Yesterday our friend Iris came over and joined us for an excursion to the pumpkin patch. Hambet had fun running all around Pumpkinland and choosing his Very Own Pumpkin. Iris found a Long Island Cheese pumpkin for herself and another exotic pumpkin for me -- mine is kind of a pale green color, like the color that used to be called "seafoam green" in the Crayola box. (I forgot what this variety is called.) We also hit the farm's market on the way out and came away with yummy Jonathan apples and some fruit butters and Damson plum preserves.
We rented The Matrix Reloaded and viewed it while Hambet snoozed on the couch. This was the first time my dh and I had seen the movie; my dh's verdict: "That is the most stylish train wreck of a movie I've ever seen." I thought all the scenes in Zion were pretty boring -- memo to science fiction movie writers, any scene that begins but we have to consult the Council! is inherently boring and should be cut. But the stunts were astounding, and I'm still digesting the philosophy parts. I will need to reread Old Oligarch's posts.
Today it's a cool, overcast day. Dh is mowing the lawn for the last time this year. Hambet is acting all cuddly and contrite, as well he should, for his behavior at Mass was probably the most abominable it's been in his entire life. I might try baking quick Sally Lunn bread so we can have something to smear those yummy preserves on.
What are your thoughts on the 10 minute slo-mo sex scene twixt Neo and Trinity taking place during the dance orgie twixt everyone underground?
My thoughts were, "My, it's so convenient to have a DVD player and be able to just zap right through this section!"
I thought they were so unnecessary, and would have enojoyed the movie without it.
In the meantime, here are previous blogs from our archives on The Matrix.
http://moss-place.stblogs.org/archives/005368.html
http://moss-place.stblogs.org/archives/005367.html
http://moss-place.stblogs.org/archives/005353.html
http://moss-place.stblogs.org/archives/005350.html
Thank you for the links.
i have never really been into action movies, but hubby *made* me watch the first one and i liked it. say what you will, the movies are very well made, as far as production value.
yes, it's thinly vieled gnosticism, but what i liked about the first one was that it made people at least think about and discuss Christianity.
my question about the sex scene was sincere...if you watched any of it you noticed you didn't see much until the long shot and then it wasn't anything you don't see on daytime television these days. this is unusual and i wonder what they were thinking when they shot it. there was more illicit sex suggested in the dancing sequence where people were (almost?) fully clothed than between Neo and Trinity who were not clothed. my final analysis is that it was wierd, freaky and, yes, gratuitous, but thought-provoking.
Part of the reason we zapped through it was that Hambet was taking a nap, and we wanted to watch as much of the movie as we could before he woke up. It's reassuring, in a way, to hear that in some ways the scene was no worse than daytime television (although that can be pretty bad.)
I have heard some people suggest that the scene, with the intercutting, was supposed to show us how pure and tender is the love of Neo and Trinity. Many have griped about how all of the unions were extramarital, but perhaps the people of Zion have lost any sense of marriage and all they have left is "committed relationships," in the way secular society is going.) Of course, that won't happen -- "the gates of hell will never prevail" and all that -- but the movie, of course, is written from a non-Christian perspective (although the first movie did draw heavily on Christian images.)
Perhaps the scene was supposed to emphasize that the humans, although they have technology, have been reduced to a primitive state: they live in caves, they do those primitive dances, and so on.
My husband said the whole thing reminded him first of a mosh pit and then of "Planet of the Apes."
I really liked the first movie and I think it's a great thing that the movies are taking a playing with philosophical questions, and that they reward careful viewing.