Matrix Revolutions Decoded, The

First review, so it'll be brief. I loved the first Matrix and enjoyed Reloaded, but I thought Revolutions was a mess with all the train station, Sati, Bane, Club Hell and Zion stuff. But I know somewhere in the second and third films, there's one really solid movie, and this edit came incredibly close to what I'd always hoped for. I especially liked the cleaning up of the Architect to make Neo's choice about hope rather than specifically love for Trinity. That really worked for me, but some of the other changes didn't. The only time this edit lost its path (specifically for me) is when it forced major changes on the original narrative, specifically at the end, where the source material didn't really support the ideas put forward. Still, I have a ton of respect for this ambitious take!

I love the idea of cutting Bane, and Neo has to be blinded, but Trinity living is awkwardly executed and kind of messy. At a minimum, her "I'm here" line could have either been cut or perhaps spoken over black screen to represent Neo's blindness. As it stands, she's "here" on her back and obviously injured and instantly upright taking care of Neo. Then she inexplicably stops taking care of him. Maybe there's a version where he's blinded by the machine flying through him and she still dies, but with a much shorter death scene than the source.

I love cutting Mary Alice out as well to avoid tedious explanations, but the one "cheers" shot of Gloria Foster felt awkward to me. I liked every other part of the scene though as it seemed to be presented in the Oracle's first person as she would see it through her eyes, which is kind of symbolic. I basically think the scene would have worked without showing the Oracle at all.

I also kind of missed Trinity going into the Matrix to take out the power plant. I think the brief shot of her loading in and blowing up the guard shack with the motorcycle would have done it. No need for the agent fight or the big rescue from Neo, but it at least would show her doing...something during that scene.

But these are ultimately nitpicks to a really clever and ambitious fan edit that I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you for making and sharing it. Honestly, if the Neo/Trinity ending had stayed a little closer to the source material, I'd watch this instead of the sequels forever, as everything up to that point was more or less exactly what I've always wanted from the sequels. I think I just want a heavy edit without some of the narrative changes at the end. But kudos for ambition, and awesome work on the visuals and sound!!!

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.

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.

This was an excellent edit that overall worked very well as a sequel to The Matrix. While I did recall a few missing elements, it's been awhile since I last saw the sequels and I was unable to recognize where the missing parts would have been. The technical elements of the edit are top-notch, and I didn't notice any glaring or jarring transitions. As a story following Neo's journey this edit worked wonderfully. After watching, I did realize that a few of the subplots and side characters felt a little incomplete as times. A few examples are the ships that were supposed be defending Zion are nowhere to be found until Niobe flies in, and when they use the keymaker to get to the source it's a little unclear who's where doing what just before Neo gets in. Also, Trinity's role at the end in machine city is a little unclear but it was easy to assume she stayed with the ship while Neo completed his mission. While these minor shortcomings do create a few plot holes or questions, the strength of this edit is its focus on Neo which made it easy to overlook any omissions. I actually had to look up the original plots to see what had been removed and realized I had completely forgotten about Trinity's death(s) and Bane. Neither of these were missed, and I feel like the story would be unnecessarily bogged down by them. The only parts of this edit I actually didn't enjoy were in some of the fight sequences, specifically the later Neo v Smiths fights when the CGI took over too much and it starting to look like mediocre video game footage. I'll definitely be keeping this edit for next time!

Recently I decided to rewatch The Matrix and so obviously after that, I wanted to watch Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions but the person I was watching it with wasn't that interested so we compromised and watched The Matrix Revolutions Decoded and it was perfect! It told the story of both of the movies without the all the confusing convoluted-ness that the sequels are rife with.

My favorite change was the shortening of the incredibly long car chase. It actually made it really fun. My biggest problem was the removal of the train station sequences. I feel like those were a little too important to cut.