Matrix Revolutions: The Epic Edition

January 2, 2012

I need to give this edit a second watch, this time listening to the commentary, but here's what I remember:

It was hella sweet.


Nov 8 2012:

Listened to the commentary. Also hella sweet.

(Enjoyment upped from 9 to 10.)

Original review: Febuary 1 2012

I finally got to watch this epic edit tonight, and was highly impressed with the skill and creativity that went into it. It looked and sounded superb, made some fantastic cuts and, overall, was a much much more enjoyable experience than sitting through the two sequels (especially revolutions, I still quite enjoy reloaded as a stand alone film.)

Video: I watched the bluray, and was taken to that special bluray place. Thank you for being an HD snob Gemini, we all benefit from it! The picture was brilliant, and I didn’t notice any flaws at all.

Audio: Same deal. Great work, your technical prowess was obvious throughout, and everything was well balanced.

Story: You have improved it a great deal.

Things I liked: Simplifying the story by cutting out many flabby elements, including Smith in the real world, Neo’s powers in the real world, Neo lost in the train station, the multiple 1’s story thread, the 2nd visit to the frenchy who likes to wipe his ass with silk…Great. It plays more like a classic hero tale now in it’s general structure, which can only be a good thing.
- The effects work in the ’source’ scene was a great surprise, and a very clever and original way to avoid meeting colonel Sanders in the tv shop.
- Supporting characters, especially in Revolutions, are now more likable, probably because they’re not surrounded by a load of bolony in the other story threads anymore. I found myself caring about the action in Zion for the first time, so great job there Gem.

Things I didn’t like as much:
- There were a few points where the edits unfortunately did jump out at me and take me out of the film, and these were mostly due to awkward wipes and cross fades. There were about 4 or 5 of these that I thought could have been a bit smoother, but without seeing the alternative, it’s hard to say. Maybe this is as good as it could have been, but they were there so I’ll mention them.

- There were also a few stitching problems, such as after the epic flying truck crash rescue, we almost instantly cut to a very calm Neo, Morpheus and Trinity in the car. There is no response to what they have just been through, and it feels jarring. I also thought the sudden introduction of all of the revolutions minor characters in that ‘bridging’ section felt awkward as well. If this was really intended to be one movie, ideally we would have met those characters in the early meeting scene, but never mind. There’s nothing you could do about that really, and I think you managed well.

- The biggest story problem for me was the lack of a conclusion with Trinity, She’s a major player, and the last we see of her she says “I’m coming with you”… but then she doesn’t. I think this hurt the edit a fair bit actually, as you really can’t leave the major love interest and female heroine stranded like that… but oh well.

- two more minor gripes
1) The movie still felt too long, I think you could easily cut another 30 minutes and tighten up your already tightened narrative further. The heavy handed philosophy is, at times, incredibly cringe worthy. It sometimes, dare I say it, borders on the levels of wooden and cheesy only achieved by one other director that shall remain nameless (George Lucas). “I dreamed a dream…” still makes me laugh out loud. I half expect Morpheus to burst into song, and start singing Les Miserables. And he says “I believe” about 8 too many times. So I guess I would love to see the slightly less epic but more condensed and less wanky edition if you can ever be bothered, but I understand if you’re done and dusted with the matrix after this mammoth effort. You have permission to use that title by the way.

2)The rave. Goodness me I hate that scene. I understand why it’s needed, but I thought a lot of slow motion grindy shots could have been trimmed to tighten that scene further. I guess the problem is it makes Neo look like he has premature problems, given that the climax of the dance is so obviously supposed to coincide with the …ahem. Naked Gun anyone?

But seriously, overall I really enjoyed this edit, and I can’t quite believe you managed to get me invested in the Revolutions scenes. Bravo, and great work on making the Matrix sequels palatable again. I have only watched one other 2 in 1 matrix effort, and this blows it out of the water in my opinion.

Congrats Gem, nice work.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

I am a huge fan of the matrix movies. The Matrix might have even be the first movie I ever saw on DVD. I eagerly anticipated the sequels and while I was definitely wowed by parts of Reloaded and Revolutions I was ultimately left feeling unsatisfied.

The idea of fanedits of the matrix sequels had always intrigued me. The Matrix Revolutions: The Epic Edition is the first Matrix fanedit I have ever viewed. (Guilty as charged of having the avi of Matrix Dezionized sitting on my harddrive unwatched for over a year). Overrall I was extremely impressed with this fanedit.

VIDEO: 10/10 Excellent picture quality. I watched the edit this past weekend while house sitting for my parents who, now retired, indulged themselves and bought a gigantic widescreen hd tv. The picture looked great on a big screen.

AUDIO: 10/10 No pops or audio drop outs or anything. Seamless audio. Great work.

MENUS: Simple nice looking menu design.

EXTRAS: In the Beginning and The Prologue were a nice refresher. It had been awhile since I had watched any of the Animatrix stuff

THE EDIT:

I didn’t read the cutlist or read about any of the changes that were made in this edit before hand. There were some nice small cuts here and there made to The Merovingian scene (before the highway chase). And only as I write this review am I realizing some of the little things that were taken out. So nicely done on trimming the excess fat there.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the removal of The Architect scene with Neo. One of the most ridiculous expository scenes in movie history (Will Ferrell did a great spoof of it for one of the MTV Movie Awards). But suffice it to say I really didn’t like that scene in Reloaded and I’m glad it was removed.

Thank you for removing the “I love you too damn much” line (makes me want to puke everytime!)

The Reloaded and Revolutions were “bridged”/connected was creatively done and, in my humble opinion, it worked perfectly.

Managing to remove Smith taking form of one of the unplugged guys (i forget the character’s name), trying to sabotage the humans, blinding Neo with the ray gun etc. I always disliked this part and felt Smith should not be part of the real world in the movie and only be in the matrix, that was just my personal preference. And along the same lines I think it was a good choice to take out the scenes where Neo’s “powers” spill over into the real world (i.e. being able to stop the sentinels with his mind).

For the few nitpicky, “i would have kept this/removed this” stuff. This is just constructive criticism and only my personal opinion, im sure others may disagree. But at first i was kinda bummed out that you cut the line “where’s my puss- heeey!” when he comes back to zion and enters his apartment. I definitely laughed in theaters during that scene. And Link is a bit of comedic relief in the movie. But thats just my opinion.

I’ll have to rewatch my Matrix Reloaded DVD to see what Neo actually says but in the edit when Neo says “sorry i took so long, i know you wont understand this i need to take one of the ships” Morpehus asks where and Neo says “the matrix” and it looks off. The audio and Neo’s mouth looks out of sync. I realize you must have done some editing to that scene and used previous audio of Neo saying “the matrix” and inserted it in this scene. I sympathize as Im sure it is a tough editing job to replace dialogue like that and make it look good, but it did stick out a bit.

I won’t go as far as to say Matrix Revolutions: The Epic Edition will replace my copies of Reloaded and Revolutions just yet. I think I will have to watch some of the other Matrix fanedits before making that decision. But I definitely enjoyed this edit far more than the theatrical versions of reloaded and revolutions! In some point in the future, I plan on watching with geminigod’s commentary.

Great fanedit. I know a ton of work and planning was involved in this edit. So if you do decide to do another fanedit in the future, I will definitely be watching.