Matrix Revolutions: The Epic Edition

Like most other reviewers, I am a huge fan of the original Matrix and consider it one of my top 25 favorite movies. Similarly, I was disappointed by the sequels. I have watched multiple Matrix fanedits in order to find my permanent watching replacement. After really enjoying The Matrix Revolutions Decoded and this Epic version, I believe this is THE ONE (ba dum tshhh).

It all boils down to the fact that this version is flawlessly edited and turns two overlong, overly complex movies filled with philosophy babble into a streamlined action sci-fi movie that makes complete sense. Like the first Matrix, this edit capitalizes on some basic philosophical questions (how much should man rely on machine? what makes us human? how do we define reality) and doesn't veer into the confusing meditations on choice, purpose, and multiple realities/matrices that the two original sequels do.

Gripes:
-I could have done without the Zion orgy dance scene, but I get its symbolism (bestial life versus cold machines).
-We don't get any sort of closure on what happens to Trinity at the end, though we can assume she makes her way from broadcasting depth back to Zion where she will live a life of sadness without Neo.
-I can't stand the change in oracle actors, but there isn't much to be done about that.

Accolades:
-First off, the most brilliant thing about this edit was changing where Neo goes after he steps through the special door to the Source. He travels to the "source" which is, in the original, the machine mainframe, and speaks with the baby-faced leader of the machines where they make a simple deal that Neo will remove Smith from the Matrix in exchange for peace. Absolutely inspired -- this renders the multiple matrix plotline pointless (which I always hated, as it sort of devalues the current struggle of our characters) and cuts out a ton of extraneous plot including the Architect.
-All of the best action sequences are kept, but many are trimmed down just enough for pacing.
-Small things that are stupid or ridiculous are removed. One of my favorites is when Link returns home: In the original, he starts saying something like "Where's my puss--" and is interrupted by his nephew/niece (I think) who are visiting his wife. It's a cheap laugh, and pretty crass and unlikeable that he would greet his wife after months of being away and missing her in this manner. There are a lot of little moments like this that have been thankfully removed.
-Obvious poorly done elements (Bane, Neo having powers in the real world, Trinity's comically long death scene) are gone and would make no sense with the new narrative plotline.

Overall, the narrative change and editing have redeemed these movies for me and will replace my DVD hardcopies for good.
I'd give the originals a 5/10, the Decoded version a 9/10, and this a 10/10 overall.

I first watched and reviewed this fanedit about a year ago, but upon re-watching it today having not visited the Matrix franchise again since - or fanedits in general - I thought it'd be nice to re-review this edit with a relatively fresh perspective. And this time around, I enjoyed the edit a LOT more and developed a whole new appreciation for it. So I thought I'd re-write an earlier review I wrote for it on the Fanedit Forums, which unfairly focused on criticizing geminigod's relatively great editing skills despite giving a very positive score overall.

So firstly, here are the main major changes to the films themselves in slightly more detail *OBVIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD*: Throughout the entire movie, there is so sub-plot about Agent Smith possessing Bane and entering the real world. By doing this, the whole sub-plot of Neo/Bane being stuck in a coma can be exercised, and additionally there is no footage or mention of the Caduceus crew. Additionally, Neo has no powers carrying across into the real world, only in The Matrix. But the most dramatic change is towards the end of the first half of the film. Instead of Neo meeting the Architect when he enters the door of light, it cuts straight to Neo entering the Machine City and having a peace deal with the Machines if he destroys Agent Smith. Trinity and Neo do not go to the Machine City, instead asking for a ship to borrow to go into The Matrix with, and the edit then goes straight into the battle for Zion and the final battle between Neo and Smith.

How well does this work? Pretty much flawlessly in the first 100 minutes. The pacing is expertly done, with the story still making a heck of a lot of sense and being easy to follow as one stylish, enjoyable action scene after another is thrown your way with a side of universe mythology and a touch of philosophy. The editing is barely noticeable, save for a split-second frame glitch and slowed down shot that happens in the Zion rave scene, and everything just goes into such a cohesive whole that you'd assume this is how the original Matrix sequel was made in the first place.

