Review for The Complete Matrix Trilogy

Introduction

The Matrix was the first DVD I bought with my DVD player way back when, eager to upgrade from a murky VHS tape. It was the best DVD I owned... until I started buying other DVDs. That’s the problem with early technology, there were the teething troubles with compatibility on such a complex disc, plus there were the early issues with encoding and the like, as they hadn’t quite figured out all the kinks in the format. The Matrix was the killer app that got everyone onboard the Digital Versatile Disc gravy train, but then we got to see what the format really could do. That difference was made all the more apparent when the Matrix sequels finally came to DVD, and really were reference material for the format. Of course it was all topsy-turvy. The sequels never lived up to the original movie, so for years the best film had the worst transfer. Later on, the film did get re-mastered for the 10 disc mega-set with everything thrown in but the kitchen sink, and the BBFC edits restored. But the quality of the sequels dissuaded me from double dipping.

Then someone invented Blu-ray. High definition audio and video would mean the best possible quality for the Matrix trilogy, and there would be an even bigger improvement over that original DVD. Once again I was almost a day one purchaser, this was one of the first collections I bought with my first Blu-ray player (That collector’s instinct did in the end persuade me to double-dip for the sequels again, although at the budget price that this box-set resides at, it’s not so much a sting as a little pinprick). But the boxset did wind up remaining on my to-watch pile for so long, that my first Blu-ray player expired, and I bought a second before I actually started watching the discs.

Introduction: The Matrix

Neo lives a double life. Mild mannered computer programmer by day, demon hacker by night, and his life is tormented by questions, questions about the Matrix he believes that the terrorist Morpheus can answer. He spends his nights searching for this mysterious and elusive character, but his activities draw the attention of the authorities and soon Agents wishing to use him to track Morpheus pursue him. However with the aid of another hacker, Trinity he is able to elude these fearsome characters and she introduces him to Morpheus. It turns out that Morpheus has in turn been searching for him and believes that he is the ‘chosen one’, one who will have power over the Matrix and will free the human race from slavery, a slavery that is insidious and never apparent. What Morpheus tells Neo will alter his perceptions and change his world forever.

Picture: The Matrix

The Matrix gets a 2.40:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p resolution. Comparing this to that original DVD is like comparing two completely different films. The clarity is excellent, detail levels are high, and the incredible production design comes across well. There’s none of the compression and lack of clarity that was apparent on the DVD. Skin tones are consistent, while the film now has a feeling of depth and dimension. It’s just that in comparison to other, more recent Blu-rays, The Matrix comes across as a little soft, not quite making the full use of the Blu-ray format. It’s still watchable enough though, and much better than the original DVD, especially given that it’s uncut.

Sound: The Matrix

One annoyance is that the film starts automatically when you insert the disc, and it defaults to the Dolby Digital 5.1 English audio track. You’ll have to use the pop-up menu, or escape to the main menu to change to the much more dynamic and rewarding Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround English. Otherwise you also have the choice of Dolby Surround tracks in French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, with subtitles in all these languages, and in Dutch. The surround track really does impress with The Matrix, the sound design is excellent, and the action sequences come across well, while the movie’s still iconic music soundtrack never overpowers the dialogue. Best of all, as this is the uncut version; the butchered music during the fight sequences is now a thing of the past.

Extras: The Matrix

The film autoplays when inserting the disc. You can access the extra features from the pop-up menu or the static main menu screen.

New for the Blu-ray is the In-Movie Experience, one of those picture-in-picture interview and stuff featurettes that you get while watching the film. And it’s one of those things that I refuse to watch due to the pain of changing my player settings for the duration.

The rest of the extras come from the various DVD releases (although the initial UK Matrix disc lacked commentaries due to BBFC edits).


First in Behind the Story, you’ll find The Matrix Revisited. Back when The Matrix was DVD’s killer app, the studio was apt to make as much out of the franchise as possible. I doubt you could get away with releasing an extras disc for separate retail after the fact today, but The Matrix Revisited was just that, the making of the film on a separately sold disc. It’s here in all its 2 hour 3 minutes SD glory though, on the same disc as the movie. It’s a proper making of, with contemporary footage, plus interviews with the cast and crew, and the Wachowski siblings, taken during the production of the sequels.

