The first "Matrix" movie was one of the biggest-selling DVDs of all time and helped move the fledgling DVD industry into the big time. Warner Bros. are hoping, I'm sure, that the box sets of all three "Matrix" movies on HD-DVD will do the same for high definition. Yes, at the moment, WB are making the films available only on HD-DVD because of present limitations in the Blu-ray format for their "In-Movie Experience," but Sony should have the bugs worked out soon, and Blu-ray afficionados ought to get their sets toward the end of 2007. And, yes, while the five-disc set, "The Ultimate Matrix 'Collection," under consideration here contains everything the "Matrix" fan could ever want, WB have also made available a three-disc HD-DVD set containing just the movies and relatively fewer extras.
The Matrix
Ever since "Jaws" set the trend, summer movies have been about action and adventure. When you can throw in fantasy and special effects, all the better. "The Matrix" comes in with all speakers firing, a sci-fi thriller that's short on logic but long on visual and visceral excitement. It's a futuristic film noir with big names like Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne, big sets, big budget, and enough weirdness to ensure HD-DVD sales for years to come.
The premise is promising: We all live in a dream. Literally. Nothing around us is real. In the movie's future world, most people on Earth are curled up in little pods, millions upon millions of tiny pods all over the world, with each pod's inhabitant fed and nurtured by giant, insect-like machines. Our lives are merely sensory implants, cyber visions to keep us pacified, while the machines feed on our energy. It's a tempting idea, one that will have you looking at your own world in a slightly different way, but it's undermined by too much mundane explanation. According to the story line, we got ourselves into this situation when we built computers that became smarter than we were. They took over and enslaved us. Yes, it's yet another "smart-ass machines taking over the planet" plot. How about, we were colonized millions of years ago by higher intelligences, and this is how they left us? How about, this is the way it's always been since time immemorial, sans God, gods, or any higher intelligences? How about the whole world is in the mind of the main character, and nothing else exists? Oh, where is John Conner when you need him? Where is Big Arnold?
Anyway, a few humans have escaped this illusory world, this "Matrix," and are working in a resistance movement headed by a character played by Fishburne. He has the unlikely but mysterious-sounding name of Morpheus (in mythology Morpheus was the god of dreams, and so the symbolism begins). Their latest recruit is a young computer worker named Thomas Anderson, played by Reeves. He is supposedly destined to be the world's savior, "the One." But first he has to be convinced that the Matrix business is all true, then he has to be sprung from his pod and brought into reality, and finally he has to be trained to use his new super powers. Oh, I didn't mention the super powers this savior possesses? It's not an easy job for Anderson, or his alter-ego Neo, or the viewer to keep up with all this.
The movie's most obvious similarities are to "Blade Runner" for its dim, shadowy look; to "The Terminator" for its intellectual nucleus; and to "Dark City" for its overall feel. Unfortunately, it lacks the internal consistency of any of those films. Once "The Matrix" establishes its broad outlines, it turns almost exclusively to computer graphics, special effects, chases, and fights for its plot turns. The cold, dark, metallic look of the sets and costumes, so reminiscent of every other postapocalyptic movie ever made (at least since "Mad Max"), becomes tiresome; as does the routine, often wooden acting of its stars, especially the cornball posturing from Fishburne and Reeves. It's also hard to take the villains seriously when they speak in such deliberate, melodramatic voices and wear getups straight out of "Men in Black"; or to take Anderson seriously when he is "bugged" with an insect-looking implant. These are times when it strikes the viewer that the story may be intended as a parody of futuristic thrillers, but then the plot reverts back to its more serious tone and rebuts the notion.
Of course, the film does succeed in representing a bleak, gloomy future devoid of human emotion, and, undeniably, there are parts of it that are visually exciting, especially during its several climactic showdowns. The special effects can at times be breathtaking, as with the look of the giant squid-like mechanisms that constantly patrol the world. But a little of this goes a long way, and the plot too often bogs down in obscure complications that are hard to follow. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, and costars Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano, among others.
So, back to the question: Is life an illusion? "The Matrix" answers this age-old philosophical query in straightforward Hollywood fashion: Yes, it says, and machines are responsible! Well, at least the movie offers greater novelty than that provided by most other Tinseltown flicks. But there's still more surface here than substance, intriguing though that substance may be. OK, enough of this nit-picking. The film is fun to watch, which is all we really expect from action flicks. In that regard, count "The Matrix" a success. 7/10
Video:
For those folks who believe the movie is the thing, the video quality couldn't be better. The HD-DVD transfer is everything one could ask of it. The widescreen picture size measures as before, a generous 2.21:1 ratio across my screen (although this will vary from television to television due to differing degrees of overscan). The image is beautifully detailed, well defined, of course, and almost totally free of grain, except that which was inherent to the original film print, sometimes noticeable in wide expanses of white.
