Robots VS Kung Fu: The Matrix Grindhouse Edition

I watched the DVD version (still have to watch the 2nd disc with the extras). I haven't read any reviews of the edit yet, and I didn't read any of the detailed info about the edit before watching. Here is my stream of consciousness bulleted noted that I took as I watched the edit:

- Nice DVD Menus!

- Cool Previews

- opening with the cityscapes and narration/conversation kinda caught me off guard

- Nice choice with Jefferson Airplane

- sound replacement/foley effects etc. is kinda interesting, not sure if its intially not supposed to sound polished, either way it works

- the inclusion of some of the behind the scenes/outtakes footage worked, sometimes it didnt (just my opinion)

- been a looonnggg time since I've seen Johnny Mnemonic

- LMAO at "long story"

- in certain places (for example the kung fu training scene), the music could have been a tad lower and the dialogue could have been a bit louder. This is somewhat nitpicky, as this wasn't a constant problem throughout the edit, just in certain spots

- from the meeting with the oracle onward, the narrative and visual editing felt a bit erratic sort of all over the place (again, just my opinion)

- The ending was great though. very, very clever.

- I didn't really know what to expect going into this edit but overall this was a fun, outside-the-box fanedit.

Nice work matrixgrindhouse! Looking forward to Chapter 2!

[Review]
Remember 'The Matrix'? Reality is just an illusion... and only The One, aka Neo, can save us - via some envelope-pushing special effects and a pounding soundtrack courtesy of the likes of The Propellerheads, The Prodigy and Rage Against The Machine.

Well, chuck your memories in the bin. Because everything you think you know about The Matrix is a load of crap and Neo is going to ram it up your back-side, all-the-while accompanied by a mildly weird 80's electronic 'rhythm'. Unless you pay him not to. Then he's your best friend.

If this sounds like your kind of re-edit, then you are going to love this. 'Robots vs Kung Fu' is very left-of-centre which for those of the more cynical disposition (like yours truly) means it is highly enjoyable. Characters are completely mixed up and messed around, often with hilarious results. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Neo tell people to 'fuck off' at every opportunity, his shady morals making him a far more sympathetic anti-hero than the wide-eyed innocent original. And don't get me started on the enigmatic and downright-weird Morpheous.

Then there are The Agents, particularly Agent Smith. Where to start? Well, when he's not buggering his victims off-screen for information, he's having them held-down in an interview room for his own sexual gratification. If you thought the original was bad, wait until you've been treated to this editor's version. Brilliant.

How matrixgrindhouse pulls this off is by delving in to an enviable knowledge of pulp video fare. The list of sources is awe-inspiring and a large hint at just how much work and research went in to this project.

The best compliment I can pay this edit? I'll be back very soon to watch it again. Or was that deja-vu?

[Technical]
I want to end on the high this gargantuan effort deserves, so we'll start with criticisms. The main one is that this film seems confused about whether it is an homage to early-80's VHS straight-to-video exploitation (there was a time when there was very little content to rent on VHS, so shit films were rushed out to fill the vacuum - believe me, I remember by grandad renting a sci-film he thought from the cover must be like Star Wars only for us to watch open-mouthed as people had their skulls melted with lasers) or if it's a dodgy 16mm release of a low-budget sci-fi, which would make it late 1970's. The music and low grade video for me firmly places it in the former, which makes the film-degradation effects occasionally confusing. I'd have loved to see tape drop-out and wear to accompany the rest of the edit, rather than the usual film scratches.

'Grindhouse' stylistically can also be taken so far that the audience isn't sure at times whether a degrading effect is intentional or not. For example, in this edit one of the main characters (Trinity) speaks about 4 long lines of dialogue that are at quite a profound moment in the film (as profound as an excellent piss-take as this can get) and they are virtually inaudiable. Is this a clever device to cover up lines that wouldn't make sense? Or is the sound badly handled? At times it's hard to tell.

As I said in my review, there is an absolute well of footage that the editor has sifted through to make this film - but at times the music sounds a little limited. It fits most of the time, but there are tracks that sound self-indulgent and don't fit in with the others. Listening to the soundtrack to the original 'The Matrix' is a masterclass is putting disparate music together that fits seamlessly, and a project this large deserves as much attention.

All that being said, this is indeed a huge project. Almost every shot has been toyed with in some way or another, and when the trailer says 'three years in the making' you believe it. A massive undertaking that must have taken months of dedication - which is what it takes to make a great FanEdit. Excellent work.

(One last point - the film can be watched on an online video service, making it instantly accessible and user-friendly. FanEditors aspiring to the seriousness and calibre of this project that want their work to reach a large audience should take note.)

Let me preface this by saying that every time I would see someone write "you should do a grindhouse edit of _____" on the forum, I wanted to ban them immediately. There were a lot of hack attempts, but shitty-ing up the picture quality and making a bunch of hard cuts does not a grindhouse film make. Fortunately the trend seemed to fade from the spotlight for a bit. TMBTM's War of the Stars edit was a bit closer to the real deal, and that edit was a lot of fun.

Now, with Robots vs. Kung Fu, we have as close as a true grindhouse film as you are going to get. The editor did a fantastic job with this. The editing was quite good at times, the music choices were great, and it really did feel like a cheap grindhouse film. That said, not everything worked for me (a bit too much Johnny Mnemonic footage was used, and the filters/compression were a bit much for me) but I did really enjoy this. I look forward to watching the bonus features and listening to the commentary. Great job!!!!

Hmm how to rate this, I mean it's intentionally bad, but it does that good! This movie was a real blast and a good fresh way to see this movie again, lots visual and narrative creativity. I also have to mention that the music score is epic and the bonus ending is hilarious, I almost wish the sequels were about something more like that. There were a few parts were the narrative was hard to follow, but maybe I just haven't seen enough of the movies this is parodieng to be in on the joke. It's absolutely worth a watch and it was a lot more funny then I thought it would be. I can't remember specifics right now, but there was several edits I found to be very clever.

Wow. I really thought I'd seen it all, and that no other Matrix fan edits would hold enjoyment for me, but this one proved me wrong! I love this fanedit! I would have given it perfect scores across the board, but the Johnny Mnuemonic stuff -although great to see included and fun, didn't quite connect in narrative fashion that I totally understood - even with the grindhouse framework... I still kind of "got" those parts though.

The incredibly intricately extracted range of source materials (mainly from Dark City, Matrix Revisited and the Matrix Online) is impressive, and well incorporated, and gave me a "wow, I didn't see that coming" feeling to a movie I've literally watched over a 100 times, no joke. This fanedit is a real pleasure!

Super fun and awesome! I enjoyed this fan edit enough to watch the feature fanedit, then immediately watch it with the commentary - all the way threw both series of credits. The Fan Editor should be proud of themselves, for a job very well done, and I eagerly await the planned sequel - even if it takes another 3 years or more, I'll still keep an eye out!