Robots VS Kung Fu: The Matrix Grindhouse Edition

The whole modern grindhouse genre is a very fascinating idea but not one that I think works well in a long form format. Hobo with a Shotgun, Machete, and Planet Terror, to name a few, were all novel ideas but after the initial awe wore off I began to become disinterested.

This is the same thing that happened with this edit. I found the idea extremely interesting and unique but half way into it, I lost interest and began to drift away from paying attention. This has nothing to do with the quality of the edit but is more a reflection on my interest and thoughts on the genre.

Rating the technical aspect of a film like this is difficult because bad editing techniques are what make a film a grindhouse film. That being said, this edit is a perfect representation of how the techniques for a grindhouse film should be executed. The amount of work that must have went into this edit is astounding.

I don't really think the Johnny Mnemonic scenes worked very well for the most part because they threw off the narrative, which is why I gave it an 8 rating.

On the other hand, there were several things about this edit that I did enjoy. The running gag of Agent Smith zipping his pants (inferring a certain action) was hilarious. As were some of the lines of dialogue, like the conversation between Neo and Trinity about her being a man a long time ago HAHA!! I also really enjoyed the ending, which I won't spoil.

My favorite part of this edit was actually the fake trailers that occur before the feature film, similar to the fake trailers before Grindhouse (Planet Terror/Death Proof). Trailers of this sort is where I feel the modern grindhouse technique is best used, because they are in a short form format.

Overall, even though I didn't enjoy this edit as much as others I would still recommend it. The ideas are solid and would be hard pressed to find anything as original. For those reasons alone, this edit should be viewed and if another is released I will most certainly view that as well.

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!

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!