The Wachowskis chose an oddball color palette that runs high to shades of green and yellow, so it's a little hard to tell just how "natural" the colors really are. I'd say, though, that everything is in order and in sharp relief. And even though the black levels are intensely deep, darker areas of the screen allow one to see deeply and clearly into them.
Audio:
To complement the picture quality, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound are outstanding in every way, coming into their own in the last third of the movie during the rescue and fight scenes. The sonic range is wide, especially in terms of bass and dynamic contrasts, and the channel separation is clearly distinct from all six speakers. If you can, choose the TrueHD track. It is the wider, more cleanly focused of the two English tracks. Switching back and forth between TrueHD and DD+ reveals a more open sound stage in TrueHD, with a slightly tauter bass. Trust me, you'll like it. The DD+ track, while still very good, is a bit brighter and lighter by comparison.
Extras:
The first HD-DVD contains "The Matrix" film; thirty-eight scene selections, but no chapter insert; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired; bookmarks; a guide line of elapsed time; a zoom-and-pan feature; and an Elite Red HD case. All three films are housed in their own Elite Red cases, with the final two discs housed in a single, black, double case. The four disc cases are further enclosed in a handsome cardboard slipcover.
In terms of bonus items, these discs have them to spare. On disc one, the most important item is probably the "In-Movie Experience," which played flawlessly. It provides coverage from the cast and filmmakers, most often accompanied by picture-in-picture inserts to illustrate its points. Next up, we get three theatrical trailers and eight TV spots. After those, there are four separate audio commentaries. Whew! Who could listen to all of them? The first commentary is with philosophers Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber, a track that annoyed my colleague Eddie Feng, who thought it was ridiculous that they tried to make more of the film's philosophy than what was there. The second commentary is with film critics Todd McCarthy, John Powers, and David Thomson, who do their best to analyze the film's content and delivery. The third commentary features costar Carrie-Anne Moss, visual-effects supervisor John Gaeta, and film editor Zach Staenberg. And the fourth commentary track is with composer Dan Davis, who speaks over an isolated music-only track that allows him to comment on the music without dialogue or sound effects getting in the way. Not enough? There is also a written introduction by the Wachowski boys. In addition, side one contains a sequence of seven featurettes, forty-three minutes in all, called "Behind the Matrix"; a music video, "Rock Is Dead," by Marilyn Manson; and a forty-one music tracks that can be played independently or all together.
Side two of the first disc contains a standard-definition DVD layer with even more bonus items, which Warner Bros. say are only available in the "Ultimate Collection." The first item is a feature-length documentary, "The Matrix Revisited," about two hours long; plus two more galleries of featurettes, "Follow the White Rabbit," twenty-three minutes, and "Take the Red Pill," seventeen minutes. Frankly, after watching a few minutes of each of these segments, I felt like I had had about enough of "The Matrix" and all it had to offer. But I suppose the true believer cannot get enough of this stuff. If I have forgotten anything, be sure to check out the review of "The Ultimate Matrix Collection" in SD, the complete hard-hitting review by my friend, the aforementioned Mr. Feng.
I might add that the menus on the second sides of these discs as well as the final two discs look tacky and simplistic, as though they had come from an old DOS computer program. I suppose that's the point, I don't know.
The Matrix Reloaded
"The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead."
--Albert Einstein
If you liked "The Matrix," you'll probably like the second in the series, 2003's "The Matrix Reloaded." It's more of the same, plus even more nonsense.
Indeed, you might like "Reloaded" better, as it contains a few new explanatory riffs on a story that left more than a few people a bit confused the first time around. If, on the other hand, you didn't care for the original movie and found it merely a load of sci-fi foolishness, special effects, and fight scenes, I doubt you're going to think very highly of "Reloaded," which has an even higher quotient of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo, elaborate special effects, cast members, and fight sequences.
In the first installment we learned that most life on Earth as we know it is an illusion, a gigantic computer matrix of phony realities that we think we're experiencing, while we're really plugged into tiny cell pods controlled by machines. "Reloaded" starts out several months after the first movie left off, the machines are marching against the last remaining human city, Zion, and our hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) is the one great hope of Mankind. Fortunately, Neo is beginning to understand his powers and vision a little better now than in the first film, and he is more capable than ever of taking care of himself and his new world.
