A Weekend Deserving of a Sequel

On Friday afternoon, after coming home from Kennedy High School, I decided to finally watch The Matrix Reloaded, which I had never seen. I really had never had much interest in seeing it, for a wide variety of reasons. I kind of just didn't see the point. There are some movies for which sequels are good things. Indiana Jones lends itself well to sequels because it's another chapter in the story of an adventurer whom we all wish we could be, to a certain extent.

Then there are some sequels that should never have been made. Into that category, I place movies such as Terminator 3. Terminator 2 wrapped everything up nicely. John and Sarah Connor managed to save the world from annihilation and, in the end, John ended up losing the only true friend he had ever had. The last scene in that film, when the Terminator is being lowered into the molten metal, always brings a tear to my eye. He's just a machine...and yet he learned the value of friendship...he knows now why we cry. (Damn, I'm choking myself up just writing about it.) But, that wasn't enough for them. They had to go and follow it up with some piece of trash with a very poor storyline that relies solely on explosions and an extremely hot female Terminator.

Finally, there are sequels that could have been good. They could have added something to the original story and thereby enhanced the universe in which the story takes place. Movies in this category include such films as the Star Wars prequels and, of course, The Matrix sequels.

The first Matrix presents us with an interesting question. What is the Matrix? The viewer is left wondering up until the moment that Neo takes the red pill...and even after that there is some lingering confusion.

In The Matrix Reloaded, however, the mystery is gone. We are no longer longer faced with the question of what is real and what is not. Instead, we are simply faced with visual spectacles which, while certainly impressive, are not very thoughtful. The story revolves around a prophecy, the portrayal of Neo-as-Messiah, and the defense of an underground city. Again, the mystery is gone and has been replaced with explosions and special effects. While I was entertained, I was also unimpressed. The Matrix Reloaded pales in comparison to the first. I can only imagine that the third installment will be more of the same.

After watching this movie, I headed over Ryan Cox's house to hang out with several people. Shane Ross was there (without his extremely hot girlfriend of whom I am insanely jealous. Not that I want to date HER mind you...just someone LIKE her) as well as Commie Seth, and a host of other people, most of whom I did not know. We watched The Italian Job (another pointless movie that is only worth watching because of the eye candy provided by Charlize Theron), ate pizza, watched Ringu, ate pizza and so on.

Saturday night found me attending a shindig in Manhattan Beach at the home of John Antolos. He and his roommate just moved into a new apartment there and had their house warming party last night. I arrived at about 8:00 and was greeted by a roomful of people I did not know. (With the exception of John, they were all strangers to me.) Finally, at around 10:00, Angelica Ochoa and Mischal Diasanta showed up (along with Mischal's friend, Ling, whom I spent a great deal of time hitting on...in all fairness to me, I was slightly inebriated as there were really strong martinis being served at the party. When I say really strong I mean they might as well have been Jungle Juice...which I'm sure many of you recall from your college years.)

I arrived home at about 3:00 in the morning and went straight to bed. I spent most of the day just recovering from last night's shenanigans...completely ignoring the monstrous amounts of school work that I have to do. In fact, I am still ignoring it...after I finish writing this, I'll have to stop ignoring it and get started.