Toulia

I like the fact that there are religious inferences within the Matrix, but I do think they were a little too, "LOOK, JESUS!" for my tastes. They didn't keep everything as low key for me...I don't know, the first movie was so great. It's one of the few movies where I left the theatre and talked to my friends about it with honest philosophical intrigue. I even have the book: "The Matrix and Philosophy". What I think made the first movie so great, and what makes me gag with the second and third is, they took a lot of those subtle stories woven into the movie and instead of finding a way to keep them as the undertone just decided to blare them out. The first time I ever saw the Matrix I really had no idea who Plato or Socrates were besides the fact that they were dead and they talked a lot. So hours and hours of debates would be brought up with my friends about what was right and what was wrong. Then, I took my first Philosophy class and I was amazed at how many great philosophical questions were raised within that movie that I would never have seen if I wasn't forced to sit down and read these great works. Suffice to say, I've almost changed my major to Philosophy on many occasions(not because of the Matrix ) because of the amazing wealth of knowledge and worthy questions are there. To me, however, the second and third movie just turned into a bad action movie attempting to be the next great Literary work of our time. To end this little rant, I shall make two statements...One from the animated series "Clerks" and one from my own head. Randal to George Lucas: "Come on, be honest. You've been telling these people that you have been sitting on these scripts for years, but in reality it was just something you wrote over a weekend. In closing, I want my 8 bucks back." My own statement: I firmly believe that when a movie director makes something amazing, such as Star Wars or the Matrix, that they should not be allowed to write their own follow ups. George Lucas only wrote the first Star Wars book/movie, but was bankrupt and was forced to allow two other people to write Empire and Jedi. Now that he has oodles of money, he comes back and totally ruins the grandeur that everyone else has built upon. I dunno...Toulia and her big mouth...

Well, I saw the Matrix 3 when it came out...and although it was better than the second one(actually, watching a clogged toilet brings more entertainment than the second) it couldn't even raise a torch to a first one. I think any of the hundred different reviews of the movie would basically sum it up well enough. The only thing I have to add to that is, I'm still wondering which one is worse...Star Wars: Episode 1 & 2 (And most definately 3), The Matrix, or **SPOILER** the crap they are doing with RETURN OF THE KING! As I was sitting dazed at the doctor's office today, I was reading through the Entertainment Magazine and read a little piece out of it talking about the new movie. Within this article, they had a little side bar that had a few of the scenes that were either being cut out of the movie or were not even filmed. There were a few scenes within it that were cut...One involving the Lady of Rohan and her growing interest in Aragorn. (Okay, I can see this one being cut) Another one was of Sauron being killed by Wyrmtongue(Can't remember how to spell) And then I saw THIS one....The scene at the end of the trilogy where the Hobbits return home after their long adventure to find that their home has been destroyed and forced to fight for their own freedom, was CUT entirely from the story plot. Jackon DIDN'T even FILM it! He thought it was the worst part of the whole trilogy. I can rant on for hours and hours about this...I honestly think it's one of the most important themes of the book series being brought full circle. This scene was to show Tolkien's belief that you can always return home but you can never return home and expect that everything will stay the same. Grr! Wrath! Anger! I don't know what's worse...the fact that he did that or the fact that he gave Arwin(Who appears I think in a whopping 4 whole pages of the entire Trilogy) a central role, or the fact that they have to remove a whole portion of the book. I think it's something like 40 pages at the end of the book(If not more). Grrrr.........This post had to be seen just as I got killed and lost my level :/ Apologize for rants.