While I've never fully appreciated Reeves as an actor (except in "The Devil's Advocate" where he played the perfect innocent foil to Al Pacino's devil), Reeves does fine here as the ex-computer nerd turned mystic hero. Also back are Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, not so mysterious this time around but just as strong a presence; Carrie-Ann Moss as Trinity, whose role and involvement with Neo have been expanded thanks to their popularity in the previous episode; Hugo Weaving as the evil Agent Smith, this time there being more of him (literally) than ever; and Gloria Foster as the Oracle.
New to "Reloaded" are Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe, a Captain of the resistance fighters; Harold Perrineau as Link, an operator on Morpheus's ship; Harry J. Lennix as Commander Lock, a military leader of the resistance; Anthony Zerbe as Councillor Hamann, a political leader of the resistance; and Helmut Bakaitis as the Architect, the creator, the godlike father of the Matrix. Even world-champion boxer Roy Jones, Jr., shows up as a grim-faced good guy, Ballard, who, ironically, does no actual fighting.
New as well is the script's exploration of free will, choice versus fate, and destiny that are pursued to some small extent in the story. Unfortunately, most it only leaves things muddled. New, too, is the notion that in order to defeat the machines, Neo must reach "the Source," and to do so he must go through the "Keymaker." Shades of "Ghostbusters." And probably the silliest scene in the film is one where the fate of the world hangs on a single kiss! Where was the editor when he was needed?
But it's the visual appearance and action in "The Matrix" films that audiences find most compelling, and it is here that the Wachowskis top themselves. Yes, there are more turns and twists to the plot to follow and fascinate and mystify, but there are more visually stunning sets, too, more impressive CGI, and more spectacularly impressive fight sequences than before. Of course, none of it seems as fresh or imaginative as it did in "The Matrix" because then it was all so new and inventive. Our having seen such things done again and again in other movies since has taken some of the edge off the flying stunts and the slow-motion special effects.
But you're still bound to find some things of interest. Probably of most regard will be the infamous freeway scene, one of those ultimate car chases that go on forever and destroy about 800 vehicles in the process. It's pretty exciting no matter how familiar it may seem (and it seemed particularly familiar to me as it was filmed close by where I live). Indeed, the whole of "Reloaded" seems more like a fantasy video game than a sci-fi flick, but it's so remarkably well done, most people won't even notice.
I can't say I found Keanu Reeves too persuasive as a lead character in "Reloaded," nor did I find much in the way of high spirits or good-natured humor in the movie. Moreover, there's the overlong duration (138 minutes) of "Reloaded" to consider, the relentless pacing of its fight scenes, the constantly grim tone, and the inevitable degree of frustration and disappointment a person must feel knowing that "Reloaded" will have to be continued in a third part. It's a pall that hangs over the whole picture.
Yet there is still much to enjoy about "Reloaded" in its daring appearance, its goofy premise, its nonstop action, and its general feeling of wonder. "Reloaded" is fun stuff for sci-fi/fantasy buffs, well made and entertaining even if it tends to become more than a little static along the way with all its similarly constructed battle scenes. My recommendation: Don't even try to figure any of it out. Just look, listen, and try to enjoy it. 6/10
Video:
For a film so dark as this one is, the HD-DVD colors and definition stand out. The screen dimensions are a tad less wide in "Reloaded" than in the first movie, but it's close enough. The picture quality is probably the same, too, but I swear that if anything the detailing and object definition seemed even crisper this time out. Imagination? Maybe, but it's excellent in any case.
Audio:
Again I chose the Dolby TrueHD option, and again I was not disappointed. Everything about it is exemplary: the frequency range, bass, dynamic response, and six-channel stereo spread making this special-effects-laden, science-fi extravaganza a sonic joy. The surround channels place ambient and background noises all around us, sometimes hardly noticeable except subliminally or subconsciously, to make the overall environment vivid and lifelike. Moreover, the TrueHD appeared a touch more robust to me than the DD+, which again seemed slightly brighter and more constricted.
Extras:
The HD-DVD for "The Matrix Reloaded" contains all of the extras we found on the standard-definition two-disc set, plus the picture-in-picture "In-Movie Experience" and several audio commentaries. The commentaries include ones by the philosophers and critics named above, and they pretty much continue along the same lines. There are also again the same language and HD-DVD options and a written introduction by the Wachowskis.
Among the extras are "Behind the Matrix," which includes four segments: "Preload," a twenty-two minute, behind-the-scenes production overview with the cast and crew explaining their part in the filmmaking; "The Matrix Unfolds," a five-minute look at the influence of "The Matrix" across movies, games, anime, and the Internet; "Get Me an Exit," nine minutes on the commercial advertising inspired by "The Matrix," like the Samsung phone used in the movie; and the cutest bit in the extras department, "The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded," nine minutes of fun and parody. After that is "Enter the Matrix," on the making of the video game, with a series of scenes from the game; a music video, "Sleeping Awake," by P.O.D.; and a whole lot of theatrical trailers and TV spots for the movie.
