**Some of my books are at http://www.lulu.com/abeautifulcow**
The Matrix trilogy is being shown in it's exhaustive, tedious entirity on Turner tonight. The first one was good, very ground-breaking in so many ways and also very philosophical, but not in a pretentious, solemn goofy way like the next two movies but in a kind of engrossing way. It reminded me very much of Plato's parable of the caves, where what we think is the real world is simply the shadows of the real world, wherever or whatever that is. In the case of the Matrix, the real world that Thomas Anderson (Neo) thinks is real is actually a computer construct of super-intelligent machines who create this illusion while keeping the humans in pods and sucking off the energy they create to power themselves.
It's very attractive because you can for sure enjoy imagining that you are not really you and your hopelessly ordinary life cannot in truth be your 'real' life. No, you must actually be a messianic hero, wouldn't you think? Just like Thomas Anderson actually is.
Well, I have problems with the computer world because if all they want from the human beings is the energy they create, why are they so nice to them? If I were the machines, I would put every last human on a tread mill and I would urge them on with well timed electrical shocks and I would not care one fig that they knew they were actually providing the energy to run us. But that's me. The actual matrix world is in like this dark fog which is never explained, but if the fog is always there, then where does the sunlight come from to grow the plants that are ultimately be used to feed the human batteries? And here's another thing: why not just solar cells? Even if there's a constant fog enveloping the planet, you'd think the machines could just float them or build tall towers or something.
Anyways, first movie I loved, maybe because they were purposely vague about all that stuff and really you shouldn't need to know so much. You should be able to let your own imagination fill in the blanks.
Here's where the Matrix sequels fail and why other sequels also fail. They make the mistake of trying to get you more into their world, which means that the plot has to be more complicated. And more into their world means more into their characters and more characters, so you not only have to keep track of all this extra complicated exposition, but also more about the old characters and then all of the new characters. In Science Fiction this is called an 'information dump' and is usually an awkward device.
When you read my book, Rexroi, see if you can spot where I've cleverly placed my 'information dump'. So far no one has come back to me and complained about that section of the text, so I think I did, in fact, do it rather adroitly. But let me know. (Link at the top of the post).
The Matrix sequels are still rather fun to watch just from the visual aspects. Usually with special effects there's a big drop off in the wow factor when newer and better special effects come out. I remember one of my brothers-in-law telling me that he wanted to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind for the special effects. Tell me if you don't laugh at those special effects now. Yes, Spielberg's a genius when he isn't being annoyingly sappy and sentimental, but Close Encounters of the Third Kind doesn't stand the test of time. The Matrix movie special effects do.
But, the sequels have a steep learning curve. I'm sorry, it's science fiction to start with then when you add dozens of characters with their own obscure sub-plots - I can't do it. I'm just not going to make notes for myself like I did when I read War and Peace. (I finished it in twenty four hours, too, by the way). You're watching a science fiction movie basically because you don't want to use your brain. You want to be entertained and diverted and you shouldn't have to study up for it like the SATs.
**Breakfast with the Antichrist is doing well in the UK. Hey, Americans, you can buy it, too. It's on Amazon. The others are at http://www.lulu.com/abeautifulcow . Not to play favorites, but I'd recommend the last two**
This is sort of a companion piece to: The Problem with Vampires. I think one of the reasons I don't get so much web traffic anymore is because I severed all of my recipricol links when I changed the title of my Weblog to The Golden Age of Dog Biscuits. It sounds friendlier, don't you think? Maybe I'll put that HTML back in just to see what happens. Anyways, I've put some word salad at the bottom of this post to try and attract searchs. The word salad I've selected is from the top ten Tecnoroti searches. If you came here by that way: Please stay and enjoy.
Okay, werewolves: I really enjoyed the first Underworld movie. Yes, it was Kate Beckinsdale that had me most interested and I recommend that movie just on the basis of watching Kate Beckinsdale hopping around in a tight shiny black outfit. It's well worth the price of a rental, believe me. Aside from that, I thought it had a nice involving plot with a beautiful twist at the end. And if they had stopped at that one movie that would have been just fine.
Of course, they had to mess things up with a turd of a sequel. Oh sure, she's still hopping around in a shiny black tight outfit, but there isn't enough of that to make this one worth the rental. The plot is so complicated and obscure that I didn't know who anybody was or why they were doing anything and worse ... I didn't care. I watched the entire thing so that I wouldn't have wasted my money, but really, I shouldn't have wasted my time.
