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@ higgins: Thanks for the feedback. Be sure to review and rate!
@ megafat: MU requires a bit of patience. I have explained MU's present issues in multiple threads. There is a growing issue in which some files randomly become "temporarily unavailable" even with a premium account. Unfortunately this can delay a complete download for as much as a day. The good news though is that with patience the file does eventually become available.
First post, but after watching this edit I wanted to review it.
Matrix sequel fan edits are some of the more prevalent on this site. The Epic Edition is certainly going up against some steep competition. Despite the numerous others that have been made this one is now my personal favorite story wise.
First off the editing is near seamless, watching the film I am still amazed on how much was changed yet how little it shows unless you are familiar with the original sources.
Audio work, video work, image quality: all excellent. In terms of audio/visual presentation this easily is equal to or perhaps even surpasses the legendary Dezionized cut.
Now the actual edit was refreshingly new. There are some controversial choices in terms of scenes to keep. In a sense the Epic Edition goes against popular consensus in retaining minor characters, Zion, and the war scenes. As well as the infamous âDance Sceneâ and âHeart Restart Sceneâ.
However do not let these factors dissuade you. Some edits try to make the film work by creating some sort of conclusion at the end of Reloaded. In my opinion Reloaded will always remain incomplete without a least partly including Revolutions. The challenge was creating an edit of the Revolutions material that removed or at least downplayed all that was wrong with the original. This is where the Epic Edition shines. By retaining minor characters that played a part in the war scenes, as well as removing the machine city/smith outside of the matrix scenes, the film takes on a completely different feel that is both faster and more cohesive then the originals.
The boldest edit was a completely different Source scene then the Architect's office in Reloaded. To me it was pure awesomeness as well as an amazing technical feat. It works better than any edit prior that tried to remove the âmultiple Onesâ plot twist which nearly everyone hated.
Nitpicking wise I feel that the ending would have been better with the inclusion of one scene. A scene from the beginning of Revolutions with Neo in a coma. Perhaps with some sort of music change to create a different mood such a scene would establish his death a little more clearly then the end Smith battle does.
Also, while I can understand the reason for including the dance scene, I feel the scene is still a little too âin your faceâ symbolism which was one of the Wachowski brothers main stumbling blocks. Reducing instead of eliminating the dance scene would still have established the main contrast between the Matrix and the real world without that contrast being over emphasized.
The heart restart scene did not bother me. It works surprisingly well in the context of this edit.
There are many fan edits for the Matrix sequels out there. But this is now my solid favorite. Amazing Job!
9/10
Thanks Lostintime. That was a very thoughtful review. Please be sure to copy it over to the official review and rating page on fanedit.info.
I most definitely agree with your sentiment and others that there ideally would be one more scene at the end to wrap up Neo's and Trinity's storylines. This is my biggest gripe about my own edit for sure. Unfortunately I couldn't figure a way with the available footage to make it happen. But I am all ears if somebody has a brilliant idea of how to piecemeal a scene together that would feel natural! If it doesn't feel natural, though, then I think the story is better off without it. If I were to ever do a revision of this edit, that would certainly be some serious inspiration right there!
Some minor bad news. The blu-ray release will be delayed another week. I am still not 100% happy with my latest blu-ray encode, so I am going to redo it and tweak a few things. I have also decided to tone down the filtering on much of the Zion footage. I have decided I like those scenes grainier and a little more muted in color as a contrast to the Matrix. It fits with the style and sentiments from the first movie where the Matrix can feel more real than the real world, depending on one's perspective.
Blu-ray dlc should be available on Monday or Tuesday.
To be clear: The edit itself is not different from the DVD and AVCHD versions already available. The only difference is overall picture quality via low compression (obviously) and some further visual enhancement via the use of some quality video filters. Eventually I may re-encode the DVD and AVCHD versions using this new video source, but the effects are most noticeable in the blu-ray format anyway. So that is where they will remain for now as an added feature for those willing to download such a large file.
