Details & Review of the Matrix Boxed Set

[John Crichton]

http://dvd.ign.com/articles/566/566215p1.html

I'll be buying the regular version, myself. My main reasons for wanting this set:

- New spiffy The Matrix transfer.
- The extras in general.
- The scenes from the game that I never wanted to play that supposedly help out the story.
- Simply to own it. I only have copy of the original and even though I really disliked 2 and was generally entertained by 3, I still want to sit down and watch them back-to-back which I'm told heightens the experience.

It is interesting that the W Bros still refuse to speak about the films and I think it's criminal to not even appear in this set. I'm sure they have their reasons but I agree with the review's author in his last 2 paragraphs. I'm not really hyped for the set as I really only liked the first film but I'll still be picking it up for the above reasons.

I know there are some big Matrix fans around here. What do you think?

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I think that I've already got the three movies, and this isn't by Lucas so I won't keep shelling out money. Actually, I WOULD get this if the W Bros would talk about it. It'd be great to hear more than 'those guys have a vision' and actually hear 'our vision was...'

 

[RangerWickett]

That's kinda odd, John. I ended up liking the second movie, and generally disliking the third. Or rather, I liked the parts in the Matrix in the second movie. The parts in the real world were rather uninteresting. Part three was mostly in the real world, and when it wasn't, it wasn't anything that I hadn't seen before done better by Dragon Ball Z.

Dang, I really wanted Neo to shoot a kamehameha.

See, Matrix 2 made me think there was some twist coming up, something unexpected, something like "The machines are only sentient as long as they can leech from the dreams of humans in the matrix," or "Neo's going to go to the machine half of the matrix, where there are no humans, and he's going to kick digital butt there."

Instead, I got a long sequence of shooting lots of squiddies, and Neo and Smith just punching each other to no discernable effect. The only part of the third movie I liked was Neo fighting Smith in Bane's body, because Neo was not invincible there. Man, the ways they dropped the ball with never following through on the possibilities of werewolves, vampires, and Merovingians really disappointed me.

Matrix 2 had promise. Matrix 3 didn't follow up.

 

[John Crichton]

RW - I actually don't really hold to my opinion about either because 2 was terribly dissappointing and I haven't had a chance to rewatch it. From what I understand it is actually better the second time around because of something you mentioned: the twist. Being able to shut off the brain and simply watching it to watch it sounds fun.

And the reason why I liked 3 (at all) was because of: GIANT ROBOTS. That whole sequence made the film for me. The rest was meh. I am a sucker for big robots blowing things up.

Overall, they were both terribly dissappointing and I found that I had to lower my expectations to the lowest possible level just to watch the 3rd one. That said, the movies are not as highbrow as they appear to be. Ebert said it best, "It certainly sounds like what they are saying is important."

Despite it all, I want to watch them all back-to-back. I'm willing to give second chances. Just gotta remember to shut off the brain and enjoy.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Ebert said it best, "It certainly sounds like what they are saying is important."

Well, there were quite a few philosophical ideas presented in Maxtrix 1. Whether we can measure their depth? I can't say, and don't care enough to.

Haven't seen 2 or 3, need to rent those one day.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Well, I bought the first movie, wasn't thrilled by the second or third. If the price is right, I'll be looking at the set just for some of the bonus materials.

 

[EricNoah]

See, Matrix 2 made me think there was some twist coming up, something unexpected, something like "The machines are only sentient as long as they can leech from the dreams of humans in the matrix," or "Neo's going to go to the machine half of the matrix, where there are no humans, and he's going to kick digital butt there."

...

Matrix 2 had promise. Matrix 3 didn't follow up.

Agree. The first one was such a trip ... I was sure that the "real" reason for the maxtrix was yet to be revealed. I too thought the AI was a lot more dependent on human brains than had been let on. I was hoping it was something along the lines of "The machines use our brains for extra processing power (they provide a dream world to keep our brains stimulated; we use 10% of it to "live" in the dream world, while they use the other 90% of it to do their funky jive). If we can learn to tap into our minds more deeply, we might be able to stop the machines cold by "outthinking them"." Or something like that. Also felt that the idea of the rogue programs hadn't been explored enough. Good ideas never taken to their full potential, as you say.

 

[Kesh]

Instead, I got a long sequence of shooting lots of squiddies, and Neo and Smith just punching each other to no discernable effect. The only part of the third movie I liked was Neo fighting Smith in Bane's body, because Neo was not invincible there. Man, the ways they dropped the ball with never following through on the possibilities of werewolves, vampires, and Merovingians really disappointed me.

Matrix 2 had promise. Matrix 3 didn't follow up.

Gotta agree with you there. I was soo looking forward to seeing some of the vamps/werewolves from the game actually being in the third movie... squat. I wanted to see what kind of strange twist would change the fates of both worlds... and we get a rogue viral Agent program. Meh.

Speaking of the game: those filmed cutscenes really do add to the second movie's story, especially early on. In fact, there's a few in-game scenes that would've been nice to see in live-action, but oh well.

I'll be picking up the boxed set (though not the expensive one). It'll be good to see the Animatrix stuff, and the movies as a whole are decent popcorn action films. The first will never stop being a classic, and holy crap the new transfer stills in that review look good.

 

[Welverin]

It is interesting that the W Bros still refuse to speak about the films and I think it's criminal to not even appear in this set. I'm sure they have their reasons but I agree with the review's author in his last 2 paragraphs. I'm not really hyped for the set as I really only liked the first film but I'll still be picking it up for the above reasons.

I know there are some big Matrix fans around here. What do you think?

I'm seriously annoyed the WB are not contributing anything to this, the lack of commentary is especially grating. Of course their pathetic excuse for not doing so, at least in the past, is what's truly annoying.

 

[Welverin]

So has anyone else picked it up yet?

I got through all three commentaries by the brothers, which was rather interesting.

I'm seriously annoyed the WB are not contributing anything to this, the lack of commentary is especially grating. Of course their pathetic excuse for not doing so, at least in the past, is what's truly annoying.

Well after reading their written introduction I can see where they're coming from, to a degree, still doesn't justify their non-involvement.