Review Detail
8.3 7 10
Enjoyment
6.0
I watched this over the weekend and while I admired some parts of it, I can’t really recommend it either.
Obviously pretty much everyone has issues with the original films as they are, and there have been a few, including myself, who have attempted or will be attempting to make something better out of them. I think in all instances there are places where the editors have succeeded, but also places that don’t work and cause problems with the experience. This edit is no different.
While there is a ton of material that can be removed from these 2 films when combining them into one, I think sometimes we may try to take away too much. One of the main goals of this edit was to make a faster Matrix film, and obviously when you take away over 60% of the material it will be faster. The problem with this is that things that should be fleshed out aren’t, and certain notes aren’t hit right. Some explanations are left out to be assumed where there isn’t a clear assumption to be made. There are parts where I think I may have been somewhat lost or confused if I hadn’t seen these films before.
Also with excessive cutting the risk of noticeable or hard cuts rises, and it shows in this edit. For the first 45 minutes or so it’s not too bad being only noticeable here and there, but later in the movie, particularly the last half hour or so there are quite a few noticeable hard cuts that for me at least really detracted from what I was watching.
I think perhaps a better goal for a runtime would have been 2.25-2.5 hours long. That’s still close to 50% cut but would allow much more flexibility in cuts and allow some aspects to be explored more fully.
A solid effort, but too many technical problems. 6/10.
Obviously pretty much everyone has issues with the original films as they are, and there have been a few, including myself, who have attempted or will be attempting to make something better out of them. I think in all instances there are places where the editors have succeeded, but also places that don’t work and cause problems with the experience. This edit is no different.
While there is a ton of material that can be removed from these 2 films when combining them into one, I think sometimes we may try to take away too much. One of the main goals of this edit was to make a faster Matrix film, and obviously when you take away over 60% of the material it will be faster. The problem with this is that things that should be fleshed out aren’t, and certain notes aren’t hit right. Some explanations are left out to be assumed where there isn’t a clear assumption to be made. There are parts where I think I may have been somewhat lost or confused if I hadn’t seen these films before.
Also with excessive cutting the risk of noticeable or hard cuts rises, and it shows in this edit. For the first 45 minutes or so it’s not too bad being only noticeable here and there, but later in the movie, particularly the last half hour or so there are quite a few noticeable hard cuts that for me at least really detracted from what I was watching.
I think perhaps a better goal for a runtime would have been 2.25-2.5 hours long. That’s still close to 50% cut but would allow much more flexibility in cuts and allow some aspects to be explored more fully.
A solid effort, but too many technical problems. 6/10.
K
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Now for the 45 minutes added in, that was just an arbitrary number pulled out of thin air, so I could be way off on it. But I do think things could be fleshed out. While the theme of fate/choice is indeed touched upon, it also felt like that that’s all it was, touched upon. I felt there could have been more of the key characters and what their thoughts/feelings were during all of this. I thought a lot of that was lost by making it so short.
I do like a lot of your ideas, and some of the ways you’ve implemented them, so I can certainly get on board with what you were trying to do, it’s just that overall, for me, something felt like it was missing, and with how the cuts felt for me, I had some issues with the edit.