Missed a few days, but the weekend was kind of a washout, particularly today, where we spent Memorial Day in memory of the sun, which hasn't been seen for the last week or so. Last night, though, Alison came over to babysit and we went to see the new Matrix movie. I had seen the original on video a few years ago, but we rented it through Netflix and watched it Friday night, since Beth had never seen it and I needed a refresher anyway. Since it came out it's grown into something of a cult classic, such that the sequel has been all you hear about in the weeks prior to its release (other than that whole Iraq thing). There's definitely a certain style to it, with everyone in their shades and trenchcoats spouting pop psychology, not to mention the slow motion effects and super-kung-fu fight scenes which were state of the art in 1999 but now show up in commercials. So the sequel had a lot to bring to the table and a lot of expectations to live up to (on the part of the general public, not necessarily my own). Matrix Reloaded is more of an action movie than the first, its taken the opportunity to develop the mythos and the backstory that was mostly just off the cuff in the first movie, and there's actually a fair amount of events that have transpired between the movies that you have to be a real fan to know about. It also assumes you just watched the first movie two days ago, which is fortunate for us. The visuals are spectacular, particular the chase scenes (although I don't typically go to see the Die Hard type movies that have those kind of sequences as their stock in trade, so I can't say for sure whether there's anything ground-breaking in them here), and the fight scenes go out of their way to surpass the original movie in both number and duration. Along the way there's some more gratuitous pop psychology and some decent attempts at turning the whole "trust no one" around a few times to keep things interesting (nothing new there, the X-Files has that sewn up for the forseeable future). The characters are mostly interesting, there's elements of "Dune" in the Neo-as-Messiah thread, and with the PKD paranoia and machines taking over themes it adds up to a pretty good mulligans stew of stuff. And it ends in the middle, so you have to go see the third movie to find out how it all works out. Between this, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, our holiday viewing season is already firmly established.