The Good
It is fitting that this movie that closed out the 20th Century is getting this kind of release on DVD.
The Bad
The Matrix Revolutions should have been a shorter movie tacked on to the second film.
The Complete Matrix Trilogy in HD presents us the odyssey of Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) as they face off against the Machine Army in a bid to end their stranglehold on humanity. Featured in this set are the three films that make up this trilogy. They are:
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
The Matrix was a groundbreaking film that first introduced us to the characters that inhabit this world. We saw Neo as a programmer who just seemed to be drifting through life. He eventually comes into contact with Morpheus and it his here that his journey really begins. It turns out that Neo had been living in a lie his entire life. An illusion had been created and everyone was living in it. Neo, it turns out, is destined to lead a revolt against the Machines and this film focuses on his acceptance of this fate.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
The Matrix Reloaded has Neo, Morpheus and Trinity directly confronting the Machine Army (all made up of Agent Smith played by Hugo Weaving) as they attack Zion, the last bastion for humanity. More about what the Matrix is is revealed in this film, however the question arises about who created it in the first place? While wildly ambitious (and wordy), this film takes viewers deeper into the lives of all these characters, while trying to elevate what we expect from the sci-fi/action genre.
The third chapter in The Matrix franchise is The Matrix Revolutions. Is Neo really the one to save Zion? This seems to be the central question of this movie. Neo lays comatose due to moving between the real and false words. The Machine Army has escalated their attack and while its citizens do everything to fight back is that going to be enough? Eventually, Neo must come back and battle the machines with every bit of strength he can muster.
Getting to see all The Matrix films in this franchise plays as a much different experience than it did in the theater. Without the waiting periods between all the films, I think The Complete Matrix Trilogy shows the true cohesiveness of this piece. At least it attempts to. The Matrix was truly groundbreaking when it came on the scene. In many ways it raised the bar for the movie going experience. It seems that The Complete Matrix Trilogy does the same thing for the home viewing one.
Features
The Matrix
Written introduction by The Wachowski Brothers
The Brothers basically write about the movie, its overreaching themes, how important this project was to them and how they were truly touched by the public’s interest in what they were doing. Looking back now I am sure it seems like a lock. Somebody had to make a film dealing these themes, but it seems like The Wachowski Brothers and Warner Bros. made the film that most resonated with viewers. Certainly read this because it is personal and chances are if you are buying this set you’re the kind of fan that cares about this sort of thing. I know I do.
Marilyn Manson Music Video “Rock is Dead”
The Matrix Featurettes
A litany of featurettes are on this release. They are:
Behind The Matrix: Making The Matrix
The Dance of the Master: Yuen Wo Ping’s Blocking Tapes
The Bathroom Fight and Wet Wall
The Code of the Red Dress
The Old Exit: Wabash and Lake
Agent Down
But Wait - There’s More
The Music Revisited
Utilizing the HD-DVD technology I was able to seamlessly move into and out of a lot of these featurettes. I didn’t have the time to watch all of them all the way through, so I basically dipped into the ones that most interested me, or I felt they might tell me something about the film that I hadn’t heard before. I was particularly taken with The Dance of the Master: Yuen Wo Ping’s Blocking Tapes, simply because I hadn’t ever seen something like this before. I never knew how intricate and detailed this process needs to be in order to pull these kinds of scenes off. I liked the Agent Down segment and even checked out Behind The Matrix: Making The Matrix, just to get a glimpse of 1999 all over again. As I stated, a lot of people didn’t see this movie coming and what it ultimately went on to do, become, and represent is somewhat encapsulated in this piece.
The Matrix Reloaded
Written Introduction by The Wachowski Brothers
P.O.D. Music Video “Sleeping Awake”
Featurettes
Mixing “Making Of” pieces with looks at the video game and the MTV Music Awards, the best way to describe these features would be eclectic. The following supplemental materials on this disc are:
Behind The Matrix: The Matrix Unfolds
Pre-Load
Get Me an Exit
The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded
Enter The Matrix: The Game
After seeing the “Making Of” pieces, I wanted to see how Enter The Matrix: The Game looked on HD-DVD. Overall, I was really impressed. I’ve been reticent to try games on a really nice TV mainly because I remember hearing that they can leave impressions on the screen once the game is turned off. Since I only had this segment on for a little bit of the time, that really wasn’t a problem. The images themselves looked really sharp. I know that they mix up the featurettes on these next generation discs, some of them being in HD-DVD and some of them not, but for the most part I didn’t notice too much difference between what was an wasn’t in the format.
