Matrix Reimagined

Before you read any further, please note that THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS. You have been warned.

I've been a big fan of The Matrix since seeing it at the cinema; I also greatly enjoyed The Animatrix. I have no such affection for Reloaded or Revolutions, for the same sort of reasons that many people don't much like them.

This edit is in my mind a resounding success - not as a reimagining, but as a reframing. (I suspect a better title for it would be "The Matrix Reconfigured" than "Reimagined"). There are very few things I'd seek to change about The Matrix, but in this edit NewSpock has added just enough material from the sequels to cast the film's events in a new light that lends them more importance. The scenes with Morpheus and Locke in Zion help to flesh out the throughline of Morpheus' character arc (his faith in Neo as The One), and the buildup to the machines attacking Zion helps add an urgency to already-tense action scenes.

Video and audio quality is great, with a 17GB HD MKV - the editing is seamlessly done, with no issues whatsoever that I could see.

If I wanted to nitpick, the only thing I'd say I was slightly disappointed about was the epilogue. It always felt a bit weak to me, and I'd almost prefer to have it cut completely. Given the limited material available to work with (and the problematic nature of trying to use any more material from the end of Revolutions) I can understand why NewSpock went this way, though.

For those of us who dislike the sequels in their original form, I think this edit is the best possible presentation of the original film.

i reviewed this edit when it first come out.
i reviewed it with a whole different idea in mind for what i was going to watch.
after talking to newspock i watched it again and after what he said and i have to say it really does work and its a really good edit (its still a bit to big at 17 gig) but it is worth a look if you want to see the matrix that tells the whole story in one movie.

It has been over 5 years since I last watched a Matrix movie. I have seen the first one maybe 3 times and the sequels only once. So I was quite fresh when watching this edit.

I too was disappointed by the sequels, but liked the first one a lot, so the premise of this edit seemed very intriguing.

Audio and video editing and quality were overall very good. I knocked a point off from the editing as there were a few "too fast" scene changes - The most noticeable being the first cut to Zion command centre.

Story wise - I did like how NewSpock tried to fit the events that happened insinde the matrix in Matrix 1 to the events that happened outside it during the whole trilogy. Unfortunately it fell a little short. There was something missing... I felt that the added content was too limited, in most places creating more gaps then removing them. Some added things and scenes would have needed more explaining and screen time. Some of the scenes felt a little out of place too - you could notice it's added there. Also the ending did not fit with the added content. I would hope NewSpock will make an "extended" version of this with more content from the sequels and fleshing out more the attack to Zion and Neo's final victory and its effects.

Still, as this edit is mostly Matrix 1, it managed to deliver the same kind of enjoyment I remeber Matrix 1 did for me (and made me watch a fanedit of the sequels to completely see what happened).

It's not my Preferred edit, of The Matrix, I also feel like it didn't really work that well, but I downloaded it and I watched it all the way through because it's mentioned that it concludes the whole story with Neo flying up past the camera, as in the ending of The Matrix 1. That was enough to get me to watch as I feel that Revolutions originally is depressing as hell. The main people I care about is Neo and Trinity, and I didn't watch a whole trilogy just to see them die, and see an underground civilization which didn't seem all that interesting except that they knew how to dance and fly machines (and that's about it), live. Still, I don't feel this edit worked all that well with the integration of the few scenes that are added from the sequels but it's worth watching because it ends the story on a positive note, similar to The Matrix Hacked editions.

I understand the other reviewer's disappointment regarding this not being a true "reimagining" of the franchise, and to a point, I agree. However, at least in my opinion, NewSpock managed to weave in a few pieces here and there which put the events of the original film into a larger context.

The edit is perfect from an Audio/Visual standpoint, and the edits are really well done. Like the others, I wanted more from the sequels, but I was also happy with what I got. :)

What we need now is an Extended Edition of this Fan Edit.