If you flip over the disc to the DVD side, you'll find even more stuff, all of it in standard definition and full-screen. First, there is a segment called "I'll Handle That," seventeen minutes on weapons and fighting. Second is the "Teahouse Fight," seven minutes on the famous fight scene. Third is "Car Chase," close to an hour-and-and-half of featurettes, nine in all, on "The Freeway Chase" from storyboards to models to actual shooting. It's probably more than you ever wanted to know about the intimate details of filmmaking, but it is informational at the very least. Fourth is "The Exiles," seventeen minutes on "The Exiles" and "The Architect's Office." Finally, there is "Unplugged," a forty-minute section on "Creating the Burly Brawl," with Master Wo Ping and others.
When Warner Bros. say there are over thirty-five hours of material in this collection, they aren't kidding.
The Matrix Revolutions
"The Matrix Revolutions" is well named. It continues to go around and around and around. Sometimes, it's better to quit when you're ahead.
"The Matrix" (1999) was an enjoyable sci-fi experience because it introduced us to some mind-boggling special effects, and it had at its core an interesting, although not entirely original, premise. The film's makers, Andy and Larry Wachowski, informed us in the first movie that we were all living in a dream. Machines had taken over the world, and each of us "humans" was really a prisoner curled up in a little pod being fed a program that simulated our existence. These ideas were not unprecedented. The view of life as a dream has been around since the ancient Greeks, and the idea of machines taking over the world has intrigued moviemakers before--in the twenties with "Metropolis," in the fifties with "Forbidden Planet," and, of course, in the eighties with "The Terminator," among others. But the concepts had never been elaborated so thoroughly or so graphically until "The Matrix."
You'll also remember that in the first film a small group of human resistance fighters were doing all they could to thwart the machines while waiting for a savior, who turned up in the person of a computer hacker named Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), later called Neo, presumably the new deliverer of Mankind. The plot of "The Matrix" unfolded slowly, finally revealing the predicament the world was in and implying that Neo would save the day. It was fun. And it probably should have ended right there. But where would the profits have been in that? Sequels are a time-honored Hollywood tradition.
So, we got "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," made back to back and released in 2003. It was a two-for-the-price-of-one deal. Frankly, though, one movie would have been enough, since there really wasn't enough material to spread out effectively over two complete films.
"Reloaded" started out several months after the first movie left off, the machines marching against the last remaining human city, Zion. Added was the script's exploration of free will versus fate, a point pursued only to a minor extent and which I had hoped would be amplified in the final segment, because the way it was handled in number two had simply left things confused. Alas, it was not to be. "Revolutions" only expands upon the action-adventure aspects of the previous movies.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed "Reloaded" for its extended visual style, meaning that its sets and special effects were more complex and more fascinating than ever to look at. The second film was less innovative than the first film, true, but it was still enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately, this third episode, "Revolutions," does little new in terms of storyline or visual-effects. It is basically just more of the same, with nothing surprising, nothing any longer mind-boggling, and nothing most viewers couldn't guess would happen going in.
As the movie begins, there are only some twenty hours left until the machines reach the human citadel of Zion, and it's up to Neo to rescue the human race. He must go to the Emerald City, speak to the Wizard, and free the land of the Wicked Witch of the West. Or something like that. If you're the sort of person who enjoys finding pieces of "The Wizard of Oz" in Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," you'll have a field day with this picture.
As "Revolutions" starts, Neo is trapped between the real world and the Matrix, and only the Frenchman can help transport him between the two planes. Next, a whole lot of stuff happens inexplicably, just because it looks good. We meet some program people, for instance, who turn out to be more human than most humans. But practically nothing is made of it.
In fact, the whole movie comes more than ever to resemble a video game, with one encounter after another, each bigger and more eccentric than the ones it left behind, each with increasingly more-exaggerated special effects. The movie is overlong at 129 minutes, but if you take out all of the punching, kicking, shooting, somersaulting, jabbering, and intense staring, it's about two minutes, probably long enough. And don't forget the old war-movie clichés and red herrings, which don't help, either.
People in the film continue to indulge in the same sort of fortune-cookie philosophy they were spouting in the last film, like the Oracle saying, "No one can see beyond a choice they don't understand." This kind of pseudo-mystical dialogue permeates "Revolutions" for no other reason, I suspect, than to make the movie appear more profound than it really is. Apparently, the filmmakers expended their repertoire of abstruse ideas in the first film and had to resort to nonsense in the second and third segments. The "Architect." The "Source." The "One." Whatever happened to the magic and mystery of the first installment? They've been replaced by more diffuse language, more extravagant computer graphic imagery, and more mundane explanations. Arthur C. Clarke did not improve upon "2001" by over-explaining things in "2010." Neither do the Wachowskis improve upon "The Matrix" by taking us behind the curtain of Oz. More is not necessarily better.
