I’ve been working on a short story for the past couple of weeks, so haven’t really had much time to devote to the pursuit of enjoying Science Fiction and Fantasy. You can check out The Third Day over in The Collected Manuscripts. I did, however, manage to get a nod over at the Trek BBS with a humorous caption of a Bride of Frankenstein photo. No major prize or anything, but it brightened my day this morning when I checked visited the site.

In the meantime, I’ve managed to book my tickets for Thursday night’s showing of Matrix Revolutions. I’m ecstatic that the decision has been made to release the movie overseas on the same day as its being released in the States. I was so angry that it took Star Wars: Attack of the Clones over two months to make it here to Colombia, even though I did manage to find a means of seeing it in advance. The Black Market in Latin America is pretty pervasive.

For all you RIAA and Movie legal people out there, I did still buy a ticket for opening night and caught the ten o’clock showing in the theatre, so Lucas still got my money. However, even though I saw it twice, like many other people out there I really feel that the Star Wars Prequels are sorely lacking in the Star Wars spirit.

Which brings me back to the Matrix series. There was so much left open at the end of Reloaded that this third movie really has the potential to be wonderful. For example, if the names do suggest something about the characters as I suspect, then there is something about Morpheus that we have yet to see. Is Merovingian a descendent from The One as the Merovingian Knights were reputed to belong to the bloodline of Christ, or is he a keeper of secrets like the members of there society were supposed to have been? Will we find the Matrix’s version of the Holy Grail?

I’m firmly in the camp that Merovingian is a previous incarnation of The One, and Persephone a previous incarnation of Trinity; but then again she could also be the mother of the Matrix. For that matter, we still have to learn the full answer to the first movies question, “What is the Matrix?”

Is Neo’s ability to disable the “mechs” at the end of Reloaded a sign that he can exist in the Matrix and the “real world” at the same time or does it mean that Zion exists within yet another layer of the Matrix? Someone over at the Trek BBS recently suggested that the Alice in Wonderland references in the original movie extend into the second, an intriguing idea. Will the trilogy end the way it began with Neo sleeping in front of his computer screen? Is being a hero in a post-apocalyptic world in which humanity as been enslaved more desirable than living his life in that pit of an apartment we saw as the first movie opened? For that matter, will we ever find out what was in those mini-discs Neo was selling illegally?

The whole thing reminds me of when I was a teenager back in the eighties and I first starting listening to REM’s music. Back then Michael Stipe mumbled through most of the lyrics of their songs, with only the occasional intriguing reference or image breaking through the murkiness of the music. Those occasional understandable phrases were intriguing and gave the impression the songs were deeply intellectual and philosophical. While I still enjoy REM’s music as well constructed pop/rock tunes, I remember the first time that I actually got a chance to read their lyrics. All those obscure phrases that broke through Stipe’s mumbled singing were not nearly as deep as I had led myself to believe.

After Thursday night’s viewing of Matrix: Revolutions, I wonder if I will return home in awe of the depth and intricacy of the story, or if I will be left feeling like I did when I finally got a chance to read those REM lyrics.

Either way, I’ll let you know what I think by the time the weekend comes around.