The Matrix Revolutions
Deciding to go through this one was more of a personal choice for me than anything else. Of all the The Matrix films this is the one that I feel was the weakest. It just seemed to be a feature length film that could have been better served only being 45 minutes in length. They could have trimmed up The Matrix Reloaded and just made a film that played a lot finer. Yes, that would have only given them two movies, but perhaps the third one could have centered on a new threat once the war with The Machines had run its course? Sadly, none of this is really touched upon here in the Written Introduction. More to the point, The Wachowski Brothers seem to understand what this film represented to the fans, but even more importantly they realized what it meant to them. Again, I think you should check this out.
Sadly, I felt that, even though there were more of them, the featurettes on this disc were merely academic. They just seemed to cover the same ground that had already been gone over, but perhaps that is just me being a little tired as both a writer and a reviewer? The featurettes in this section are:
Behind The Matrix: Revolutions Recalibrated
Neo Realism: The Evolution of Bullet Time
CG Revolution
Super Big Mini Models
Super Burly Brawl
Double Agent Smith
Mind Over Matter: The Physicality of The Matrix
Future Gamer: The Matrix Online
Time constraints kept me from looking at all of these segments but I made it a point to look at Super Big Mini Models and Double Agent Smith. I have always been fascinated by the use of miniatures. I think it’s incredible how people have devised small cameras to make tiny cities, battleships and other mechanical devices look enormous. It really speaks to the power of sound because it adds so much weight to these images. The Double Agent Smith section was sadly not as great as I thought it would be. It was cool seeing how that visual effect was achieved, but beyond that I didn’t find out anything that was that illuminating.
Video
Aspect Ratio - 2.35:1 - 1080p resolution. Utilizing the In-Movie Experience as I watched these films, I was simply blown away by what has been done to them on HD-DVD. I am sure that their eventual release on Blu-ray disc is also going to be something spectacular, but these films looked so awesome it was scary. Truthfully, seeing them in the movie theaters might have been the wrong way to watch them. First of all, the theater I saw the films in (and most theaters for that matter), have bulbs in the projectors that project at very low light levels. Couple that with the fact that the films in The Matrix Trilogy are already sort of dark, and things of that nature get compounded. These films looked so sharp in HD-DVD. I really tried to watch the movies from a technical aspect, judging how the colors shifted between the interior and exterior shots. The look of all the films seemed to hold up quite well over all three discs in this set. HD-DVD is really getting a shot in the arm by getting to this trilogy first.
Audio
Dolby Digital 5.1. I thought that this release might be in one of the higher end, audio, HD-DVD formats (who knows maybe it is on the The Ultimate Matrix Collection?), but I really liked the sound on this. I know that I have mentioned this before but if ever there were movies that seem like they were made for this experience, than this trilogy of films would certainly get that award. Things sound really good here. I leveled everything over the course of the first Matrix disc, and I found that very few adjustments had to be made for the other discs. Also, the audio was very full on my speakers. This replicated the viewing experience in the theater in the most positive way for me. As I have mentioned, I liked the look the these HD-DVDs better than when I saw the movie in the poorly, projector calibrated theaters. The audio for this release was another story entirely. If you want to test drive your home theater system this release will certainly afford you that opportunity.
Package
While I always think that the next generation packaging can do better (it is supposed to be next generation after all!), The Complete Matrix Trilogy comes pretty close to putting the whole next generation idea together. Neo, Trinity and Morpheus are surrounded by blackness with green lettering cascading down all around them. The back of this cover features a description of what this set contains, movie descriptions, special features and technical specs. All three discs are neatly stored on the inside of this release, which also contains more artwork and information about these movies. The packaging is both sturdy and well put together and unlike Superman Ultimate Collector’s Edition, I never felt like the DVDs were stored in a way that could be harmful to their contents.
Final Word
“No one can be told what The Matrix or yourself.”
Nothing could be more true than the statement above. The Complete Matrix Trilogy is presented here in HD-DVD and it is as stunning a home video achievement as I think I have ever seen. What I was most reminded of as I went through this set was simply how great these films started off. The first Matrix film came out of nowhere. It just presented itself to moviegoers and they gladly went along for the ride.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem like the trilogy was able to hold its focus. Its just hard not to think of this trilogy as being one film too long. It seems like they Wachowski Brothers could have eschewed all the talk that they brought into The Matrix Reloaded. There seems to be too many ideas at work with none of them really committed to all the way through. Throw in the amazing action sequences and you end up with an imperfect masterpiece. By the time we get around to The Matrix Revolutions, there is more of this to contend with and I couldn’t help feel like things were inordinately drawn out by this stage. I remember sitting in the theater in the third film and thinking, “Just get to the point already.”
As I mentioned above, I think watching The Complete Matrix Trilogy helps bring across the broader scheme of what the filmmakers were trying to achieve throughout the arc of this trilogy. This is a very big story and this HD-DVD release seems to take that into account. It is a fan and casual fan’s perfect set. It has many extras but it isn’t bulky or cumbersome to wade through.
I rarely say this but The Complete Matrix Trilogy is one studio rerelease that doesn’t feel like a double dip at all.