Also taken from the Matrix Revisited disc are the 7 Behind the Matrix featurettes, including a shorter making of and some Yuen Woo-Ping choreographed test sequences. These run to 43 minutes in total.

Taken from the original Matrix release are the 9 Follow the White Rabbit featurettes (23 minutes) and the Take the Red Pill featurettes (18 minutes).

Then there are the commentaries. There were originally two releases of The Matrix on DVD, with a 10 disc Ultimate Edition coming along with a newly re-mastered version of the first film (the first time it was uncut in the UK), and almost all of the extras, plus new extras unique to the UE, including The Animatrix, and two documentary discs. This Blu-ray collection ditches the latter three discs, but gathers all of the extras. From the first Matrix release, we get the Cast and Crew Commentary with Carrie-Anne Moss, John Gatea, and Zach Staenberg. We also get the Composer Commentary by Don Davis with isolated score (naturally he speaks mostly during the music free bits). Note that we never got these commentaries in the UK release because of the BBFC edits.

From the Ultimate Edition, we get the Philosophers and Critics Commentaries across all three films. In a written introduction, the Wachowski siblings stated their desire to avoid driving the direction of any debate by remaining silent on the films, and instead commissioning two sets of commentaries, from critics of the trilogy and from philosophers who appreciated the trilogy, opposing viewpoints to generate conversation about the films. The Philosopher’s Commentaries are contributed to by Dr Cornel West, and Ken Wilber, and are very easy to listen to, while the Critics Commentaries with Todd McCarthy, John Powers, and David Thomson are a little more conventional in their approach to the films, although they aren’t quite as enamoured of the sequels.


In the Audio section, you get The Music Revisited, 41 tracks of music from the film presented in DD 2.0 Stereo with the aid of a Matrix code screensaver. Oddly enough I didn’t recognise any of the tunes that I sampled as coming from the film.

You get a ‘Rock is Dead’ Marilyn Manson music video.

In the trailers section you get the teaser, the theatrical trailer and the TV spots for the film.

All of this extra footage is in SD format, and most of it is presented in 4:3 ratio. Subtitles are available where required.

Conclusion: The Matrix

I’m trying to recall now what I thought of Star Wars in 1992. I still loved that film then, fan fervour for the Star Wars universe had never abated, and we only had the original trilogy. George Lucas hadn’t Special Editioned them yet, and the prequels were unheard of. Yeah, I still loved Star Wars fifteen years after its release. It’s been fifteen years since the release of the Matrix, and I can’t say the same about this film. The difference being we didn’t have to wait another seven years for the Wachowski siblings to taint their creation, The Matrix Reloaded and Revelations came about in relatively short order. I can’t watch The Matrix without thinking of what came after, and that diminishes it in my estimation.

Also, with everyone and their pets now using comic book visuals, CGI, bullet time and all manner of visual tricks in their storytelling, that ‘Oh my God, what did I just see!’ feeling is well and truly a thing of the past. The story is still sound, an effective sci-fi that touches on technology and philosophy in a way that really hasn’t been done since. The action sequences still impress, the visuals hold up well even today, even in the HD that would normally reveal the seams in such. It is good, engaging storytelling that entertains and provokes thought, even though the big jaw dropping twist that I got the first time I saw Neo take the red pill in the cinema was a one time only deal, and impossible now in this world of Internet and trailer spoilers.


The problem is that The Matrix, even now is so much part of our pop-culture, so part of the mainstream, that it has been referenced, copied, and parodied to death. I know the key moments in this film so well now, even though I rarely watch it, that those moments lose meaning and effectiveness. When Laurence Fishburne sent up his Morpheus character for one of last year’s Superbowl ads, the sell-by date for the Matrix phenomenon had passed. What was at the time, the most groundbreaking, effective film of the twentieth century, is now just merely a fun action movie with more than the usual degree of depth. It turns out that there is such a thing as too much popularity.

