers) the fact that rogue or obsolete programs aren’t deleted, this doesn’t make sense, obviously if you have a program that doesn’t work right, you get rid of it, you might just uninstall it, or you might even reformat and reinstall your OS, well, these programs aren’t like Photoshop, these programs are self-aware, The Second Renaissance parts 1 & 2 go into detail about the fact that the machines value their own existance, the whole war between man & machine is started when one robot doesn’t want to be disabled and rebels against it’s masters. Anyway, the point is this: deletion isn’t deletion, deletion is murder.

I believe that once we seen Revolutions, we will come to realise that each of the Matrix movies come together to form one big movie. Each part must be seen in context with the others before understanding of the whole can be achieved.

The Matrix : re-Voltron-ated.

I was just wondering about something in X2. When the soon-to-be-toasted cop shoots Logan, how does the bullet penetrate his skull?

Answers on the back of a self addressed stamped envelope, cheers.

I set my alarm and got up early so that Hotgirl could have breakfast in bed (poached eggs on toast, and some nice Dilmah tea); then got a call from her dad (Steve) in the UK, it makes her very happy to talk to her dad, but very sad that he’s so far away. So it’s been a very good day so far for the birthday girl.

She dropped me off halfway down Symonds St on her way to work and I mosied down to the Sky City Metro to see if I could pick up some tickets for the first showing of ‘The Matrix : Reloaded’ in a couple of weeks, a couple of people were there waiting outside the locked gates, including an old workmate, so we chatted, and that was nice. Had to wait a while, and as we waited the number of people grew and grew, I was 5th when I arrived.

Anyway, we waited, and eventually about 20 minutes after they were supposed to have opened (with me, all the while, worrying about all the internet sales, and hoping it didn’t sell out while I waited), the gates went up and a big group of people wandered in (very rudely, I thought, many of them going around us, and we’d clearly been there longer than anyone).

Regardless of the rudies, though, I actually ended up being the first to buy any tickets, and got a nice big discount over the internet sales to boot.

Walked up Queen St thinking about breakfast and such, and on the way to the post office to see if any of my clients had been generous enough to pay me for services rendered (3 of them had) I decided that Sushi probably wasn’t a bad idea, and the nice Japanese girl even rolled some up nice and fresh for me, with exactly what I wanted in it (teryaki chicken & double avocado and *no* capsicum), however I did make the mistake of getting a steaming hot cup of miso soup, it’s not good in the morning.

Anyway, get home and have a look at the tickets to try to work out how good the seating was (very) and discovered, to my dismay, that those fucking BASTARDS had given me *NINE* tickets. Of course, as my receipt clearly shows, they had charged me for *TEN*.

As annoying as this was a quick phonecall to the cinema complex has some form of apology wending it’s way to my mailbox, but no ticket for that showing, it’s now long since sold out, of course.

Excellent Service: St Pierres Sushi of Japan (actually of Karangahape Rd, but who am I to quibble, it was delicious).

TERRIBLE Service: Village on Queen.

So, as unexpected as it may be, X-Men 2 is really really really good.

Right from the opening scene in which they introduce Nightcrawler, it’s absolutely actionpacked. And it’s cool action, big fights, eeeery powers…

Oh, and Mystique in all of her hot blue naked (I guess) glory.

Even the moron sitting next to me – that was clearly desperate for approval, who kept pointing out things that were clearly visible on screen to everyone else, and looking at me when he laughed to check if he was right to be laughing (also made breathing noises, and like to squirm around a lot) – couldn’t spoil it.

Way better than I expected, enourmously better than the first one.

‘Lord of the Rings : The two towers’ is very very cool. Unless you’re a fanboy like James, and can’t bring yourself to admit it.

I hope Startrek Nemesis is as dark as it looks, might actually be good, now that’d be a shock, wouldn’t it?

Men In Black 2, pretty much what I expected – fun.

Scooby Doo, however, is pretty much just stupid, I guess its kinda funny sometimes, but it would have been funnier (to me, at least) if they’d driven it into the gutter and gone a bit more adult, have Velma as the dirty little lesbian we all know she is, Shaggy & Scooby spliffing it up large and stealing shit to support their scooby snack addiction, etc.

So, Minority Report is pretty cool.

A couple of questions, not related to the movie, but to my evening:

1. Robyn, what’s the secret, crazy?.. Also, when driving at nights you should turn on your lights.

2. Ryan, do you know where your fucked-up little brother is?.. As I type this he’s probably still sitting in the doorway at the intersection of New North Rd & Mt Eden Rd looking not entirely unlike a homeless little solvent abuser.

Have fun at the movie Jimbo.

Went and saw Spider Man with this person, this person, and this person last Thursday… Really good. Much better than I expected, anyway. Good old action movies, eh?

I finished a site yesterday, so today I treated myself to the afternoon off, and went to see Star Wars 2, it needed a couple of changes, in my ever so humble opinion, firstly: cut out all of Anakin’s dialog, you don’t have to cut him out entirely, just the bits where he talks. Secondly, more of that cool Yoda shit. Hot damn. That had people in the audience actually cheering out and clapping, something that doesn’t seem to happen too terribly often.

Had fried pork at Minsokchon on the way home, hot damn those Korean folk know how to cook potatoes.