Matrices?

Ohhh my. The hot news - a cynic might say rumour at this stage - is Keanu Reeves and the Wachowskis being in talks about a two movie picture deal for sequels to the Matrix trilogy. See The Register, The Guardian, EmpireOnline and the news-breakers Ain't It Cool.

Cue, of course, all manner of beard stroking and mumbling about Hollywood lack of imagination, about ruining beautiful things with unnecessary extensions but... wait a second, back up there. This is different, isn't it? Normally when unnecessary sequels get added years after the originals, we're concerned about protecting the originals. Indiana Jones is a perfect example: three glorious films and a sequel full of aliens some years later.

With the Matrix, however, we're looking at a similar yet crucially different scenario. No-one likes the second Matrix film. No-one remembers the third Matrix film. They've already trampled mud all over the beautiful carpet. I played my vhs of the first copy to death. I watched it over and over again. I bought Empire magazine for the first time to read the previews of the sequel. And they broke it.

The first one was fantastic.
The second one was visually stunning but dire in narrative terms.
The third one... um... there was a bit with lots of computer generated people, right? And maybe some fighting? Yeah, definitely some fighting. Story? Hmmm.... something about Oracles. No wait, that was a different one... or.... wait... no, no, it's completely gone. I'd re-watch it to remind myself but I remember already having been crushingly disappointed by it the one time.

So yes, I'm not worried about what they'll do to the series as a whole and honestly believe they couldn't possibly make a film that was even worse (could they?) but despite all this, my love for the first one still exists so, please Mr Reeves et al, don't break it even more.

Of course, with such sketchy details, it could all still be a hoax.