Matrix DeZIONized, The

I just watched DeZionized. Definitely better than the originals, though it was odd, as I don’t remember the parts cut… It has been awhile since I watched Reloaded and Revolutions. Unlike the others, I did not mind that Morpheous was absent from the end of the film. When Neo and Trinity go off to the Machine City, I thought it worked that that was Morpheous’s stage exit, though, had this been shot the way Dezionized was cut, Morpheous should have appeared at the end to save Neo and Trinity, a la Han Solo in Star Wars: Episode IV.

Even though this was better, I wanted more from this fanedit (though that might be hard to create with a fanedit). Like the originals, this film was too complicated and lacked heart. I don’t think it’s mean to say that this film ended up being one long fight, with breaks for philosophical argument. It also goes without saying that I really disliked Agent Smith as a rogue agent, and what’s more the ending is horrible: all the main characters die?

Pet peeves aside, I should note that none of these were the point of the film: To create a tighter film which focused mostly on the main characters from the original film (Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, Agent Smith) which lacked scenes in Zion. In that regard, I felt that the film succeeded (albeit, still, very long). As an aside, though: Without Zion, the character of Bane seems greatly arbitrary. This begs the question: While Zion was annoying, maybe some parts of it should have been kept; cf. In Star Wars, we still saw the rebel bases, even if we didn’t see much of them.

Review by aarkus — June 7, 2009 @ 6:33 PM

I liked it. I thought the approach worked very well overall. It got rid of A LOT of the crap. I would actually liked to have seen it cut down quite a bit more actually, but the crap that remains is still less objectionable than the fully stuffed pieces of crap released in the theaters. I actually followed the whole plot this time around (mostly). There were a few moments where it seemed like there was a little something missing, mainly with the little Indian Girl and the machines’ progress (or lack of) with drilling towards Zion. And the fights are still way over the top repeats of themselves. But again, still way superior to the originals IMO.

Technically I was a bit shocked to see three or four rather inelegant video/audio transitions- being that I have only watched Boon’s more recent edits which have not had such issues. Interesting to compare some of the earlier work.

An intriguing concept, fairly well executed. Could have been tighter in spots but mainly achieves its intent. It definitely shows just how dreadful the Zion scenes were. I always felt they were the worst parts of the movies and Boon has reinforced that for sure. The Matrix is much better when “De-Zionized”.

Review by jokersmailbag — March 28, 2009 @ 7:12 PM

Very expertly done edit! It’s exactly what it sounds like: The Matrix without Zion. This is a considerably faster, more action-packed movie than the originals were, and the plot is a lot easier to follow. The one drawback is that it does feel somewhat incomplete, due to a lot of loose ends never being tied up. For example, Morpheus completely disappeared some time during the third act, so it still lacks closure. However, the ride to the end is a lot better this time, so I would definitely rather watch this than have to sit through both of the originals. It felt a lot more in tune with the first movie in terms of pace and overall style, which is undoubtedly thanks to the fact that there is no Zion footage at all (except for Neo recieving the chip from the oracle, although through clever editing we’re actually lead to believe this happened on the Nebuchadnezzar).

I can’t quite say this is the ultimate cut of the Matrix sequels, because frankly I’m still looking for that. In the mean time though, this is definitely a much more satisfying sequel, even if it’s still a little off. I gave it 4/5 stars. You get most of the good parts and none of the bad in a 2 1/2 hour movie, which starts off running and never loses its feet. The annoying plot twists are still in there, and the ending still leaves a fair amount of story threads dangling (which was a problem in the original, as well), but overall this is a solid sequel.

Review by Timstuff — September 11, 2008 @ 10:28 PM

From a fanedit point of view it was expertly done. I really liked the beginning of the movie where we see the last scene from the first film in the beginning. Nicely done. This is the most action packed piece of editing I’ve ever seen. Most editors would shy away from this cause it may cause audience exhaustion, I almost felt exhausted after watching it haha. Also kudos for the cover designers, they’re all very well done… it’s hard to choose which one to use.
In my view though this film was a tad long for what it is – which mostly felt like non-stop fighting scenes BUT I did enjoy this cut much more than the original. And I would whole heartily recommend folks to watch this version over the original 2 films. Well done!

Review by Laserdisc — August 29, 2008 @ 5:31 PM