Matrix Revolutions Decoded, The

OK, this is perhaps the definitive version of the matrix sequels in my opinion. That said, the ending is way too clunky. Literally the first 2 hours of this edit are flawless, but the cracks begin to appear with the choice to utterly cut the Bane subplot. There is no good way to explain Neos blindness and portray Trinity's survival. I know a lot of people don't enjoy Bane, but for the sake of continuity and flow, you can't allow your frustrations with the Bane subplot to compromise the flow of the film. I strongly suggest the edit stay mostly the same, but add 15 minutes of Bane and allow Neo to portray his real life powers to help the film. The edit, in my view, need to appear as the intended version of the story. That cannot happen without Neo showing real life powers, Bane blinding Neo, and the Oracle telling Neo the line that Mr. Smith says at the end. These 3 pieces are critical to wrapping everything together. If those were added, this would be the absolute, definitive and perfect ending for the Matrix story

This is a vastly superior cut to the muddled sequels that were officially released. It is a better narrative, making an intelligent, concise, and exciting follow up to The Matrix. It wasn't perfect. There were a few cuts that didn't quite work to fill the narrative gaps, but it was still better than the bloated two sequels. I would recommend it to anyone who has seen those two films and want a different version. I would still have cut down that awful scene where New fights the multiple Smiths but it turns in to a bad early 2000's CGI nightmare. That scene was the weakest part of the fanfix. Other than that, this was a vastly superior follow up to the masterpiece that was The Matrix.

I am quite impressed by how well this works as one film! Having the warning of incoming sentinels to Zion at the beginning and the battle happening at the end, rather than those two things in two separate films, really adds to the weight of it all (and the anxiety!). And I really don't miss anything that was cut EXCEPT for Trinity's badass bike flip explosion scene.

I think what's crucial from my experience is that my girlfriend, who has not seen Reloaded or Revolutions, did not notice anything missing as far as the narrative goes. So, for someone's first watch, it works! Yes, during the last third, when the most aggressive edits are made to Revolutions, she noticed some abrupt shifts where clearly something was cut out, but she was not left confused or wanting anything else. Also, with these edits, Niobe's character really feels much more crucial as the amount of time between her scenes is reduced. One thing that did leave my girlfriend asking questions was when Niobe's ship comes crashing in just in time and they hit the EMP... earlier in the film they mentioned needing all the ships to stick around, but where are all the other ships? I couldn't remember what happened in the full movies, so we looked it up and it turns out it was part of the Bane narrative - he destroyed or disabled them. So the question of "why didn't they plan on having an EMP ready to go in Zion?!" becomes a glaring thing and makes the whole argument against "should we let ships go look for the Nebuchadnezzar" more valid. Other than that, I missed Trinity in the last half of the movie. Seems like she wasn't around much after the highway chase scene - though I'm glad so much of that scene was in this edit.

Anyway, I will def return to this! And I'm glad I watched this in preparation for the new one as I don't think I'm missing anything.

This probably isn't going to be my strongerst review as I haven't seen Matrix Revolutions since it was released on DVD. I however re-watched Reloaded some couple years ago.

This fanedit is such a double-edged sword. The first part was surprisingly good. The story was pretty easy to follow and it was very enjoyable to watch, especially those awesome yet somewhat cheesy action scenes. Then something happens, the movie takes a deep dive into absulute garbage. It's possible or even likely that Revolutions just is so inferior in all areas compared to Reloaded but I wonder if it could have been salvaged by cutting (a lot) or in some other ways.

I was left with a bad taste. Now we got an enjoyable over the top cool action movie to be followed by a very confusing and boring second half. This is the reason I can't recommend this fanedit much... only diehard Matrix fans probably like this. According to the other reviews, there are/were plenty of those around :)

Audio/Video quality was excellent and Visual/Audio editing was good but suffered a bit from scene changes. Many of them seemed quite obvious and weren't that seamless.

Overall not very enjoyable experience due to deep dive in enjoyment in the latter part of the film due to Revolutions being what it is. Enjoyment gets 6 only because the first part was cool.

Over and out.

SPOILERS
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I don't actually mind the original Matrix sequels. They have their moments. The philosophy gets confusing, especially in Reloaded, but for the most part they're at the very least GOOD movies. At approx. 2hrs15mins, this edit does some things right and overdoes others. In my opinion, this new ending is the **MEHEM** of fan-edit endings - a fan-made Mass Effect 3 mod that uses existing assets to invent an overly positive happy ending to satisfy those who rejected the original. This one does away with...the deaths of both Trinity and Neo? Why? I've gotta admit - I burst out laughing watching that, being reminded of that hilariously overdone Mass Effect mod. This was much better than that but still wholly unnecessary. The Trinity visions in Reloaded and the resolution of that plot were entirely cut. This gives the audience less to think about during the Architect conversation so it's easier to follow, while taking away any investment in Neo's intentions when he makes his choice. The removal of Neo's revival, Bane and the Revolutions' Merovingian section were a bit disappointing but hey, at least there's the awesome Smith battle at the end seemingly uncut for the most part. I loved this fight while watching the edit but something felt off. I really can't place what was cut but it was certainly cut down towards the end.
It's not as epic as the originals despite their flaws, but it's a great effort. I won't replace them with this cut but it was worth the watch.

There was one visual editing mistake in the final battle (a couple frames from a cut scene or something), several jumpy audio breaks throughout, and the video game rips at the beginning were noticably worse quality than the rest of the film but given the 135-minute runtime, they're no big deal.