Review Detail

8.5 7 10
FanFix January 12, 2014 5486
(Updated: January 24, 2014)
Overall rating
 
8.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
7.0
Enjoyment
 
6.0
First off I should say that I love M1 but I despise M2&M3 almost entirely on many levels so a FanFix of this sort is always alluring, and the following review contains SPOILERS!!!! (You have been warned).

Technically the edit is near faultless, with a full HD presentation and seamless edits. However a word of warning, the listing of this edit might be a little misleading as it suggests it's a complete 'reimagining' seamlessly blending M1, M2 and M3 (I'm sure being misleading wasn't NewSpock's intention).

Actually it's more like a slightly 'extended edition' of M1 as only approximately 12 minutes of M2&M3 are used (Leaving a colossal 4.5hrs on the cutting room floor) and M1 is essentially unaltered. So if you re-adjust your expectations and if you are simply after a new version of the superb 1st film that goes a little bit deeper, then you're gonna love this.

The 12 minutes used show a glimpse of an impending attack on Zion. First we get an opening scene of Morpheus talking about Neo (From M2) which brilliantly reset the film in my mind as the story of Morpheus' faith, rather than the story of Neo's search for purpose. The next thing we see (About a third in I think?) is Morpheus giving his cave speech, which is now about him declaring his faith, when it originally seemed like horribly mis-judged and triumphalist (Since he originally delivered it after he had been proved right).

Then we see little or nothing of Zion until we abruptly cut to what is going on during one of the final fight scenes. The editing wasn't abrupt you understand, it was just a shock to suddenly cut away to new footage after watching a seemingly unaltered cut of M1 for the last hour. After this the battle for Zion and Neo awakening are beautifully intercut as one narrative leading up to the same ending as M1.

The listing also states "the matrix story is completely told in one movie" which it clearly isn't. All we see is one attack on Zion, we still have no idea how the war concludes, what happens to the humans, what happens to the Matrix, what happens to the machines, what happens between Neo and Trinity etc etc etc. This edit still ends with Neo issuing the machines a threat via voicemail about what he may or may not do next. But we do get the stakes raised in the finale as Neo, Trinity and Morpheus are now not just fighting for their lives they're also fighting for Zion.

NewSpock came up with an inspired idea with this edit. But I'm looking forward to an editor taking his concept and really running with it. Rapidly intercutting an hour or two of M1&M2 footage in, to give us a flavour of some of the people that live in Zion, how the story really ended and delivering a much more involved and richer experience.

In short, I'd highly recommend this edit and it will probably be forever replacing the Theatrical Cut of M1 for me. But it still leaves the problem of this story never concluding in a satisfactory way.

A WORD ON MY SCORES
I've scored these on potential...
Narrative 7 (A disapointment after reading the concept. On it's own merits it's a 10/10)
Enjoyment 6 (Again I was deflated. But a 10/10 for the best ever version of M1)

User Review

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