I was willing to give "Reloaded" the benefit of the doubt because I enjoyed its look. But "Revolutions" adds nothing fresh to the formula. The big battle sequence, which comprises maybe half the film with its conflict between squid-like machine Sentinels and Mech-Warrior human weaponry, is glorious for about ten minutes but then seems to go on forever. What's more, while some of the CGI work is terrific (the aforementioned Sentinels especially), too much of it appears frustratingly ordinary rather than approaching anything like fantasy realism. The laser fire, for instance, seems to me no better than the laser blasts in the original "Star Wars" over a quarter of a century ago. Then, after an admittedly clever confrontation with Smith, the movie ends. Sort of. Yet it doesn't really end. As any computer user knows, what can be deleted can be undeleted.
It isn't that "The Matrix Revolutions" is a bad movie; it isn't. It's that "Revolutions" is a disappointing movie, given all that has come before it and all that it could have been. I suspect many "Matrix" fans like me were looking forward to some kind of smart, startling, imaginative climax, something that would make us all say, "Wow! Cool! I never expected that!" But it doesn't happen. Instead, we get a wholly prosaic, commonplace ending.
"The Matrix Revolutions" may go out with a lot of loud bangs, but when it's over, it seems more like a whimper. Maybe we can pretend it didn't happen. 5/10
Video:
Since "Revolutions" and "Reloaded" were filmed at about the same time, we would expect them to look pretty much alike, and they do. The HD-DVD continues to improve the picture quality over the old standard-definition editions, and the remarkable clarity continues to improve one's enjoyment of the film's often spectacular visual effects.
Audio:
Again, choose Dolby TrueHD 5.1 if you can. Basically, the sound is identical to the sound in the previous film, with both TrueHD and DD+ a step up from regular Dolby Digital 5.1
Extras:
Again, we get all of the extras found on the two-disc standard-definition set, plus the "In-Movie Experience" and two audio commentaries. Like "Reloaded," this movie comes with English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. In addition, there are thirty-three scene selections and a big collection of theatrical trailers and TV spots. As before, there are two audio commentaries are by our pals the film critics and the philosophers. Add to that another written introduction by the Wachowskis and a ninety-minute documentary, "Behind the Matrix."
I swear after watching all of these making-of features, they all began looking alike to me. Anyway, "Behind the Matrix" contains things like "Neo Realism: The Evolution of Bullet Time," more on special effects; "Super Big Mini Models," filming the world of models and miniatures; "Double Agent Smith," a look at what it took to make the final scene, including the work to replicate Hugo Weaving with body doubles, lifelike mannequins, head casts, and costumes; "Mind Over Matter: The Physicality of The Matrix," a look at the dramatic stunts of "The Matrix"; and on and on.
The second side of the disc, the DVD side, contains hours more extras in seven categories. First, there is "Before the Revolution," a timeline of the development occurring in the "Matrix" story, followed by "3-D Evolution, with concept art and storyboards. Second, we have "Super Burly Brawl," seventeen minutes and divided into five segments: "The Skybarn," "The Crater," "The Egg," "Anatomy of the Superbrawl," and "Super Burly Brawl." Third is a thirty-nine-minute ordeal called "Aftermath," four segments on the film's composition and final adjustments. Fourth, there is "Crew," twenty-five minutes on the art department, the second unit, the cinematographer, and the lighting people. Fifth up we have "New Blue World," twenty-six minutes' worth of info on the geography of Zion, the ships, the Neb, and such. Sixth is "Hel," twenty-seven more minutes on special effects. And seventh is "Siege," about forty minutes on the final battle. Oddly, this was the only segment of the seven that refused to show me any timings in the "Play All" mode.
The Matrix Experience: Two-Disc Databank
Warner Bros. tell us that like the second sides of the first three discs, the fourth and fifth discs, together called "The Matrix Experience," are available only in "The Ultimate Matrix Collection." They don't say whether that's a good or a bad thing.
These final two discs are double-sided DVDs containing material in standard definition, and there is a lot of it. The centerpiece of disc four, side one is "The Animatrix," a series of nine animated short subjects, all of them related to the theme of "The Matrix." The nine films total about 100 minutes, and they range in style from 3-D CGI through anime, rotoscoping, dark comics, and graphic novels, mostly in color, with one in black-and-white. In addition, side one contains almost an hour of "Making of" material related to "The Animatrix"; audio commentaries on the films; text information on the directors and producers of the films; and a twenty-two-minute segment on "The History and Culture of Anime."
