pfarley

Last night was good for me. I went to watch The Animatrix with Kristen B. and a housefull of nerds. That's right, not just geeks -- nerds. The conversation before the movie turned to the gender politics of Dune, (how, I don't know. It just did.) then the merits of Gene Wolfe's Torturer novels, and then I hurled out the name of Octavia Butler just to see who would bite. Almost immediately, a nerd feeding-frenzy erupted. Names ricocheted around the room: Iain M. Banks, Bruce Sterling, Vernor Vinge, and a bunch that I didn't even recognize. Soon it was like that old joke about the prisoners shouting out the numbers to their jokes -- people were just screaming out the names of science fiction authors, and others would gleefully shout, "Oh yeah! He/She kicks ass!" Somewhere in there, a conversationlet fractal-branched off the main conversation, and a small knot of people began furiously deconstructing Melkor's revolt against Aule in The Silmarillion while names of SF authors flew over their heads.

Hell, the only thing missing from this scene were a few good Cylon jokes. What can I say; I was among my people. *sniff*

And now, my capsule review of The Animatrix:
WARNING: SPOILERS!!!

Story 1: Last Flight of the Osiris: Not a huge deviation from the cinematic universe of the Matrix, but worth noting is the fact that we saw the woman's ass but did not see the man's ass. Women's asses are a recurring motif in The Animatrix.

I felt a pang of sadness watching this segment: It was produced by the now defunct Square Studios, who also produced the film Final Fantasy. I admit I'd secretly nurtured the hope that someday Delta Thrives would be an animated HBO series, and that Square Studios would be the ones to produce it. Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

Story 2: The Second Renaissance, Part 1: The robots' second act of murder, after killing a human, was the killing of cats. The Matrix hates cats. You'll see this theme recur.

Story 3: The Second Renaissance, Part 2: Dude -- they were borrowing imagery from the Book of Revelation. Not just the Horsemen and the trumpets; there was also the fact that the Machine's homeland was on the area which is today Iraq, and which in the Apocalypse is the place from which the Angels of Death arise from the River Euphrates to sweep out and kill one-quarter of humanity. Also: we see the Sun Woman, except she's in a glowing gear, not the sun. Also, the blotting out of the sky -- that's one of the Trumpets of Tribulation and also one of the Bowls of Tribulation. Etc.

Also: I dug that scene where the robots take over the United Nations. That fucking ruled. Every child under the age of 5 in America should watch that scene, just like every child undert the age of 5 should watch humans get hunted by monkeys in the original Planet of the Apes movie. (And of course, that excellent scene where the demolished Statue of Liberty appears on the beach. ALL American children should see that. It will give them a properly warped attitude towards icons of authority.)

Story 4: Kid Story: This cartoon looked, visually, like the sketches a teenager would draw on his notebook while waiting, bored, for school to be over. (I know; I drew volumes of such sketches.)

Story 5: Program: Again, we see the woman's ass. We don't see any men's asses.

Story 6: World Record: Isn't it generous of the cyber-nerds to deem jocks worthy of de-Matrixification via pushing past physical limits?

Story 7: Beyond: My favorite of all these pieces. A brilliant standalone allegory about "interstitial spaces"; i.e. places where people can play and dream outside the System. Notice also the return of the cat motif. The Matrix is hostile to cats. Cats are creatures who won't be controlled, and therefore the System hates them. (see Rudyard Kipling's predictably fascist story "The Cat That Walked By Himself" to understand the dominator control-freak's contempt for felines.)

Oh yeah, I think we see the woman's ass in this one too.

Story 8: Detective Story.
Huh? I don't think I "got" this one. Also, I don't think we see Trinity's ass, but maybe we'd seen so many womens' asses at this point that yet another one would barely register.

Story 9: the one about the robotic mushroom trip:
Looked amazing. It is a sign our species is evolving when CGI can not only look photo-real, it can also look like airbrushed Seventies van art.

And again, we saw the woman's ass. Kristen finally understood the secret message of all the womens' asses in this anthology: "Free your mind and your ass will follow."

It's so obvious, in hindsight.