i've decided on the MATRIX canon, the essential viewing to enjoy the complete MATRIX story in chronological (or perhaps, preferred) order. I HEREBY DECLARE... CANON!

animatrix: THE SECOND RENAISSANCE PARTS 1 & 2
THE MATRIX

animatrix: BEYOND
animatrix: KID'S STORY
animatrix: MATRICULATED

animatrix: THE FINAL FLIGHT OF THE OSIRIS
THE MATRIX RELOADED
THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS

THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS

the remaining ANIMATRIX shorts, the ENTER THE MATRIX video game cutscenes, and THE MATRIX COMICS are all fun and/or fine... but this list is the heart of the story, with this you will truly understand (and fall in love with) the scope of the ideas the wachowskis & friends presented to us.

i spent tonight watching the canon, and... i will never tire of this story. it's everything you would want from action movies, romance tales, queer art, comic books, a star war, philosophical discussions, anime, existential speculations, and more. it contains multitudes. the thrills, the joy, the dancing, the sadness, the sex, the goosebumps.

whenever i rewatch, i always love THE MATRIX, RELOADED, and RESURRECTIONS just as much as i did the first time i saw them... but it's REVOLUTIONS that intrigues me the most because it grows on me every. single. time. i think more about every line, every shot, every idea, and every bit of subtext.

walking out of REVOLUTIONS that first time over twenty years ago, i still vividly remember not knowing how to feel. the movie does not hold your hand. the philosopher's commentary on the dvd probably helped me understand things a little more, but even with that understanding it still felt overwhelmingly dark, brutal in both visuals and sonics, and perhaps... joyless?

i feel the joy in REVOLUTIONS now. vividly.

"YOU DID IT."
"NO, WE DID IT."

it's about community.

it's about love and sacrifice and what we can all do for each other at our best. after RELOADED dashed everything we once believed, we've given up on prophecies, saviors, and movie tropes... now the characters with the least screentime are just as important as neo, trinity, and morpheus. every single living entity has a part to play in saving the world, saving existence.

"love is just a word. what matters is the connection it implies."

in REVOLUTIONS it's the characters the first movie told us were "the bad guys" that have some of the most profound things to say. it begins with us meeting the program rama kandra, his wife kamala (pronounced incorrectly, we now know), and his daughter sati, as we learn about the love (and karma) this syntheint family shares. the movie ends with not our human "heroes" but the oracle, sati, and seraph -- computer programs, all -- contemplating the peace that now exists for the first time in... 600 years? the first peace our planet has known since the trial of B1-66ER so long ago.

"PEACE."

neo's sacrifice -- neo and trinity's sacrifice -- is so beautiful, and so meaningful, and so fucking sad. it had been that way for so long, and acceptance came after many years... which is why it's so fucking unbelievable that RESURRECTIONS now exists. though peace and hope were promised, we still must witness the brutal death of our heroes. when i was younger and more callous, could i better handle the brutality of REVOLUTIONS and the those deaths as the end of this story? yes.

but now that i've lived long enough to see the world become what it's become, long enough to live through my best friend jumping off a bridge and dying, long enough to feel true sadness and loss... do i unashamedly, unapologetically fucking love that neo and trinity got a second chance and a happy ending? you're goddamn right.

as i've mentioned before, suicidal ideation is written all over the series, most specifically in all the "jumping from a building" imagery -- it's in the very first film ("free your mind"), kid's story ("neo, i believe"), and all throughout RESURRECTIONS ("i fly or i fall"). these are stories written by people who understand depression, understand what it really means to long for something other than the existence we're presented, the despair of loneliness, and like there's no place for your true self in this world. i can't think of anything more beautiful than this epic story they created out of those feelings we know all too well.

thank you, lana and lilly. for the story to end all stories.

thank you neil, for sharing the unforgettable experience of watching THE MATRIX 25th anniversary screening on the warner bros lot.

as always, i miss you, jordan. and i miss you, anastasia.

"KNUCKLE UP. AND GOOD LUCK."

2024.08.18