IFDB Review: Matrix DeZIONized, The:

I had high hopes for this one, but it just didn't do it for me. While it's true (and pretty funny) that cutting all of the Zion scenes really didn't kneecap the story as much as it should have, it does wreak havoc with the pacing. Mashing these two movies together while excising the Zion scenes means that most of the runtime is dedicated to Reloaded, which barely has a story at all. Our characters go from macguffin to macguffin with scenes invariably ending in massively bloated set-pieces. I know CBB cut these action sequences down, but I feel a heavier hand was needed. Nothing has time to breathe, and what down-time we have is mostly laughably nonsensical philosophy. There were also some things that were (wisely) cut down but left baffling threads, such as the whole last exile thing, which moved the story along faster but left no explanation for Sati's presence later in the film, or the removal of the "Smith in the real world" subplot which simply made crewmember Bane's dead-on Smith impersonation anachronistic and hilarious. I do think there is a decent Matrix followup in the two sequels, but finding it is going to require a ruthless hack job.This was a pretty good editing job, technically, with a few rough or awkward transitions, but not consistently so. I don't remember noticing any errors in audio cutting, though.

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