However, things unfortunately get a little shakier after that. The edit relies heavily on a new scene constructed from existing footage to set up a new narrative, and while the scene isn't awful and lasts for less than 1 minute, it's a scene that is *clearly* edited and feels a little disjointed. The plot threads introduced immediately following the scene feel a little rushed too, with the pacing being simply not as tight as before, and the drama/battle within Zion is simply not as engaging as the action sequences that filled the first half of the edit. The editing in general becomes more noticeable too, with a few smash cuts that feel sudden or fades to white/black that feel unnatural. However, even with that being the case it only mildly distracts from the story at hand rather than derailing it, and thankfully the narrative finds it's footing again in the last half hour, becoming a gripping, suitably epic and hugely satisfying wrap-up to everything we've seen in the rest of the film.

In terms of the quality of the edit itself, the video quality is fantastic for an AVCHD and so is the sound, although it suffers a bit mix-wise since the dialogue always seems a bit too quiet compared to the action scenes. The DVD features are simplistic, but the addition of two shorts from the Animatrix as optional intros really helps set that "epic" feel for the movie, and the commentary from geminigod is a nice addition too.

If I'd give the original sequels a 7, and the Dezionized edit an 8 for trimming the fat, I give The Epic Edition a 9 for doing the same thing but packing a bigger emotional wallop. The score would've been higher if the editing was consistently flawless as it was in the first half, but nonetheless, well done to geminigod for turning the sequels into the true successor the original film deserved!

Finally got around to this after DL'ing last year.
I put off viewing partly because I did not want to waddle through sorry assed Revolutions again.
Then I delayed reviewing because I wanted to listen to Geminigod's audio commentary.

In a nutshell, the A/V editing was spectacular. I missed glitches and fudges he referenced in the commentary. Had to go back, and even then they were often hard to catch.
He also purged the bulk of the offensive bungles from Revolutions.
Also, he made a good argument that the sequel ought to have been one long film, rather than two.
Best, this edit redeemed the franchise, which ain't gonna revive any day soon.

Less compelling, were Geminigod's prolonged defense for the importance of Zion. I never bought that argument. Zion, to me, represented a separation of humanity into elites and mudbugs. Far as Zion went, if the machines whacked them, fine by me.

Commentaries by their nature are enlightening, thoughtful, and maddening. Geminigod's was no exception. For every point he addressed, and I thought "Ooh, I hadn't thought of that," then he would belabor another cue for five minutes, and I'm going, "Hey, Pilgrim, movie's rolling, stay on topic."

This really was a powerhouse job, with a tremendous amount of editing and rearranging, in crafting a true, alternative experience.
And barking aside, I truly appreciated the editor's words. Most enlightening.

VIDEO
I watched the magnificent AVCHD (stripped menus, just watched the m2ts file on my HTPC) and the picture quality is GLORIOUS.
10/10

AUDIO
Some has voiced concerns that the center channel is too low, but while the action gets very loud, the dialog is always very clear in my 5.1 system (Dolby Digital bitstream).
10/10

STUFF THAT I DIDN’T LIKE
I still hate the music in the first fight scene and would personally have changed it to something else. Maybe some tribal style music in the same style as the Neo/Serif fight? As the beat starts I find myself thinking I’m watching some MTV style trailer for the movie.

That horrible CGI in the over the top “Neo Vs. The Smiths” fight should be missed by nobody. I guess it must have been hard to trim out, but all the “hamster style” Kung Fu that consists of running round and round in a wheel consisting of Smith agents isn’t exactly like the Yen Woo Ping stuff that made the fights in the original movie so awesome.

Up to the point where Trinity falls out of the window with an agent shooting at her, I didn’t notice many cuts. Kudos. But also, here’s where I start to notice stuff. Not all is bad, but personally, I would have tried to limit the amount of fade to black/short/another fade to black by trying to tie all segments concerning each group of characters’ story arch witch clean cuts rather than keeping the fades. It almost felt like watching the end of Return Of The King. LOL. My girlfriend joined in on the watch here and she even went “WHAT IS UP!?” at those. Before that she was clueless about it being a Fan Edit and seemed to enjoy herself.

