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THE MATRIX EVOLUTIONS (V3 DVD-9 Now Available)

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JasonN

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evolutionsposterrc7.jpg


[youtube:36n592pu]

Notes
Many people have that certain movie that opens their eyes to the possibility of Film: for some people it's Star Wars, for others it's Lord of the Rings - for me, that film was 1999's The Matrix. The Matrix was and still is (to me, anyway) one of the most creative, original, and intellectually stimulating films to be made in the history of cinema. Like many people, I eagerly awaited the arrival of the sequels... only to come away bitterly disappointed from watching them.

Now, there were many things that ended up detracting from Reloaded and Revolutions: over-usage of CG graphics and action sequences in place of Story, poor writing and dialogue, lame secondary characters, critical references to other Matrix media that most audiences didn't see, self-referential moments that would decend to self-parody, etc., etc....

For me, however, there was one glaring problem that I could not overlook in the sequels: the character of Neo himself. In my view, this was NOT the same character that we last saw at the end of the first film. His powers appeared to have "de-evolved", his intelligence turned to nothing, his personality was dull and less interesting, and up until the last 1/4 of "Revolutions", it seemed like he really didn't give a crap about anyone other than Trinity. And then, of course, there's the ending: where Neo chooses to sacrifice himself for the "Love & Peace" of Humanity and the Machines...

In my frustration and disappointment, I returned back to the original film and began studying the various subjects and works that influenced it. It was from these elements and my interpretations on "The Matrix" that made me decide to go back and re-edit the sequels in a manner that I felt expanded on the themes of the original - a fanedit that would ask the question:
"What if the Neo that we saw in Reloaded and Revolutions... wasn't the true ONE after all?"

FanEdit Information
Type of Fanedit: True Fanedit
Intention With This Edit: To develop a better "Matrix" story out of the sequel films which used the concepts and philosophies present in the first film.
Original Titles: The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, & Enter the Matrix
New Title: The Matrix Evolutions
Original Runtime: 280 minutes (The Matrix Reloaded = 138 minutes: The Matrix Revolutions = 129 minutes: Enter the Matrix scenes = 16 minutes)
New Runtime: 165 minutes (2 hours, 45 minutes)
Time Cut: approximately 118 minutes
Time Added: approximately 11 minutes
Software Used: Sony Vegas 7 (video editing), Adobe Photoshop CS2 (image editing), Bahaus Mirage (compositing), Sony Sound Forge 8 (audio editing), Sony DVD Architect 4.5 (DVD authoring)

Release Information - Version 3.0
DVD-9 Release
- DVD Format: NTSC - DVD9-DL
- Region: 0 (region free)
- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1, 16x9 widescreen
- Audio format: 2.0 Dolby Digital
- Language: English
- Subtitles: none
- DVD Extras: Custom Motion Menus
- DVD Extras: "About the Edit" page
- DVD Extras: Deleted Ending - "Enter the Dark Matrix"

