Its been 10 years since the first part of the Matrix came out. What? Only one part ever came out. Hah. That maybe true in your head. But the fact is this was the first part, of what later became a trilogy. I have a unique perspective for the matrix. The first movie I actually got to watch was The Matrix Revolutions, in my last year in school. That was probably not the right way to watch it, but in general I have watched very few movies on the big screen. There was a time that I used to watch a lot of them, but that time went away. Watching this movie changed all that, and I watched plenty of movies after that. I am not proud of the choices of movies now, but they were part of my life then. Anyway, I watched Revolutions with a bunch of friends. One in particular was instrumental in getting me to watch this. And after it ended, he looked with starry eyes, saying "This one was the best." I had been more than impressed, even though I had been lost more than once, and he had to guide me a number of times. "What's with the stupid phone?". "Whats with the bullets stopping?""Whats all this nonsense?". Naah, I was as impressed as he was. It was slick and fast and black. Yeah, there was plenty of black. And black's edgy and stuff, right? Of course all the main cast was white but that's not the black I am talking about.
I think everyone of my peergroup was impressed. It was kinda infectious as well, and maybe kind of forced. I mean somebody had to dislike it. We weren't all of the same mind. And I look back now, and think of those times and I wonder how many of them remember those feelings. I mean its been pretty much declared as law that The Matrix is only one movie and whatever else exists, should not exist, and maybe that thought has been ingrained. Logic and experience tells me that if none of us ever watched that movie again, the filtering process of nostalgia would actually make that experience something wonderful. And that is a necessary part of growing up, realizing that Knight Rider isn't as cool as when you saw it as a small child, or the mullet hairstyle. That nostalgia colors your thoughts.
I think what this post is about is that essential breaking point that comes in our lives, when we realize that being cool and badass isn't all there is to media that we experience. But that is something we have to decide for ourselves. You don't start to dislike Rob Liefeld(Oh god that again) because everybody tells you to. You have to learn to forget what nostalgia has actually made it, and what it actually is. Because you can't suddenly decide that you don't like Rob Liefeld because of all the technical faults in his art and then go on and profess your love for Marc Silvestri and J. Scott Campbell. Thats just stupid. A lot of comics today seem to aspire to coolness and badassery. Period. That's all they aspire to. All that would take would be for Wolverine to take out his claws. SNIKT. Cool. Batman snarls. BADASS. And that's not even true for comics. How about Baysplosions? And its just so ubiquitous. On and on and on and on...... It never stops. But why would it. People seem to have an infinite desire for it. Sad. Pathetic.
I recently rewatched Matrix Revolutions. Correction. I tried.
For that matter I can't stand Matrix any more either. Slickness has been done to death. Give me Ghost in the Shell any day.
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