When reading Jenkins i found my self thinking about how I entered into The Matrix world and how willing to invest I was, versus how I would enter and how much time I would invest now. I remember I wasn't allowed to see The Matrix when it first came out, so there was already a world pretty well established when I finally did see the movie. I was blown away when I saw it for the first time, and the end left me craving more. I did play some of the games and found that they did an excellent job of driving the story along, unlike most video game/movie pairs. Other adaptations of movies to games or games to movies end up only leaving out parts of the other, The Matrix manages to present a fully formed view of their world, as well as a story that is as detailed as you want. By this i mean that if you were to just see the movies, as Jenkins pointed out, you will be left with a story that makes sense on its own; but if you enjoyed the world of the matrix then you can watch the animes and play the games that expand the story line and allow you to decide your level of involvement.
One thing that i wished Jenkins had included in the medias was the music, I may be saying this only because I am a musician and the music is important to me, but it seemed strange that it was left out. While the music isn't telling you the story of Neo, it heightens the crucial moments and, for me at least, creates a greater emotional investment. I will never forget the last scene of The Matrix when Neo blasts of the ground and flies away Darkness by Rage Against the Machine starts playing, a song written for The Matrix exclusively, feeling so excited my heart nearly bludgeoned its way out of my chest. This was mainly due to having seen a new world where anything is possible and wanting to be like Neo, but the "Don't tell me what to do, I can do what i want" attitude of the song, as well as its energy, left me dying to see the next movies and play the games (never have been one for the animes).
While music can't exactly tell a narrative the same way that a game, or animated short can, I still feel it is important to the converging media. the example I wanted to quickly touch on is the video game Halo. Halo, like The Matrix, puts the protagonist into a different world and follows a story line spanning 4 games and numerous books. But, whats interesting about Halo to me, is that they put a lot of work into the music, they've collaborated with Steve Via, one of the most talented guitar players in the world, to write some of the music for the second game, and produced solid soundtracks overall. so, they take the music portion of the game seriously and use it to ebb and flow with the game, as most do. However my friends and I consistently find ourselves listening to the soundtracks while we play board games, to make it more emotional and involving (without fail the music always gets to an intense part that corresponds to the game deciding battle in Risk, or when someone is trying to navigate the monopoly board with $20 and no property and everyone else has hotels everywhere). I also have put together a playlist of the slower songs, or songs with less movement and vitality, which i study to because after playing the game for so long i associate the calm music with being out of danger in the game and so it puts me at ease in real life.