8/10

Introduction: The Matrix Reloaded

It has been six months since the events of the Matrix, and with the aid of The One the forces of Zion have been freeing minds from the machines at an unprecedented rate. It’s enough of a threat for the machines to take action, and as the film begins, the machines have begun to tunnel to Zion, to eliminate it once and for all. While the military under Commander Lock are set to make a stand at the gates of Zion, Morpheus believes that the fulfilment of prophecy is at hand. He awaits the call of the Oracle to put into motion the events that will prove the final victory over the machines. Neo on the other hand is himself beset with oracular visions, and is tormented by dreams of Trinity’s death. A visit to the Oracle will set forward a chain of events that will reveal the ultimate truth about the Matrix, and Neo will have to make a choice that will determine the fate of humanity.

Picture: The Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix Reloaded gets a 2.40:1 widescreen transfer just like the first film, and just like the first film, it’s of solid quality, clear and sharp throughout, with impressive detail, and bringing across the action and effects sequences with resounding impact. There’s a greater overall consistency in comparison to the first film, but it still lacks that visual oomph that I’ve come to expect from the better Blu-rays of effects laden films. If there is one drawback to the first Matrix sequel in HD, it’s that the CGI humans that appear during Neo’s flight sequences, and especially during the Burly Brawl, look even faker than they do on DVD. It’s uncanny valley time!

Sound: The Matrix Reloaded

It’s the same deal with the audio, including the autoplaying with Dolby Digital 5.1 English on disc insert. You’ll have to adjourn to a menu to change to Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English, or DD 5.1 French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, subs in these languages and Dutch. The action sounds good in high definition, kung-fu, machine guns and explosions, and the music remains in keeping with the first film. I did feel that the dialogue was a little buried in the mix in comparison to the first film; at least I found that I was riding herd on my remote control a lot more during this film.

Extras: The Matrix Reloaded

The film autoplays when inserting the disc. You can access the extra features from the pop-up menu or the static main menu screen. This one gets the In-Movie Experience as well.

Just as for The Matrix, the Matrix Reloaded collects and collates the extras from the previous releases of the movie. We get the Philosophers and the Critics commentaries again. The critics don’t like the sequels much, and Dr Cornel West of the philosophers should have declared a prior interest, after all he’s cast in Matrix Reloaded.

Behind the Matrix lasts 46:54 SD, and collates The Matrix Unfolds, Pre-Load, Get Me an Exit, and The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded featurettes from the original release of the film.

Car Chase lasts 86:07 SD, and takes the Freeway Chase featurette from the original release, and adds to it several more car chase related featurettes, most of which, I’m ashamed to say, I slept through. Once you’ve seen one car chase behind the scenes, you’ve seen them all, and it was only marginally less interesting than the chase itself.


The Teahouse Fight lasts 7:04 SD and gathers two featurettes which concentrate more on actor Collin Chou.

Unplugged lasts 40:04 SD, and this has five featurettes which take a look at how the Burly Brawl was created, and which also explains why I totally lose interest in the final third of the sequence. Most interesting is a 10 minute interview with Yuen Wo Ping.

I’ll Handle Them lasts 17:08 SD and offers four featurettes about the fight sequence in the Merovingian’s Chateau.

The Exiles lasts 17:52 SD and has two featurettes about the programs inhabiting the Matrix.

Additional Footage offers the Enter The Matrix featurettes that were on the original DVD release. There is a 28:15 SD Making of featurette for the videogame, and in a 42:29 piece you can take a look at the cutscenes from the game that fill in some of the blanks between The Matrix and its first sequel. For the other blanks, you’ll need The Animatrix, not part of this collection. You can play the cutscenes individually or there is a Play All option.

In Audio, there is a music video for Sleeping Awake by P.O.D. lasting 3:43.

And finally there is the teaser trailer, the theatrical trailer and 8 TV spots for the film.