Specifically what I have done is treated the real world and the Matrix world differently via the use of filters in an effort to subtly enhance the visual sense that the Matrix feels more vibrant and clean looking whereas the real world feels a little more muted and grainy. It is up to the viewer to decide which looks more "real".
Again, it is a very subtle effect, but I think people will be pretty amazed by how good the matrix scenes look, especially the freeway chase. If I were to ever do a revision of this edit I would honestly probably take it even further and deliberately add some grain into the real world scenes. Part of the problem is that the Wachowski brothers were inconsistent in their own implementation of this contrast effect and some real world scenes look much cleaner than other scenes. Alas, this is as good as it is going to get for the foreseeable future.
Hope you enjoy! (Sorry to those who don't have the hardware to handle the blu-ray. I am not trying to punish, but maybe inspire?? Here is my mini-rant: I know that some believe lo-fi, high compression video with no menus or extra features is the future. That may prove to be the case, but it is not the future I wish to be a part of. I like to own my movies and have them on a bookshelf, I like them off my hard drive, and I especially like them in 1080 high definition on blu-ray!)
Congratulations on the fanedit Geminigod! It was great to see your vision come to life and your name can now rank along side Doctor M, CBB and Dangarrat...
I plan to start my own thread in the fan edit ideas forum regarding my own ideas for the sequels. Everyone is welcome to come and share their views..
The Blu-ray version is now officially available! Kevinicus would appear to have the official honor of being the first to release in this format. I believe I am the second. Hopefully that means that at least one person out there is brave enough to download 25GB!
Okay, so I've never reviewed an edit before, but here goes nothing!
Introduction
The Matrix trilogy, no matter what angle you look at it, has changed cinema. The Matrix ushered in a new age with it's mix of sci-fi and Hong Kong style action scenes, and it's sequels were infamous for being colossal disappointments. Reloaded wasn't all that bad, but something about it felt different than the original. It just wasn't the same. Revolutions, on the other hand, was flat out bad. It never managed to live up to the sequel, let alone the original film. And now Geminigod has attempted to change that by making both sequels a single movie, except this time focusing on Zion rather than the matrix. Does the edit work? Or does it leave the sequels in an even worse position?
The Changes
Now, geminigod states in the cut list that the changes are too many to list and instead posted general guidelines. This is true: The movie manages to get two movies that are over 4 and a half hours in total length down to slightly less than three. But there are some very obvious changes that I am assuming amounted to around 70 minutes of the 95 minutes of time cut.
Throughout the entire movie, there is so sub-plot about Agent Smith posessing Bane and entering the real world. There is also, as a result, no footage or mention of the Caduceus crew and ship is left unharmed. But an even more dramatic change is now that towards the end of Reloaded, instead of Neo meeting the Architect, it cuts straight to Neo meeting the Machine City and having a deal with the Machines. By doing this, the whole sub-plot of Neo/Bane being stuck in a coma can also be exercised, and so can Trinity and Neo having to go to the Machine City. Instead, Neo now says he needs to borrow a ship to go into "the Matrix" instead of to the Machine City. The edit then goes straight into the battle for Zion and the final battle between Neo and Smith.
Now moving onto the important part. How well does this work?
Entertainment Value
The first thing that geminigod managed to do was take the already good Reloaded and make it truely great. The first 100 minutes of the edit are absolutely flawless and stand side-by-side with the original movie. Removing the Bane becoming Smith sub-plot helped the pacing of the movie greatly, and while the rave scene goes on for a bit too long I never found it as unbareable as most do.
Unfortunately, once the Keymaker dies, the edit starts to go downhill. The way the scene of Neo bargining with the Machines was handled was not satisfying at all, as the audiance just didn't see enough, nor was there enough exposition. Neo just says "yeah Smith's bad I can stop him" and no other discussion is made before cutting straight to Agent Smith converting The Oracle. It makes the last 70 minutes seem somewhat "uh what" to the audiance and too much "shoot first ask questions later". Also, because of editing restrictions due to the extensive changes geminigod was attempting, there is no real emotional climax with Trininy and Neo, because once he plugs into the matrix to fight Agent Smith we never see him again, even when he dies. Another issue is that throughout there are small cuts in the dialogue which I couldn't help but feel were unecessary. If there were no small trims and the film time was the full 3 hours rather than being 8 minutes shy of it, there could have been a better flow to the movie, as these small snippets made it feel somewhat incoherent at times.