Major Edits/Changes
CUT/EDIT: Numerous cuts to the various fight sequences throughout the film
CUT/EDIT: Numerous cuts to remove redundant dialogue and bad writing
ADDITION: New scene of Niobe and crew finding the "message" from the Osiris (taken from the "Enter the Matrix" video game)
ADDITION: New scene of the Captains gathering in the Matrix (taken from the "Enter the Matrix" video game)
ADDITION: New scene of Niobe encountering the Trainman in the Matrix (taken from the "Enter the Matrix" video game)
CUT/EDIT: The Kid's role in the story is significantly reduced (and he does not "save the day")
ADDITION: New scene of Niobe and Locke discussing Morpheus's beliefs (taken from the "Enter the Matrix" video game)
CUT/EDIT: Re-edited the relationship between Morpheus/Locke/Niobe to create more ambiguity (there is no "love triangle")
CUT: Removed all scenes/subplots involving Link and his wife Zee
CUT: Removed the Temple gathering and Councilor Hamman's speech
CUT: Removed Morpheus's "Speech to Zion" and the entire "Rave" sequence
EDIT: Neo has a second dream sequence of Trinity's death (taken from Trinity's encounter with the Agent at the end of Reloaded)
ADDITION: New scene of Locke telling Niobe of the "Counter-Attack" plan and sends her away from Zion (taken from the "Enter the Matrix" video game)
EDIT: Moved the "Zion Counter-Attack" sequence to after the Kid gives Neo the spoon
EDIT: The Oracle's speech in the Park has been edited to change the nature of Programs
EDIT: Smith is not a Rogue Program: he is still a part of the System (just a much more powerful Agent)
ADDITION: New scene of Niobe and crew flying in the Logos to find Morpheus (taken from the "Enter the Matrix" video game)
MAJOR EDIT: The Neb's destruction and Neo & company joining the Hammer crew occurs after the Burly Brawl
CUT: Removed the "Neo VS Bodyguards" sequence in the Merovingian's chateu
ADDITION: New scene of Niobe and Ghost arriving in the Matrix (taken from the "Enter the Matrix" video game)
CUT/EDIT: 7-8 minutes have been cut from the "Freeway" sequence to increase tension of the chase, remove unnecessary Bullet Time effects, remove rudundant scenes with Link, and make the System Agents stronger
ADDITION: New scene of Niobe and crew recieving a "help" message from Morpheus (taken from the "Enter the Matrix" video game)
MAJOR EDIT: The "Door to the Source" no longer leads to the Source, but to the Train Station
CUT/EDIT: The "Sati" scenes have been edited to make her less annoying and reduce her impact to the story
CUT: The "battle through Hel" has been removed
CUT/EDIT: Neo's meeting with the "new" Oracle has been heavily edited to make her appear less-helpful and harder to trust her words
CUT/EDIT: Removed nearly half of the footage of the "Battle for Zion" and restructured the sequence to be much darker
MAJOR EDIT: The "Architect" scenes has been moved from the middle of the story to the end (before Neo fights Smith)
MAJOR EDIT: Features a brand-new ending to The Matrix saga


Fanedit Verison 3.0: AVI Version (XVID-encoded)
RS on linktalk

EDIT: Updated page information for additional cuts/edits of the new V3.
 

JasonN

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I am also currently working on the DVD9 version, which I hope to have completed and uploaded to Rapidshare by January 13-14 - when it's done, I'll add the Rapidshare Links to the post above.

Also, just for future reference (well, more for Boon's reference :smile: ):
the song that I used for the End Credits is an electronica song that at times has a stutter effect to it.
 

Tubes

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Downloading now. Looking forward to seeing this.
 

T-HOPE

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Cool. Note to myself: download.
 

Ghostcut

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According to my BT client there's 22 peeps on this one already!
 

JasonN

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After talking with some people over in the Torrent thread, I've decided that I will try to create some English subtitles for the Edit - I'm currently looking into software solutions (either Subtitle Workshop or Sub Station Alpha, I think) and will start work on it alongside the DVD version.
 

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Just finished watching it. Great job with the concept and execution. Some of the edits need a bit of smoothing over, but it is still a big improvement over the originals.
 

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This is the first fan edit of The Matrix sequels that I've seen.

THE MATRIX EVOLUTIONS
by JasonN

The Matrix Evolutions runs just short of 3 hours long, so I've been watching it in around 30-70 minute segments throughout today. It's OK if I want to watch it in one sitting, but watching it in this form shows me why the Wachowskis split the Matrix sequels into two films in the first place.

This provided a very fresh, original and well executed take on the philosophy of the Matrix as well as reducing a lot of the boring and clich?d crap that was contained in the two films. There were only a few hard cuts, which all came during the Burly Brawl (which still remained cartoonishly overlong, I'm afraid, but nothing much can be done about that) and during the motorway lorry fight scenes. These were in the audio, and very noticeable. However, I decided to disregard them because what the editor was trying to achieve in this context worked.

There was a lot of scene reorganisation. The buildup to the main fight scenes Chateau & Motorway (which was most of The Matrix Reloaded) was brought down to 52 minutes. This was an immense improvement over the highly irritating and overlong talky segments of the Matrix Reloaded. Some have been cut, trimmed or simply moved to other places in the film to give it a different meaning over what it had before.

Something else I must commend JasonN for is the excision of the indescribably overused convention of every character with a speaking part having a deathbed speech. Now they just die, damnit.

This even happens to Trinity.