I also thought I’d mention that I noticed a glitchy looking cut right as Smith hammers Neo down into a hole of water and mud then going into the Zion command center.

CONCLUSION
This edit truly is EPIC, though I feel some of the action scenes could have been cut in half simply for pacing. I’ve always loved the highway fight/chase, but here I believe it was missing some stuff from the Theatrical? The Zion carnage with all the Sentinels, giant drill bot and whatnot could have been cut in half IMO, I didn’t time it but it feels like it’s going on forever. I’ve always felt like this about that part though.

I really LOVED this new ending, and this will be my preferred version to accompany the first film for sure. I would just have loved to have it 30 minutes shorter (see above for cutting suggestions). Also missing is the EPIC cleaveage Persephone sports in Revolutions. That was the highlight of the theatrical movie for me, so again, kudos on making this so much better. But the boobs should have stayed somehow.

The Architect showing up at the end is a bit of a wtf moment as he’s never seen before in this edit. Or I might have missed something?

EDITING SCORE 9/10

An overall score of 10/10 from me.

Review by emphatic — August 6, 2011 @ 12:40 AM

Generally speaking, I enjoyed the Matrix sequels. Sure, they weren’t as good as the original, but few sequels are. I never really bothered with any edits until now because hey, why watch an edit of a film I like in its original form? Then Geminigod came along, with promises of an epic finale and so on. I was intrigued, and since I had the time to spare, being on summer break from university, I decided I’d check it out.

And I was absolutely impressed. About an hour and forty minutes into it I asked myself where my rubber stamp was. Ambition is the name of this game, and it’s safe to say that Geminigod is winning (duh).

VIDEO:
Absolutely stunning. The Blu-ray source (and the further clean up by the editor) really shines through even on the DL DVD version. Gem also did some VFX work for a few bits (no, I won’t tell you which) and his work was very well done. There was only one shot that was a bit off due to color correction, but it was a necessary evil.
10/10

AUDIO:
Lacking the proper equipment for a true 5.1 experience I can’t really say how the surround was, but it sounded good, though I did feel a few times the music was over powering the dialogue and sound effects, though I think that may be a flaw of the original and not this edit.
10/10

THE EDIT
The opening was very well edited, flowing from the Revolutions code opening through to the Reloaded one. The title “The Epic Edition” was a bit awkward…perhaps if it had been in the Matrix font it would have fit a bit better, but hey, it was still good.

While several semi-major scenes were excised, I didn’t really notice until about twenty minutes after the cut bit would have taken place. All of the cuts were well made, though there was ONE I didn’t agree with at the end in terms of dialogue, but it was a minor quibble. There was one flash frame during a cut in the rave sequence at the beginning, but the funny thing is, I couldn’t recall what had been cut. There were a couple awkward fades elsewhere, but nothing overly distracting.

Now, for the story. Gem did a great job condensing the two films to a slightly-less-than-three hour long experience. There are a few spots near the middle where he began to use blend the events of Revolutions and Reloaded, and it worked wonderfully. Gone is the silly plotline if Neo being comatose in the Matrix and everything related to that. While he DOES have a noted change in demeanor after the Neb is destroyed, it fits with what he has to do. Is it perfect? No, but if you pretend that you’ve never seen the original versions, it works.

The biggest issue is that, the way the story has been restructured, a number of characters don’t really get an emotional climax, or one at all. It can be left to interpretation, but something would have been nice. Though, this is more a fault to the source material not really having much room for alternate takes, but Gem did the best with what he had to work with.

I don’t want to write a novel on what works and what doesn’t, but suffice it to say that this edit is brilliant, and a definite improvement on the sequels.
8/10

THE DVD:
The disc is simple enough: the movie, chapter selection, and two bonus features: The Final Flight of the Osiris as the prologue, and The Second Renaissance from the Animatrix as “In The Beginning.” As with the main feature, the quality here is excellent.
10/10

IN SUM
I really enjoyed watching this, and as it charged towards its climax, it felt as if I was watching a new film entirely. The few faults are easy to overlook, and on the whole it is an enjoyable experience.

9/10

Review by Aztek463 — June 10, 2011 @ 10:33 PM