Conclusion: The Matrix Reloaded

“It’s just a ride”, words from the immortal Bill Hicks that spring to mind, but are applied without irony or layered meaning to the first of the Matrix sequels. Somewhere around this time in cinema history, maybe even a little earlier, the summer blockbuster became synonymous with theme park rides, started being engineered in terms of visual spectacle and thrills per hour, instead of in terms of narrative and character. The Matrix Reloaded is a textbook example of a fairground attraction writ to screen. It’s just a collection of action sequences, loosely connected by a wafer thin plot, and referencing the fairground analogy once more, there comes a point where the ride stops being fun, and starts being nauseating. In the Matrix Reloaded, it’s in the middle of the highway chase sequence, that the thrill fades, and I look to my watch, wondering just how much longer this is going to take.

They may say in the extras that the Matrix was meant to be a trilogy from the off, but I find that hard to believe. For one thing, that first film is complete, in and of itself. The explosive revelation of the dual nature of worlds is that film’s big selling point. The action sequences are epic enough, but captured to the best of film technology. And the most important thing, the character journey of Neo is complete, from prophesied saviour to his death and resurrection, rebirth as an all powerful super-being. The Matrix sequels are like asking what Jesus did after his resurrection. In comparison to the first film, it just isn’t important, and attempting to tell that story just feels contrived.


As it is, The Matrix Reloaded is just a 2 hour 18 minute bridge until the final movie. Not a lot of narrative value actually happens here. As I remarked in my review of the DVD, the aim of this movie is to tell the story of how Neo got knocked unconscious. That is it! 2 hours and 18 minutes of running around, trying to save the world, preparing for an invasion without, and trying to find the meaning of life within the Matrix. To distract you from the vapidity of the script, you have that tedious chase sequence, the laughable game cut-scene Burly Brawl, but you do at least get the Merovingian, the sole character in the film with any charisma, and the great fight sequence in his mansion. The real disappointment is that in the end, The Matrix Reloaded turned out to be a bridge to nowhere...

6/10

Introduction: The Matrix Revolutions

The machines are still tunnelling toward Zion, while Neo lies comatose aboard the Mjollnir. However Neo is jacked into the Matrix without any physical connection, trapped in a form of digital Limbo after his mysterious burst of power in the real world. Morpheus and Trinity go into the Matrix to rescue Neo from the clutches of the Merovingian, then Neo visits the Oracle one last time to find the answers to his questions. Yet while Agent Smith is busy remaking the Matrix over in his own image, a sinister traitor awakes aboard the Mjollnir. Still, Neo learns what has to be done, and while he and Trinity set out to accomplish this, the others must return to Zion as the humans make their last stand against the machines, even now breaking into the hidden city. Tonight the war will end, one way or another.

Picture: The Matrix Revolutions

Once more we get the 2.40:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p using the VC-1 codec. The transfer for this film is on a par with the previous one, clear and sharp throughout, but not exactly up there with the more striking Blu-ray transfers. The action comes across well, but this film is a CGI-fest to a far greater degree than the previous one, and as such there’s more of a detachment from the story for me when I watch it. When the Matrix turns into Smith-ville, it’s really just the special effects team showing off.

Sound: The Matrix Revolutions

One final time with the same audio options, including the autoplaying with Dolby Digital 5.1 English on disc insert. You’ll have to adjourn to a menu to change to Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English, or DD 5.1 French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, subs in these languages and Dutch. The action sounds good in high definition, kung-fu, machine guns and explosions, and the music remains in keeping with the first film, and thankfully there was less skipping back and flicking the subtitles on this time.

Extras: The Matrix Revolutions

The film autoplays when inserting the disc. You can access the extra features from the pop-up menu or the static main menu screen. This one gets the In-Movie Experience as well, once again I didn’t bother with it. Actually I didn’t bother with much of the extras on this third disc. It’s hard to muster up the motivation to press play on the extras, when the film sinks like a lead weight in one’s estimation. I just really checked to see that these things existed on the disc.

Just as for the first two films, The Matrix Revolutions collects and collates the extras from the previous releases of the movie. We get the Philosophers and the Critics commentaries one final time.

Behind the Story gathers the Making of featurettes, a Matrix Interactive Encyclopaedia, and a concept art gallery, with a total run time for the seven featurettes of 1:30:03.


Crew offers four featurettes on the Art Department, 2nd Unit, Cinematography and Lighting, which run to 24:59 in total.

