Matrix Revolutions Decoded, The

Wow.! I'm left just amazed at what the editor managed to accomplish with this one. I loved the original film but other than specific scenes here and there, generally disliked the sequels, and particularly the ending. Though many go "well, Resurrections fixed it", I actually dislike the way it handled things, and would rather just fix the ending to Revolutions in the first place. But I didn't think it would actually be possible to do with the video clips, so I was astonished to find that not only did this edit cut out a lot of the pointless plotlines (Bane, Sati, a lot of the excess stuff around Persephone and the Merovingian, etc.), but it actually fixed things with Neo and Trinity.

I will admit, the editing and narrative were a little weaker in the final scenes (not counting the rave stuff), but I'm reasonably sure there wasn't any other material to work with, and I had no trouble following exactly what was happening. I'm also impressed at how the rave was included. If I stop to think about it, there are a few "where'd that character go?" questions, but honestly, I don't tend to mind those as much. What I *did* see towards the end made perfect sense and I liked this ending for Neo and Trinity SO much better.

Frankly, this is, in my opinion, a far superior sequel to the original film than the two we actually got. Now I'm wishing someone wrote fanfic for THIS version of the films...

Bane is gone, and good riddance; his character arch was the most annoying and nonsensical of the original film. Without him, the main story is pretty much the same.

The change of the rave scene is a great idea, it works better this way. And the ending is quite ingenious; although some of the video edits were obvious, there’s likely no way around it considering the original source. I was skeptical about this one, but the new ending is an interesting variation, it even changes the thematic meaning of Neo’s arch.

I love the first Matrix film. To me, it's one of the best sci-fi films ever made. It somehow managed to be thought-provoking while also being edgy, cool, and sexy (with truly exceptional cinematography). Unfortunately, the next two films were bloated, dragged in certain moments, were over-saturated in bad CGI, and had an over-usage of exposition; the action scenes, despite the bad CGI, were still mostly ace though (I have no idea why in the hell most faneditors are seemingly hell bent in removing the Burly Brawl! I mean, shorten it and remove the shots of bad CGI? Sure. But outright removal?! It reintroduces Smith and his new abilities! It makes no goddamn narrative sense to remove it!).

This edit mostly fixed the said problems I mentioned (thank you so much for the removing that stupid rave sequence), while mostly keeping intact the action sequences ( I really cared about the Burly Brawl and the Highway Chase Sequence, both of which were done well). However, the fanedit does end up being overly ambitious in certain moments. The editing with the Oracle near the end was a bit wonky, and how Neo was portrayed in losing his eyes was iffy (it honestly didn't make sense that Trinity didn't help Neo in guiding him to the Deus Ex Machina baby-face thing in the end). The only other edit I straight up didn't like was in the beginning of the Reloaded segment: because you took out his flight to the Oracle after fighting the 3 Agents, it seemed a little goofy that he randomly shoots into the sky and then the film immediately cuts to the ship reaching Zion. That just seemed....awkward. Also, the sudden disappearance of the Key Maker seemed a bit....odd.

But it must be said: despite these flaws, in theory these ideas were fantastic. Narratively speaking, everything was surprisingly consistent, and made me realize just how unnecessary it was in telling this story in 2 separate films. This made me forgive the shortcomings of the fanedit for the most part, which is why I'd say it's worth at least a single viewing.

I consider this to be a pretty brave fan edit, making major narrative changes to the Matrix sequels in the construction of this narrative. Gone are some of the obvious scenes, like the Persephone kiss, but other significant elements are missing. Gloria Foster does not appear as The Oracle. Neo doesn't fight Smith in the hallway to the Architect. There's no Bane. The way that Jerick handles Trinity and Neo's conclusion is curious, and at times I miss their ending in the theatrical cut, but at others I can buy Jerick's intent. The deciding factor that makes this edit my go-to follow-up to the original Matrix, amongst all its other accomplishments, is its implementation of the rave scene.

It's been forever since I seen the Matrix films-- remembering the big scenes but not the overall story-- so I went into this fanedit relatively fresh. On a technical level, "Decoded" was edited very well, with little to no noticeable cuts. Narratively, a few of the minor plot details may fall apart under close scrutiny, but overall it flowed very well and I was hooked all the way through. The ending with Trinity collecting Neo's body was a little clunky and I had to re-read the cutlist to understand what was going on, but once I did I thought it worked very well.

A recommended alternative to "Reloaded" and "Revolutions" or as an abridged version of the two.