Matrix Revolutions Decoded, The

OK! So, I absolutely love the first Matrix. A great tale that merges eastern religion (zen Buddhism, mostly, but a little Hinduism for good measure), philosophy (what is real and how can we tell), and cyberpunk mentality (conspiracies and those in power trying to keep the truth hidden) into a really fun action movie that actually gave you more to talk about than some dramas... even with Kenau Reeves' cardboard performance.

Then enter the second and *shudder* third movies and all that was gone... I never understood how to utterly craptastic movies could follow such gold. Well, that's a lie. I actually never saw the abortion that was Revolutions... Reloaded was so bad I swore off the entire atrocity. After a friend told me it was the worst, I never felt compelled to try again.

Well, this edit upends ....some... of that criticism. In fact, cutting down Reloaded actually let me see the serious philosophy that had gotten hidden beneath the crap (free will vs determinism) and I found I really liked the first half of this edit. Everything moved smoothly, and I didn't feel like I was missing anything (even though I kinda remembered scenes that weren't there, I didn't miss them). I was totally pumped at this point and seriously thinking that this may be the best fanedit I had seen.

Then we got to the Revolutions half, and everything fell apart. Suddenly there was just a lot of action, and I was lost. When Trinity and co get picked up by the other ship, I thought that was the only ship left and Zion had already fallen (remember I hadn't seen the original of this one) especially because of the captain's description of things. Then the two groups split and I find out they are going to Zion because its almost time for the final battle? And then Neo is blind? There was so much WTF going on I actually backed the movie up and watched about 30 minutes of it again and was still confused. Again, I felt like this was the original movie's fault as much as the editor, as I was still kinda confused as to what was happening after reading the Wikipedia summaries later.

Kudos to the editor for keeping Trinity alive... I almost bought it, but something about the sequence felt weird enough that I had to pause the movie and look up a synopsis on Wikipedia to learn that she was supposed to die. Armed with that knowledge, the rest of the movie was well done with respect to her, and it all felt plausible. Jerrick, you are a great editor, because it all seemed very believable that she survived the crash, and the footage you used for her at the end (even cheering for him during the final fight!) was epic. Loved it. A little weird right at the crash, but that could have been my general confusion at this point.

My final point is also probably with the original material, not the edit, as the plot summaries are confusing on this plot point. I have no idea why the baby-faced machine god needed Neo's help with Smith to begin with. If you get a computer virus in the real world (which is exactly what Smith was behaving like), you disconnect the infected computer from the network so it can't spread and re-install a clean OS, not have a DBZ style fight in the rain. I mean crap. You were about to rewrite the Matrix anyway! He is software. Turn off the computer he inhabits and he's done! In what way does flying around in the rain punching faces fix it? And what makes it different when Neo is absorbed that kills them all? What a crappy finish.

The one bit of editing that I really disliked (and not knowing the original material, it may still be better than it originally was :D) was the scene with the Oracle and Smith? WTF? How did they find her? Why was that sequence so obviously copy-pasted together? Where was that bodyguard of hers? It felt like something was obviously trying to be smoothed over or fixed, but I actually didn't see the relevance of the scene anyway.

All in all, this edit was about as good as could be hoped for given the source material, but some things can't be taken away. Jerrick does an amazing job of fixing what can be fixed, unfortunately glitter on poo doesn't actually make poo any better to look at. And despite all the failings of the story, I have to say that I still recommend this edit, because it is light years better than what we had before, and if you have to acknowledge that the trilogy exists, this is probably still the best way to watch it.

Edit: I realized that I must have moused over the ratings at some point before I submitted the review. I Also reworded a few things to make it clearer that it was the source material and not the editor that I took objection to. Thanks!

Jerick combines Reloaded and Revolutions into a better narrative then we were given by their makers. For me it's made Revolutions part of something really good. Before it was a film I could not watch through after seeing it first in the cinema.

Thanks for what must have been a huge job. Hope many get to see it.

I think the Matrix franchise is one I will forever be intrigued by. Having watched the original as a kid and being absolutely enthralled by it's imaginative vision, ever since I've been disappointed by how the sequels effectively killed off any chance of revisiting the unique universe they inhabit. I'm often interested in exploring those sequels and what made them go wrong via these fanedits, and the number of times I've now seen the sequels because of fanedits easily makes them one of the most watched films I've seen.

And now, I think Jerick has made the definitive edit for most people. The Matrix Revolutions Decoded is by far the most professionally edited version of the sequels I've seen, and it dramatically retools the story in a way that simply works. All of the shoehorned philosophy is removed, the development of secondary characters you don't care about is gone, and the terribly pointless subplots from The Matrix: Revolutions are cut. The result is an exiting, sharply paced battle for survival that gives the series the send-off it deserves, with a new narrative that is surprisingly sturdy, and edited so flawlessly that regular viewers wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

It's just that for me, personally, this edit has all the right ideas, but it goes a little *too* far in it's execution. I LOVE what jerrick has done here, and how excellently he executed it, but by completely removing the side characters and philosophy, there's less build-up to the dramatic battle for Zion, and to me it makes it feel like less of the epic conclusion it was designed to be. You're not as emotionally invested in if Zion survives since there's barely any characters we know there. The shortened mech fighting similarly makes it feel like another battle scene rather than a climactic one (though once again Jerick edits it in beautifully unnoticeable fashion), and the way that Neo's visions and motivations are modified so it seems like he cares for Zion's fate rather than Trinity's doesn't ring true to me. I also thought, like his last edit of the sequels, Jerrick's decision to remove the replacement Oracle seems like an unnecessary attempt to save time (the new scene where the old Oracle seems to be killed by the Agents is a particularly awkward one to me), and I personally thought the ending is kind of sudden compared to the original one.

But other than that, this is a brilliant edit of some mediocre sequels, now my second favourite edit of them, and undoubtedly the most well executed one. Well done, man! Great job!

What a great job. I've watched and enjoyed a bunch of Matrix edits but for me, this is the best. The editor and I share a sense of what was great in the sequels and what is completely useless. This is my definitive version of the sequels. I have this and the first Matrix next to each other on my shelf, in my "real" movies section. This is perfectly paced and I loved the ending. Thank you for reading my mind and making it real, apparently.

Technically, this is incredibly proficient. Very clean, no noticable cuts or wonky stuff. Great job.

An amazing edit.

As decent as the story of the first film is, it is (by and large) an introduction to the main story. The fact that we don't even see Zion in the first movie at all is telling, and after rewatching it before this movie it felt more like a TV pilot than ever before. When The Matrix ends, the story is just getting started.

The problem is where it went from there. The story of Reloaded has its moments, but was bogged down in mumbo-jumbo and a way too complex structure for its own good. Revolutions is terrible in almost every respect, and all the central parts - the Messiah story, the war movie, and Bane - are uniformy awful.

Although this is a really radical edit (Bane removed, and a completely different ending), it still stays true to the movies' main stories, apart from the vastly superior new ending. Despite cutting most of the war movie snoozefest, it's still recognisably about the attack on Zion. The fact that so much deadweight can be cut without creating continuity errors or plot holes, is a testament to how padded the story was with badly written stereotypes we were supposed to care about.

I probably enjoyed The Matrix DeZionized as much as I enjoyed this, for the simple reason that Zion is just not enjoyable in any form, not even with the deadweight removed. This edit, however, makes a lot more sense as a film, and is easily the better edit overall. It's as good as this extremely flawed story can get.