Side two is where you'll find the stuff that takes itself most seriously. There are two sixty-minute documentaries titled "Return to the Source: Philosophy and the Matrix" and "The Hard Problem: The Science Behind the Fiction." You can guess what they're about and how they try to persuade you that "The Matrix" movies are more than just punch-kick-and-special-effects extravaganzas.
On the final disc, side one, we find "The Burly Man Chronicles," "Pre-Production," "Alameda Shoot," and "Australian Shoot." I'd swear I had seen all of this the day before when I was watching the first three movie discs, but, as I've said, it began looking alike to me after a while. "The Burly Man" business is about ninety-four minutes long; the other three parts total about thirty-two minutes, with additional information if you want to click on the "White Rabbit" icons along the way.
Side two wraps everything up...finally. It contains "The Zion Archive," galleries of storyboards, characters, ships, machines, etc.; "The Rave Reel," nine minutes of spacey graphics; "The Matrix Online," a nine-minute preview of the video game; two music videos; and yet more theatrical trailers and TV spots.
On its sheer weight of numbers, the extras here should get a solid "10," but I'm giving them an "8" because so much of what is presented is repetitive. Does the word "redundant" mean anything to anybody?
Parting Thoughts:
Despite the fact that the original "Matrix" can stand perfectly well on its own, and despite the fact that the filmmakers could have combined the second and third installments into one movie instead of padding them out into two longer movies for more profit, I still find the story's premise fascinating enough, the stunts exciting enough, and the HD-DVD picture and sound good enough to sustain repeat viewing. My film rating below, a "6," is an average score for all three movies (7, 6, and 5).
And what do you mean, Won't Warner Bros. eventually make the movies available separately on HD-DVD and Blu-ray? They probably will. But who wants to wait that long?
The Matrix
Ever since "Jaws" set the trend, summer movies have been about action and adventure. When you can throw in fantasy and special effects, all the better. "The Matrix" comes in with all speakers firing, a sci-fi thriller that's short on logic but long on visual and visceral excitement. It's a futuristic film noir with big names like Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne, big sets, big budget, and enough weirdness to ensure HD-DVD sales for years to come.
The premise is promising: We all live in a dream. Literally. Nothing around us is real. In the movie's future world, most people on Earth are curled up in little pods, millions upon millions of tiny pods all over the world, with each pod's inhabitant fed and nurtured by giant, insect-like machines. Our lives are merely sensory implants, cyber visions to keep us pacified, while the machines feed on our energy. It's a tempting idea, one that will have you looking at your own world in a slightly different way, but it's undermined by too much mundane explanation. According to the story line, we got ourselves into this situation when we built computers that became smarter than we were. They took over and enslaved us. Yes, it's yet another "smart-ass machines taking over the planet" plot. How about, we were colonized millions of years ago by higher intelligences, and this is how they left us? How about, this is the way it's always been since time immemorial, sans God, gods, or any higher intelligences? How about the whole world is in the mind of the main character, and nothing else exists? Oh, where is John Conner when you need him? Where is Big Arnold?
Anyway, a few humans have escaped this illusory world, this "Matrix," and are working in a resistance movement headed by a character played by Fishburne. He has the unlikely but mysterious-sounding name of Morpheus (in mythology Morpheus was the god of dreams, and so the symbolism begins). Their latest recruit is a young computer worker named Thomas Anderson, played by Reeves. He is supposedly destined to be the world's savior, "the One." But first he has to be convinced that the Matrix business is all true, then he has to be sprung from his pod and brought into reality, and finally he has to be trained to use his new super powers. Oh, I didn't mention the super powers this savior possesses? It's not an easy job for Anderson, or his alter-ego Neo, or the viewer to keep up with all this.
The movie's most obvious similarities are to "Blade Runner" for its dim, shadowy look; to "The Terminator" for its intellectual nucleus; and to "Dark City" for its overall feel. Unfortunately, it lacks the internal consistency of any of those films. Once "The Matrix" establishes its broad outlines, it turns almost exclusively to computer graphics, special effects, chases, and fights for its plot turns. The cold, dark, metallic look of the sets and costumes, so reminiscent of every other postapocalyptic movie ever made (at least since "Mad Max"), becomes tiresome; as does the routine, often wooden acting of its stars, especially the cornball posturing from Fishburne and Reeves. It's also hard to take the villains seriously when they speak in such deliberate, melodramatic voices and wear getups straight out of "Men in Black"; or to take Anderson seriously when he is "bugged" with an insect-looking implant. These are times when it strikes the viewer that the story may be intended as a parody of futuristic thrillers, but then the plot reverts back to its more serious tone and rebuts the notion.
