Matrix Revolutions Decoded, The

I'm one of many people who liked the matrix original movie and the animatrix but got lost with the 2 sequels. The Matrix Revolution Decoded is a great conclusion to the matrix narrative showing the relevant aspects of the scrip and goes right to the point. Good job.

WOW. I'm impressed. I have recently tried to watch several edits that combine Reloaded & Revolutions together. For me, this was the one that really worked. This edit keeps only the important material to keeps the movie flowing, engaging and focused.
I like that the choice Neo has to make is not between 'rebooting' Zion or saving Trinity but between 'Rebooting' Zion or fighting for Zion. This made the whole conversation with the Architect so much clearer, more focused. It's all about Zion. I understand that this shifts the focus away from Trinity, making her a secondary character. She is now just Neo's girlfriend who assists him with his mission. So the fact that she, through her love, made Neo the one loses it's significance. But, despite this change - I liked the narrative this edit was going for.

In this edit Neo's real life super powers are no more. Smith-Bane is no more. Sure, it results in some cuts look abrupt; Cuts such as Neo and Trinity entering the machine city, bombs exploding before they reach their ship and Neo losing his eyes. Also, there's no emotional response from Trinity to the death of Neo at the end. She just operates some machinery. I think, perhaps Trinity's death should have stayed in the finished edit somehow.

Bottom line, This edit has shown me an alternative vision for a good and worthy sequel to 'The Matrix'. When the end credits (which were extremely well done) rolled, I had a smile on my face.

I should clarify immediately that I have not revisited Reloaded and Revolutions in their entirety since their respective opening weekends, so take my review as you will. Memory is not perfect, and I took advantage of the situation by making my viewing of the Matrix conclusion a "fresh" one.

As far as visceral experience is concerned, I have enjoyed re-watching the Matrix sequels in this format. I will highlight one outstanding improvement, and that is narrative pacing. 'Decoded' brings the Matrix conclusion to a succinctness that was severely lacking from my Reloaded/Revolutions viewing from yesteryear.

Audio/Video Quality.
The overall quality of the picture and sound compared to the original was excellent; quite negligible as far as technical differences are concerned. Considering that HD releases for 'Decoded' and the original films are contemporary, I think expounding upon this further is moot (and, frankly, not my strong suit at the time of writing this review).

Visual Editing.
The overall quality of the visual editing was great; seamless for the most part. There were genuine moments of awe where I had to re-watch clips of the original movies to figure out if a certain sequence of events were actually Jerick's doing. From a technical standpoint, there were very few cuts that personally stood out. Luckily, the cuts that were obvious were not immersion-breaking. Off the top of my head, there were only 2-4 transitions that were acutely jarring but not bad enough to sully my savor of the film, but cute enough to make me smirk and think, "Obvious cut". The visual editing was a success.

Audio Editing.
The overall quality of the audio editing was smooth. As far as my perception brought me, audio pieces blended in well, and nothing was rough, abrupt, and obviously cut to my ears. Like in Visual Editing, similar criticisms apply, such as 2-4 transitions being acutely jarring but not bad enough etc. The audio editing was a success.

Narrative.
THIS is the one that gets me every time. There is only one plot-point in this cut that is extremely jarring, and that is


SPOILER ALERT (skip next paragraph for spoiler-free conclusion)


when Neo and Trinity pilot the Logos into 01, i.e. Machine City, and Neo loses his eyes thanks to a "Ghost Sentinel"(???). I understand that Smith-Bane was intended to be removed from 'Decoded' as much as possible, and I honestly would not know how to re-cut the blind Neo situation, but seeing what I saw was jarring enough to break my suspension of disbelief and result in a fit of laughter. That being said, 'Decoded' did the best it could with the cards dealt.


SPOILERS END HERE


The re-structuring of the overall sequel(s) narrative was a success, despite the aforementioned quirk, and, as emphasized earlier, 'Decoded' brings the Matrix conclusion to a succinctness that was severely lacking from its source material.

Enjoyment.
I'm really not that picky. Even the few jarring cuts spliced here and there coupled with the plot-point mentioned above left me feeling an innocent sense of comic relief rather than immersion-breaking disappointment. I enjoyed the Matrix Trilogy as a whole when it first came out, and, with time, 'Decoded' reinvigorated my love for the Matrix more than the two original sequels ever could. I'm a huge fan of the original Matrix (1999), and 'Decoded' brought a satisfying conclusion to the series.

I recommend this cut even to the most hardcore of Reloaded/Revolutions critics, just on the off chance of bringing some much needed closure. ~9/10

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.

This is an incredibly ambitious edit that I enjoyed a lot. The narrative restructuring is, in theory, very impressive.

I didn't notice any major audio or visual issues and everything looked great to me.

Unfortunately, I think Jerick's ambition may have slightly exceeded what is actually possible given the existing footage. Specifically toward the end, some of the cutting is noticeable and feels forced in order to bend the film into what the editor is trying to do. They aren't technically bad cuts, but they can be felt. You can feel the movie straining against the concept. Things like not using the second actress for the Oracle or hiding Neo's blindness are really difficult to pull off, and they just feel a bit off, like it's not as smooth as it would be in a traditional film.

However, I think Jerick did the best job possible getting the movies where they wanted to, and it's a very interesting and different take on the sequels, especially Revolutions. Though this edit wouldn't necessarily replace the originals for me (not even my personal edit does that, these films are really weird and difficult to mess with) I am happy that I watched it, and would recommend checking it out to most Matrix fans.