After all the computer hassles of the past week, it was nice to relax today and get out of the house for awhile. We went to see the new Matrix movie (Revolutions) in the afternoon, then did some shopping before coming home.

Matrix Revolutions was an improvement over The Matrix Reloaded in my opinion, but I'm not sure whether that was just because I had greatly lowered expectations this time around, or whether it actually was better. The effects seemed to be integrated a little better this time and there wasn't so much in the way of boring speeches or appalling dialogue. The pacing seemed better too, although the bit near the end went on a tad too long for my liking.

The movie answers some questions, while leaving more at the end -- which makes me suspect we haven't seen the last of the Matrix franchise. If only the sequels relied less on flashy special effects and action scenes, and delved more into the philosophical aspects that were so tantalizing throughout. That said, in my opinion the Matrix trilogy still ranks well above the abysmal mess of the Star Wars prequels!

On a related note, mechanical exoskeletons (ie mechs) are very cool, but generally I expect to see some decent armour covering their occupants. Doesn't clomping around in an open-air mechanical exoskeleton (with practically zero covering armour) seem just a wee bit dangerous? ;)

Oh yeah - the trailer for Troy (starring Brad Pitt and Eric Bana) looked pretty good, so we'll probably go to see that when it comes out. The trailer for The Last Samurai looked okay, but we'll probably rent that one instead of seeing it at the theatre.

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This evening while we were out shopping, we happened to catch some glimpses of the lunar eclipse! Earlier in the evening the moon was quite bright, and over a period of 15 minutes or so, a shadow spread across it, gradually engulfing the entire thing. It was most impressive! Unfortunately we missed the totality, but maybe we'll have better luck observing the lunar eclipse next year.