Of course, the film does succeed in representing a bleak, gloomy future devoid of human emotion, and, undeniably, there are parts of it that are visually exciting, especially during its several climactic showdowns. The special effects can at times be breathtaking, as with the look of the giant squid-like mechanisms that constantly patrol the world. But a little of this goes a long way, and the plot too often bogs down in obscure complications that are hard to follow. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, and costars Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano, among others.
So, back to the question: Is life an illusion? "The Matrix" answers this age-old philosophical query in straightforward Hollywood fashion: Yes, it says, and machines are responsible! Well, at least the movie offers greater novelty than that provided by most other Tinseltown flicks. But there's still more surface here than substance, intriguing though that substance may be. OK, enough of this nit-picking. The film is fun to watch, which is all we really expect from action flicks. In that regard, count "The Matrix" a success. 7/10
Video:
For those folks who believe the movie is the thing, the video quality couldn't be better. The HD-DVD transfer is everything one could ask of it. The widescreen picture size measures as before, a generous 2.21:1 ratio across my screen (although this will vary from television to television due to differing degrees of overscan). The image is beautifully detailed, well defined, of course, and almost totally free of grain, except that which was inherent to the original film print, sometimes noticeable in wide expanses of white.
The Wachowskis chose an oddball color palette that runs high to shades of green and yellow, so it's a little hard to tell just how "natural" the colors really are. I'd say, though, that everything is in order and in sharp relief. And even though the black levels are intensely deep, darker areas of the screen allow one to see deeply and clearly into them.
Audio:
To complement the picture quality, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound are outstanding in every way, coming into their own in the last third of the movie during the rescue and fight scenes. The sonic range is wide, especially in terms of bass and dynamic contrasts, and the channel separation is clearly distinct from all six speakers. If you can, choose the TrueHD track. It is the wider, more cleanly focused of the two English tracks. Switching back and forth between TrueHD and DD+ reveals a more open sound stage in TrueHD, with a slightly tauter bass. Trust me, you'll like it. The DD+ track, while still very good, is a bit brighter and lighter by comparison.
Extras:
The first HD-DVD contains "The Matrix" film; thirty-eight scene selections, but no chapter insert; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired; bookmarks; a guide line of elapsed time; a zoom-and-pan feature; and an Elite Red HD case. All three films are housed in their own Elite Red cases, with the final two discs housed in a single, black, double case. The four disc cases are further enclosed in a handsome cardboard slipcover.
In terms of bonus items, these discs have them to spare. On disc one, the most important item is probably the "In-Movie Experience," which played flawlessly. It provides coverage from the cast and filmmakers, most often accompanied by picture-in-picture inserts to illustrate its points. Next up, we get three theatrical trailers and eight TV spots. After those, there are four separate audio commentaries. Whew! Who could listen to all of them? The first commentary is with philosophers Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber, a track that annoyed my colleague Eddie Feng, who thought it was ridiculous that they tried to make more of the film's philosophy than what was there. The second commentary is with film critics Todd McCarthy, John Powers, and David Thomson, who do their best to analyze the film's content and delivery. The third commentary features costar Carrie-Anne Moss, visual-effects supervisor John Gaeta, and film editor Zach Staenberg. And the fourth commentary track is with composer Dan Davis, who speaks over an isolated music-only track that allows him to comment on the music without dialogue or sound effects getting in the way. Not enough? There is also a written introduction by the Wachowski boys. In addition, side one contains a sequence of seven featurettes, forty-three minutes in all, called "Behind the Matrix"; a music video, "Rock Is Dead," by Marilyn Manson; and a forty-one music tracks that can be played independently or all together.
Side two of the first disc contains a standard-definition DVD layer with even more bonus items, which Warner Bros. say are only available in the "Ultimate Collection." The first item is a feature-length documentary, "The Matrix Revisited," about two hours long; plus two more galleries of featurettes, "Follow the White Rabbit," twenty-three minutes, and "Take the Red Pill," seventeen minutes. Frankly, after watching a few minutes of each of these segments, I felt like I had had about enough of "The Matrix" and all it had to offer. But I suppose the true believer cannot get enough of this stuff. If I have forgotten anything, be sure to check out the review of "The Ultimate Matrix Collection" in SD, the complete hard-hitting review by my friend, the aforementioned Mr. Feng.
I might add that the menus on the second sides of these discs as well as the final two discs look tacky and simplistic, as though they had come from an old DOS computer program. I suppose that's the point, I don't know.
The Matrix Reloaded
"The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead."