JasonN only uses the first half of the Zion battle sequence, meaning that the machines just get fried. That's it. Over. Done. And afterwards the focus of the film switches back to Neo, and stays with him until the film ends (the kind of ending I really like: one that simply loops back on itself. Not at all unsatisfying, though, but ambiguous, thought-provoking and very open to interpretation).

A suggestion though: the one thing I really hated about the sequels is that, without exception, whenever anybody is just talking it's always in a hushed whisper or just a plain mumble. This happens in every scene of the film, including the adrenaline-fuelled action scenes. This means that 99% of the film cannot be deciphered at a volume of around 50% or lower, meaning I had to mess with the equaliser to get it to a listenable level.

However, I like this film 100% better than I have ever liked the Matrix sequels.

For storytelling, I give it 5 out of 5.
For audio, I give it 4 out of 5 down to the hard cuts during the middle fight scenes, and the mumbling (which is not your fault, but isn't too hard to remedy)
For entertainment, I give it 4 out of 5. It was completely riveting.
Overall, 4.5 out of 5

There is no rating for picture quality, as I watched the 1.4GB AVI version.
 

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Much thanks for the review, Ghostcut. :)

For the DVD version, I will try to smooth over some of the audio cuts better, but I don't know exactly how much I can improve on what I already did - the audio for Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions is, without a doubt, one of the most problematic and difficult audio mixes I've encountered in fanediting. :|

As for some of the "hushed" nature of the dialogue, I am currently working on some English subtitles for the Edit (it will be included on the DVD and I'll also make it available for people who want to load it in their player when watching the AVI version)
 

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Besides Tubes and Ghostcut, has anyone else had a chance to watch the edit yet? If so, could you tell me what you thought of it in the Review thread?

EDIT: Also, with talking with a few people that did see the edit, it sounds like some of the audio cuts for a few of the fight scenes in Reloaded didn't come across as successful has I had intended. For the DVD version, I will try to smooth over some of the audio cuts better, but I don't know exactly how much I can improve on what I already did - the audio for Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions is, without a doubt, one of the most problematic and difficult audio mixes I've encountered in fanediting. :|
(although to be fair, I haven't come across any Matrix sequel fanedit that is 100% perfect with audio cuts during the cutting of parts from the fight scenes in the films)
 

Tubes

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One of the tools I used a lot in Pressure Point is cross fades. In most situations, they work fine. Others need more complicated audio layering.
 

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Trust me, some of the audio edits I had to make for this edit were quite complicated at times. :eek:
 

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I've moved away a bit from the DVD creation for a bit in order to work on the English subtitles - I've settled on using Subtitle Workshop and it's working out very well (just a lot of cut/paste and correcting the time).
With luck, I'll have it finished by tonight.

EDIT: Ok, maybe tomorrow instead (didn't realize how much work making subtitles could take).
 

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Ok... I am royally POed at myself right now. :x
While I was working on the subtitles and using the AVI version to time the subtitles out, I came across a single mistake in the video that God knows how got past me: during one of the scenes where Neo talks to Rama-Kandra, one of the video tracks must've been moved slightly or saved wrong, there is a .2 scene fade from one cut to another in the video.

So, after cursing myself considerably, I fixed the error in Vegas and am now re-encoding the video, which will take probably another day and a half to finish. This, of course, pushes my planned release of the DVD version back another 1-2 days - so, while that encodes on my workstation, I'll be working on the subtitles and commentary track on my laptop.

God, this pisses me off... :-(
 

boon23

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BUT on the other hand it shows another good things, for which creating subtitles is really good: you give your work a very close and intense preview, when you add them.
I am happy, we are getting a fixed version on DVD. Thanks for taking all this time.
 

messenjah14

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But the subtitles will still work on the avi-version, right? I'm not personally too disturbed by that error so I won't dl the DVD just yet.
 

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messenjah14 said:
But the subtitles will still work on the avi-version, right? I'm not personally too disturbed by that error so I won't dl the DVD just yet.
Yeah, I tested it and the subs work just fine with the AVI (I used the Media Classic Player for my tests, since it lets me import the SRT version of the subtitles into the player and overlays them over the video).
 

messenjah14

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Great. Will we be getting a separate file of the subtitles when the DVD comes out or do you have something else in mind?

Just asking a lot since I'm so anxious to watch this :)
 
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