Beware of sequels, that's all you have to know.
The problem with werewolves is this: when they make their transformation into the giant fangspewing monsters they are, where does the mass come from? Suddenly a normal sized man is at least twice his size and strength and the raw material has to come from somewhere. Where? Are they just sort of inflated like balloons and there actually is no more mass but just air? But if they're inflated by air, then where does their strength come from? See. It's impossible.
The second problem is that werewolves apparently go on killing sprees every month and nobody seems to notice. Are we expected to believe that the police are so incompetent that they could miss a twenty nine day murder cycle. Also, the werewolf inevitably wakes up naked somewhere out in the open when he turns back into a human in the morning. Well, the police can certainly not notice repeated violent crimes but a naked man out in the open - they can always catch that guy. (Don't ask me how I know this).
Third, and probably finally, the numbers don't add up. This is somewhat the same problem with vampires, only on a lesser scale. Every vampire victim becomes a vampire and in a geometric progression it wouldn't take long for the whole world to be vampires. Then who's left to suck on.
Same thing with werewolves, though, granted, it doesn't seem that as many people survive the attack to become werewolves themselves. But some do. And those some are going to go out and create a geometric progression of werewolves, who make more, then more, and so on and so on until the whole planet is nothing but werewolves.
What then? It would be slower than the vampires, for sure, but it would still happen.
Heres the word salad I promised.
Lonelygirl15
Steve Irwin
John Tierney
The Unslammed P...
Dreamhost
Pinky
Path to 9/11
Google
Video
Suri
Brazil
9/11
Second Life
Black
Youtube
Top Tags
Microsoft
Steve Irwin
Sex
Search
Online
Bush
web-20
Shopping
Iraq
crocodile hunter
newspaper
Terrorism
Porn
11
web2.0
Top Blogs
Engadget25,379 blogs link here
老徐 徐静蕾 新浪BLOG21,521 blogs link here
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things20,495 blogs link here
Gizmodo, The Gadget Guide13,798 blogs link here
Daily Kos: State of the Nation12,928 blogs link here
100 Top Blog
Lonelygirl15
Steve Irwin
John Tierney
The Unslammed P...
Dreamhost
Pinky
Path to 9/11
Google
Video
Suri
Brazil
9/11
Second Life
Black
Youtube
Top Tags
Microsoft
Steve Irwin
Sex
Search
Online
Bush
web-20
Shopping
Iraq
crocodile hunter
newspaper
Terrorism
Porn
11
web2.0
Top Blogs
Engadget25,379 blogs link here
老徐 徐静蕾 新浪BLOG21,521 blogs link here
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things20,495 blogs link here
Gizmodo, The Gadget Guide13,798 blogs link here
Daily Kos: State of the Nation12,928 blogs link here
100 Top Blog
Lonelygirl15
Steve Irwin
John Tierney
The Unslammed P...
Dreamhost
Pinky
Path to 9/11
Google
Video
Suri
Brazil
9/11
Second Life
Black
Youtube
Top Tags
Microsoft
Steve Irwin
Sex
Search
Online
Bush
web-20
Shopping
Iraq
crocodile hunter
newspaper
Terrorism
Porn
11
web2.0
Top Blogs
Engadget25,379 blogs link here
老徐 徐静蕾 新浪BLOG21,521 blogs link here
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things20,495 blogs link here
Gizmodo, The Gadget Guide13,798 blogs link here
Daily Kos: State of the Nation12,928 blogs link here
100 Top Blog
Lonelygirl15
Steve Irwin
John Tierney
The Unslammed P...
Dreamhost
Pinky
Path to 9/11
Google
Video
Suri
Brazil
9/11
Second Life
Black
Youtube
Top Tags
Microsoft
Steve Irwin
Sex
Search
Online
Bush
web-20
Shopping
Iraq
crocodile hunter
newspaper
Terrorism
Porn
11
web2.0
Top Blogs
Engadget25,379 blogs link here
老徐 徐静蕾 新浪BLOG21,521 blogs link here
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things20,495 blogs link here
Gizmodo, The Gadget Guide13,798 blogs link here
Daily Kos: State of the Nation12,928 blogs link here
100 Top Blog
