Another Stretch Between Updates..
I'm sitting here at work finding myself completely unable to muster enthusiasm for the jewelery I'm supposed to be speccing out. It's not that it's at all hard work - believe me, hard work is stuff like road construction* or house painting**, not sitting at a computer clicking your mouse for eight hours. Even so, I simply can't get excited about paging through another hundred pages of overpriced diamond solitaires and personalizeable necklaces that spell out people's names in two-inch-high diamondcut gold glory. Oh, and don't forget the cheap, Japaneese movement watches that someone, somewhere thinks are high-quality enough to sell as 'dress' watches to the unsuspecting public†.
In the midst of all of that though, I'm more interested in listening to the office ranting about the new Matrix flick and Cindi Lauper singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." For some reason, that song always brings up visions of The Goonies and a child actor screeching "Truffle Shuffle! Truffle Shuffle!", and That's Not a Bad Thing, Thank You.
Now, I'm going to have to take a moment to talk about the whole "Dissapointment in the Matrix" thing - and no, I haven't seen it. I do, however, have to ask the question, "What, you were expecting something different?" Sure, I liked - nay, loved - the first Matrix movie. Enjoyed the second but started to see more than a few holes in what should have been a very elegantly-crafted flick. Given how hollywood handles potentially interesting movie franchises (X-Men excluded, but all of the Bond flicks are definitely not created equal, and y'all have seen Star Trek, and /worse/ - Star Wars), did you people honestly expect anything more than a wholly dissatisfying movie that couldn't even keep up with its own philosophy? Internal logic? Hard pseudo-science? Filling in the holes?
Hollywood knows not these things.
I haven't seen it yet, but all I've expected since day one was a huge action fest that attempts to tie up a few loose ends. Sure, I expected a teeny bit more depth than people are claiming exists, but my favorite scene in the second one was the discussion with the Architect, so I held out hope. If you truly expected depth out of Keanu Reeves and the Wachowski Brothers in a third film of an action series, however, I've got a bridge for sale in Arizona you may be interested in.††
That said, however, I'm going to reserve a lot of judgement until after I've seen it myself. I remember Blair Witch too, you know, where for three weeks, when everyone thought it was 'real', people were admitting to being completely creeped out, absolutely terrified, and worse - and how, the day after the creators made /sure/ everyone knew it was false, suddenly people weren't "scared at all" and thought the camera work was stupid and the acting atrocious. There's at least a slim chance that the movie I expect is nothing more than an excuse to fly around on wires and beat people up may actually have something redeeming in it that people haven't noticed/won't see simply because it wasn't what they hoped it would be.
That's the danger of ending a series. We'll see. I doubt it, though.
On more personal notes - Yes, I'm alive and well. Suekat, I keep missing your calls. Work will even out soon enough, I'm sure. Uh... that's about it, really. Philosophically speaking... well, we'll talk about that tomorrow.
Y'all be good, and enjoy the Desert of the Real. Woah.
Ishmael
* - when you're not standing around drinking coffee or laughing at the people driving by. And yes, they do do that - I used to work on the road-lines. Sucked, but definitely an instructive experience.
** - yes, I know it's not /that/ bad. I hate doing it, though. On the outside, anyway.
† - For you guys that don't know the reason for my scorn: Watches' innards are called 'movements'. Where the innards come from is usually a good indication of quality, Swiss and German being best, Japaneese and Chineese being worst. American movements are somewhere near the top end of the middle. So paying $300 for a japaneese-movement watch is like paying $25,000 for a Yugo.
†† - complete with oceanside views! No, really! But I'm not being overharsh - but we've seen what happens to good ideas when you stretch them out to three movies. Historically, it's difficult for Hollywood to produce multi-part epics that actually maintain their value all the way through. Back to the Future, Indy Jones...most of th Bond flicks.. but what else? Seriously.
In the midst of all of that though, I'm more interested in listening to the office ranting about the new Matrix flick and Cindi Lauper singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." For some reason, that song always brings up visions of The Goonies and a child actor screeching "Truffle Shuffle! Truffle Shuffle!", and That's Not a Bad Thing, Thank You.
Now, I'm going to have to take a moment to talk about the whole "Dissapointment in the Matrix" thing - and no, I haven't seen it. I do, however, have to ask the question, "What, you were expecting something different?" Sure, I liked - nay, loved - the first Matrix movie. Enjoyed the second but started to see more than a few holes in what should have been a very elegantly-crafted flick. Given how hollywood handles potentially interesting movie franchises (X-Men excluded, but all of the Bond flicks are definitely not created equal, and y'all have seen Star Trek, and /worse/ - Star Wars), did you people honestly expect anything more than a wholly dissatisfying movie that couldn't even keep up with its own philosophy? Internal logic? Hard pseudo-science? Filling in the holes?
Hollywood knows not these things.
I haven't seen it yet, but all I've expected since day one was a huge action fest that attempts to tie up a few loose ends. Sure, I expected a teeny bit more depth than people are claiming exists, but my favorite scene in the second one was the discussion with the Architect, so I held out hope. If you truly expected depth out of Keanu Reeves and the Wachowski Brothers in a third film of an action series, however, I've got a bridge for sale in Arizona you may be interested in.††
That said, however, I'm going to reserve a lot of judgement until after I've seen it myself. I remember Blair Witch too, you know, where for three weeks, when everyone thought it was 'real', people were admitting to being completely creeped out, absolutely terrified, and worse - and how, the day after the creators made /sure/ everyone knew it was false, suddenly people weren't "scared at all" and thought the camera work was stupid and the acting atrocious. There's at least a slim chance that the movie I expect is nothing more than an excuse to fly around on wires and beat people up may actually have something redeeming in it that people haven't noticed/won't see simply because it wasn't what they hoped it would be.
That's the danger of ending a series. We'll see. I doubt it, though.
On more personal notes - Yes, I'm alive and well. Suekat, I keep missing your calls. Work will even out soon enough, I'm sure. Uh... that's about it, really. Philosophically speaking... well, we'll talk about that tomorrow.
Y'all be good, and enjoy the Desert of the Real. Woah.
Ishmael
* - when you're not standing around drinking coffee or laughing at the people driving by. And yes, they do do that - I used to work on the road-lines. Sucked, but definitely an instructive experience.
** - yes, I know it's not /that/ bad. I hate doing it, though. On the outside, anyway.
† - For you guys that don't know the reason for my scorn: Watches' innards are called 'movements'. Where the innards come from is usually a good indication of quality, Swiss and German being best, Japaneese and Chineese being worst. American movements are somewhere near the top end of the middle. So paying $300 for a japaneese-movement watch is like paying $25,000 for a Yugo.
†† - complete with oceanside views! No, really! But I'm not being overharsh - but we've seen what happens to good ideas when you stretch them out to three movies. Historically, it's difficult for Hollywood to produce multi-part epics that actually maintain their value all the way through. Back to the Future, Indy Jones...most of th Bond flicks.. but what else? Seriously.