So maybe it's SARS after all

I have no comment about the comic itself today, except to point out that a) SARS is the new scapegoat, so El Niño can probably finally take a vacation, and b) I hope I'm not the only one who can see the second panel resulting in Cecil shoving the pie into Tyler's mouth, pizza-oven style. If RAoK were animated, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I'd have done.

Please VOTE for RAoK! We're in still in the top 10, but there are some very mediocre (and some outright crappy) comics catching up. So please, cast a vote for comics that don't suck.

I went to see The Matrix: Reloaded Wednesday night, and... um... okay. It was actiony. But that's about it. The new characters are two-dimensional, the characters from the first film aren't developed any further, and the plot is kinda nebulous. I found myself sitting at the end of the film counting on one hand the number of things that had changed from the beginning of the film to the end. Okay. Now. Minor spoiler (that has nothing to do with the plot, so don't worry) ahead:

That Zion post-pep-rally-dance-orgy and the accompanying Neo-Trinity-emotionless-love-scene could have been totally dropped from the movie, and I wouldn't have minded. I've heard some people explain that it was probably to show the difference between organic and mechanical life, but I don't buy it. If it were meant to do that, it should have been interleaved with shots of life in the mechanical world. Besides that, note that once the dance party began, the older members of the society were mysteriously absent. That scene was entirely about trying to be "sexy". Seriously, still pictures of that scene would look right at home in the display window of The Gap or Express or any other overpriced clothing store you might happen to have in your local mall.

Makes me worry about the next film, honestly. Being that they shot both at the same time, it's not like the Wachowski brothers can watch the reviews roll in and say, "Oh, people think the plot sucks? We'll just have to make the next one better." No. Revolutions has been written and filmed, and we can only hope that, though it was written with the same mindset that produced Reloaded, it will be a little more cohesive and satisfying plot-wise. I know my fingers are crossed.