"Kids get stoned to this movie-how can you not 'get it'? "

I admit it--I am reluctant when it comes to watching movies that are not part of my "favorite" genres. I'm the same with new music and new books.

The Matrix is a movie I wanted to see for awhile--when it came out it was really popular and I recall some people being obsessed with it...most likely, these were people that I came into contact with @ the comic book store where John used to work. I never got around to watching the movie though.

Started some of it yesterday and finished it up today.

2 things transpired through the watching of the movie:
1] Last night, I told John that I was kind of confused by the movie. He said, in a smartass/cute way, "Kids get stoned to that movie. How could you not get it?" That statement kind of motivated me to give the film more of a chance... sure, it may be complex but it isn't incomprehensible.

2] While I think the film requires a second viewing (which isn't a bad thing, necessarily), there were still a lot of ideas that were brought up in it during the 1st viewing that got my mind's wheels turning.

The concept of "what is real" interested me... how Morpheus tells Neo that what is real is really just electrical signals interpreted by the brain. The movie brought up the question of how we perceive/feel things. I mean, when someone dies, our sadness is REAL--the loss of that person is REAL-- but how do we know that their existence was real in the first place...or if our existence is real ?

Another thing that got me thinking was the way in which Neo was trained. Programs were simply downloaded to mind and suddenly he was an expert @ martial arts. Toward the end of the movie, Trinity gets Tank to download a helicopter pilot tutorial to her mind. This got me thinking about education in the future. Imagine if knowledge could just be downloaded. The possibilities would be endless, but wouldn't people lose their individuality? Nothing would be amazing or astonishing anymore because if you truly wanted to know how to do something, you'd just have to get access to the right software program.

There's tons of websites devoted to The Matrix and scholarly books/essays have even been written about it. While I was viewing it, thought of novels like 1984 , Brave New World, & Fahrenheit 451 were in my mind. When those books were published, the ideas/concepts in them probably seemed ludicrous to most readers. In 1984 Big Brother watches over the earth's inhabitants...makes me think of security cameras; for some reason, i am specifically thinking of the security cameras that I saw all over the place when I visited London. The intricate worlds of those books may not be so impossible afterall.

We're a little less than 200 years away from the date/setting in The Matrix. I don't imagine that all of the elements of the film will be a part of our future lives but I am sure that some facets of the film could be a reality.

At the end of the movie, Neo says, "Anything is possible." In an age of technology, no other words could be more appropriate.