However, in terms of the entertainment value, those issues are notable but don't ruin it. They hold the edit back from brilliance and being able to stand up on it's own, but the rest of the movie is handled very well. The Zion fight is a really epic fight, as is the fight between Neo and Agent Smith (even though I would have liked to have seen them sooner, when geminigod inter-cut between them there seemed to be a bit too much of a gap between the Zion battle and the Neo/Smith battle). The Trainman sub-plot is not missed at all as it never really added anything to the story, and while the Smith controling Bane sub-plot was somewhat msised for me (I really enjoyed the final fight between Bane/Neo) it didn't really add anything to the story either.
I would give the original sequels a 7/10, while the Epic Edition edit an 8.5/10. This is easily my favourite Matrix edit, as while DeZIONized works more fluidly, it removes some of the emotional weight of the original sequels (it's maybe an 8/10), and therefore it didn't stand up as easily to the original as the Epic Edition.
Editing
One thing that did surprise me was how rough the editing was at times. If I remember correctly Fanedit.org prides itself on offering the highest quality edits possible, and this has to be honestly the most noticable one I know. There were some jarring audio snips, some obvious video fade-out transitions and the occasional bad dub, as with Neo saying "the matrix" instead of "the machine city". While they WERE noticable, they never ruined the experiance for me and I got over them quickly. And as stated before, the first 100 minutes is flawless and it is only from the 101 mark onwards that the cuts starts to become noticable, as do the edits. So the editing is a 7/10.
Presentation
The DVD menu is basic, but the inclusion of the two best shorts from the Animatrix was a really wise decision. As an edit with the word "Epic" in the title, the inclusion of these really helped that (which is why I watched the film and both shorts in one sitting ). The video quality is excellent and reminded me how great DVD can look at times, and the audio quality was great as well, albeit with unbalanced levels (as someone previously mentioned, the dialogue was a bit low volume and the action scenes were a bit loud). So the presentation is an 9/10.
Conclusion
Overall, the Epic Edition is a very good concept that (mostly) works. The core ideas are held back by the source material, but geminigod to turn one good sequel and one bad one into a single great movie. In total, the edit is a 9/10.
I guess I need to respond to one point that has come up in two reviews now regarding the sound levels and dialogue being too quiet. A great deal of time and skill went into the sound design. Unfortunately when it comes to levels there is no way to please everybody other than to include two different audio tracks (which is maybe what I will do in the future??) Space limitations made it impossible to do that with this edit regardless. The options are I can engineer the sound to be great on good sound systems, or I can engineer the sound to be less annoying on bad sound systems or for people who want to listen to the movie at a very quiet volume. It is a function of dynamic range. With this particular movie I opted to please the former group.
Also, if you are watching the movie with software and/or hardware that is not doing proper dolby digital decoding, this can worsen the effect being described of the dialogue being too quiet.
I guess I mostly find this criticism a little shocking because if you are having this issue with this edit, then you also probably have the same issue with most studio release movies and should be used to it.
The best advice I can give to anyone who is a big fan of cinema is to invest in a really good set of headphones plus a decent receiver or sound card or something that has a good onboard DAC and headphone amp. Then, instead of the dynamic range being a negative, it will hopefully blow your mind vs. making your neighbors and roommates blow up at you! (PS: pawn shops often have cheap deals on good electronics. I have a nice receiver connected to my computer optically that I think I bought for $60-$70.) (For headphones I highly recommend the Sennheiser HD 598. They are one step below professional grade. They are amazing with a headphone amp but still sound pretty decent when plugged into an ipod.)
