universal city walk imax? well that is the fucking smallest imax screen (81 ft by 59 ft) i have ever seen or will tolerate, (or should i say shortest). for being the big $ universal theater, it was crap! it was dirty and the seats were uncomfortable. i can only attribute LA as being the reason why this is so. the people just don't care. they treat things like crap and don't bother to clean up. one would think though that it would have decent seats. perhaps not stadium seating but something a lot better than the shit they put in.

so the matrix, yeah, it was, um, alright. it was better than the second one, but i felt like there was something lacking. i felt the first 20 minutes, or however long the neo lost in the train man's world segment lasted, was completely unnecessary. it doesn't help push along the basic plot, which is revolutions, the man v. machine war. it just toyed with the audience. sure, there was some basic information that the audience could use to help shape in their mind what the matrix is, neo's power, etc., however i felt it could have been carried out in a much more elegant way.

i'm glad they didn't have the love stuff that the second one did but there were still lovely dovey cheddar moments. i don't buy the whole neo/trinity in love thing to begin with so lingering on it doesn't help the suspension of disbelief one bit. i hated the big transformer whateverthefuckitscalled crap that is the main fighting machine you see in the zion dock scene (apu). it's as stupid as the star wars walkers. it's one of those 'looks good as a toy so let's throw it in the film' even though it has no technological advantage to warrant it ever coming into existence in the universe of the narrative.

so trinity dies and neo loses his eyes, yay! well, i mean, someone had to die, didn't they? one of the main people. and it couldn't be neo (he already did the christ come back from the dead thing) or morpheus (too cool to die), so it had to be the one who kept emphasizing that she would be give up her life for neo. and neo, well, he looks much better without the eyes. i can't stand to see keanu reeves in the matrix because his name is larger than life. there are just some people who have gotten too big. you can't ever believe the role they are playing. there is too much of an extratextual connection. every time i watch the matrix, i know that if they had cast someone a little less known then i would have fully immersed in the story and loved it just that much more. believability is key to any film and with keanu in the role of neo, i hardly ever believe what's going on. the only times that keanu as neo works are when neo is an idiot. but even then, you still think it's keanu. you don't think it's neo. you never think it's neo.