Hel offers 6 featurettes set around the titular nightclub running to 27:34.

You get four featurettes on the Super Burly Brawl at 16:53.

New Blue World offers 5 featurettes that look at Zion and the ‘real’ world (26:06).

Siege has 5 featurettes looking at the CGI cutscene... I mean the battle for Zion which runs to 40:06.

Aftermath offers four featurettes that look at the post-production process, including digital effects, foley, editing and music, which run to a total of 39:46.

Finally there is the theatrical trailer for the film, as well as 6 TV Spots.

All of this is presented in SD format, and as you can see, for fans of the film, there is a wealth of material to partake of.

Conclusion: The Matrix Revolutions

The final Matrix film gets worse each time I watch it. When I first saw it in the cinema, the spectacle outweighed the story and the characters, and it was quite the thrill ride. When I first watched it on DVD, I found that I was actively deluding myself into thinking it was good, trying to persuade myself that it was worth the money that I had spent, and finding depth and intellectual satisfaction in it that just didn’t exist. All such illusions fell away the third time I saw the film, and came to see it for the vapid, unsatisfying mess that it truly was, a film that failed to satisfy as a narrative, that managed a disservice to all of its characters, and replaced that visual artistry and innovation of the first film with a whole host of CGI cut-scenes that had escaped from a videogame. When the highlight of the film was a CGI Smith getting bullet-time punched in the CGI face by CGI Neo’s CGI fist, it was clear that the Wachowski siblings had lost the plot.


It’s a plot that is exceedingly simple at this point; the saviour must sacrifice himself to save the day. It’s all so... biblical, messianic with a bit of Samson thrown in. Everything else is just eye-candy to sate the fans of the first two movies, make sure that they are fed with the kung-fu, bullet-time, egregious shoot-outs and of course Agent Smith ad infinitum. This time however, the Matrix sequences are just filling in a Zion sandwich, the plain white bread of overcooked CGI, as we get to see the machines attack Zion in an extended computer game sequence that keeps you looking at the clock, wondering when the cool Matrix bits are coming back. Only the cool Matrix bit is quickly dispensed with, a messy and incoherent confrontation at the Merovingian’s lair. Thereafter, the Matrix becomes Smithville, where Agent Smith has remade the world in his own image, turned everyone into himself. You’d think that even God-Neo would be slightly outnumbered, but in true moronic computer game style, the final fight has to be one-on-one. So all the other Smiths just stand around looking like intense and grumpy dorks. The more often I watch this film, the more I hate it.

I’m getting depressed just writing about it. And my feelings about the film at this point are little more than an incoherent verbal grimace. Fortunately, once I was more invested and considered when it came to ripping this film to shreds. I’ll point you to my review of the DVD where I proceed to pick holes in the film... and then give it six out of ten. I said I was deluding myself when I first watched it on DVD!

3/10

In Summary

Three movies, three Amaray style Blu-ray cases in a card slipcover. It’s that stupid collector’s instinct of mine that clutters up my shelves. I’m beginning to exercise some self restraint; I only bought the first Robocop movie on Blu-ray, but with the Matrix, the completist in me took control when I pressed the order button, and I wound up buying two films that I didn’t want, along with the first that I did. But as I watch the films now, some fifteen years on, I find that the franchise as a whole is aging poorly. A lot of that has to do with the final film, which somehow manages to taint everything retroactively. But even when I watched the first film again, trying to separate it from what came after, I find that it really has started to look its age. It’s no longer as thought-provoking as it once was, it feels like a progression of action set-pieces designed to sell a new generation of effects technology, and it has passed the point of ingraining itself into popular culture that it becomes a parody of itself. It is still the one good thing the franchise produced, that and the Animatrix, but it’s no longer the epochal event in cinema that it seemed back in 1999. As often happens in cinema, these things come in twos, and back when The Matrix came out, there was another sci-fi movie that twisted perception and challenged preconceptions about the nature of reality, a film that snuck under the radar and never really got its dues, and it also reminds me that it’s high time I got round to watching that Dark City Blu-ray of mine.