Review Detail

The first Matrix was a fantastic, game-changing film, and I don't envy the Wachowskis the difficult task of creating two sequels to such an influential piece of art. While almost any sequel would fall short of the first, the result was two overlong, self-important action/war films that failed to bring enough new ideas to the table to justify the effort.

This edit gets a lot right in condensing the narrative into a single 3 hour epic. The new plot is relatively easy to follow, it includes much of the good and discards a lot of the bad.

Unfortunately, the very simplicity of the new narrative turns out to be this edit's greatest weakness.

Spoilers Begin

The first 2/3 of the edit essentially tell a condensed version of Reloaded, but without the Architect waiting at the end. Instead, when Neo enters the door he goes immediately to the machine city. This allows for an extremely condensed version of Revolutions, but because it skips the 'twist' that Neo was never intended as the chosen one, Neo never has to make a meaningful choice in the edit. He begins the story believing that he is the chosen one, and follows the Oracle's directions to save Zion. His defeat of Smith occurs the same way it does in the first film - he destroys Smith from the inside with his 'chosen one' powers, presumably, since we do not see the Machine God aid in Smith's destruction.

Spoilers End

In short, while this is a good 'action movie' cut of the Matrix sequels, it loses too much of Reloaded and Revolutions to replace them in my viewing.