psyche

I think that when any product is successful, it takes an emotion or feeling and reminds you of it so powerfully that you will pay money to have it, lest you forget that feeling forever. I believe that The Matrix was so successful because it encompassed two main “film feelings” but in an original and interesting way. The first was obviously the sort of epic war idea but that was overplayed in the sequels and pissed people off, and the scenes inside The Matrix became completely abstract philosophy and a lot of people got lost there. However, in the first, it was inside The Matrix that the second theme was captured - the same thing that they really nailed in the Animatrix - and the Matrix Comics… SHIT are those two good… I don’t really know how to describe it - it connects people. It’s everyone living out their lives with a sneaking suspicion that they push to the back of their minds and ignore, something most people do successfully. It’s the millions of people independently awake at 03:00 eating Cap’n Crunch from the box, hunched over their computers, genuinely wondering what’s up, from disillusioned teenagers in families scraping by in the worse-off areas of New York to rich Japanese software engineers pausing from their jobs for five minutes to really think.

It’s that notion that there’s a whole world there somewhere - not really far away, but hidden. A happiness or a sadness, a profoundly different environment that one simply must discover.

I used to stay up because I had homework. Then I began to stay up out of habit, randomly increasing my general knowledge via Wikipedia. Now I don’t know why I stay up. When I am dead and my life has come to nothing of real value, whoever you are, I ask you to think hard. These ideologies and philosophies seem to divide us but really, across infinite distances they unite us. They are written in books, most of which are never read by the right people or lost in conversation with uninterested people. Everyone goes their own way.

So yeah, The Matrix. How is this all connected? I don’t know. I don’t.

Pax

I saw 300 yesterday; it was quite good although prone to excessive violence and random partial nudity but hey, that’s what Frank Miller comics are for, right? Elliot displayed some horror at notions of pine trees and the random tactical breakdown at the end of the film. However it was okay.

More importantly, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars arrived today, albeit gift-wrapped and with a small label saying “Happy Birthday Farhan! From Mum”. Well. My birthday is the fifteenth of June. This is going to be retarded. I am at once frightened of change and willing to embrace it! This is the game I have waited for for so many years. Probably more than eight I think - I’ve been vaguely aware of the ill-fated pseudosequel “Tiberian Twilight” since my grandfather decided to buy me a pirate copy of Tiberian Sun from a market in Pakistan. *reminisces*

Our connection to the internet briefly failed and my family is missing. Well. Good.

Pax

Do yourself a favour and watch it. I don’t think I have anything special, but I’ll try my best!

Pax

I just saw it - it was alright! It couldn’t decide whether it was a sentimental film or a comedy and thus didn’t really deliver enough material to fit into either category, but it had good moments - some characters, like the miniature Octavius, were awesome. It was alright; I liked it… worth seeing again? Maybe.

Pax