--Albert Einstein
If you liked "The Matrix," you'll probably like the second in the series, 2003's "The Matrix Reloaded." It's more of the same, plus even more nonsense.
Indeed, you might like "Reloaded" better, as it contains a few new explanatory riffs on a story that left more than a few people a bit confused the first time around. If, on the other hand, you didn't care for the original movie and found it merely a load of sci-fi foolishness, special effects, and fight scenes, I doubt you're going to think very highly of "Reloaded," which has an even higher quotient of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo, elaborate special effects, cast members, and fight sequences.
In the first installment we learned that most life on Earth as we know it is an illusion, a gigantic computer matrix of phony realities that we think we're experiencing, while we're really plugged into tiny cell pods controlled by machines. "Reloaded" starts out several months after the first movie left off, the machines are marching against the last remaining human city, Zion, and our hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) is the one great hope of Mankind. Fortunately, Neo is beginning to understand his powers and vision a little better now than in the first film, and he is more capable than ever of taking care of himself and his new world.
While I've never fully appreciated Reeves as an actor (except in "The Devil's Advocate" where he played the perfect innocent foil to Al Pacino's devil), Reeves does fine here as the ex-computer nerd turned mystic hero. Also back are Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, not so mysterious this time around but just as strong a presence; Carrie-Ann Moss as Trinity, whose role and involvement with Neo have been expanded thanks to their popularity in the previous episode; Hugo Weaving as the evil Agent Smith, this time there being more of him (literally) than ever; and Gloria Foster as the Oracle.
New to "Reloaded" are Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe, a Captain of the resistance fighters; Harold Perrineau as Link, an operator on Morpheus's ship; Harry J. Lennix as Commander Lock, a military leader of the resistance; Anthony Zerbe as Councillor Hamann, a political leader of the resistance; and Helmut Bakaitis as the Architect, the creator, the godlike father of the Matrix. Even world-champion boxer Roy Jones, Jr., shows up as a grim-faced good guy, Ballard, who, ironically, does no actual fighting.
New as well is the script's exploration of free will, choice versus fate, and destiny that are pursued to some small extent in the story. Unfortunately, most it only leaves things muddled. New, too, is the notion that in order to defeat the machines, Neo must reach "the Source," and to do so he must go through the "Keymaker." Shades of "Ghostbusters." And probably the silliest scene in the film is one where the fate of the world hangs on a single kiss! Where was the editor when he was needed?
But it's the visual appearance and action in "The Matrix" films that audiences find most compelling, and it is here that the Wachowskis top themselves. Yes, there are more turns and twists to the plot to follow and fascinate and mystify, but there are more visually stunning sets, too, more impressive CGI, and more spectacularly impressive fight sequences than before. Of course, none of it seems as fresh or imaginative as it did in "The Matrix" because then it was all so new and inventive. Our having seen such things done again and again in other movies since has taken some of the edge off the flying stunts and the slow-motion special effects.
But you're still bound to find some things of interest. Probably of most regard will be the infamous freeway scene, one of those ultimate car chases that go on forever and destroy about 800 vehicles in the process. It's pretty exciting no matter how familiar it may seem (and it seemed particularly familiar to me as it was filmed close by where I live). Indeed, the whole of "Reloaded" seems more like a fantasy video game than a sci-fi flick, but it's so remarkably well done, most people won't even notice.
I can't say I found Keanu Reeves too persuasive as a lead character in "Reloaded," nor did I find much in the way of high spirits or good-natured humor in the movie. Moreover, there's the overlong duration (138 minutes) of "Reloaded" to consider, the relentless pacing of its fight scenes, the constantly grim tone, and the inevitable degree of frustration and disappointment a person must feel knowing that "Reloaded" will have to be continued in a third part. It's a pall that hangs over the whole picture.
Yet there is still much to enjoy about "Reloaded" in its daring appearance, its goofy premise, its nonstop action, and its general feeling of wonder. "Reloaded" is fun stuff for sci-fi/fantasy buffs, well made and entertaining even if it tends to become more than a little static along the way with all its similarly constructed battle scenes. My recommendation: Don't even try to figure any of it out. Just look, listen, and try to enjoy it. 6/10
Video:
For a film so dark as this one is, the HD-DVD colors and definition stand out. The screen dimensions are a tad less wide in "Reloaded" than in the first movie, but it's close enough. The picture quality is probably the same, too, but I swear that if anything the detailing and object definition seemed even crisper this time out. Imagination? Maybe, but it's excellent in any case.
Audio:
Again I chose the Dolby TrueHD option, and again I was not disappointed. Everything about it is exemplary: the frequency range, bass, dynamic response, and six-channel stereo spread making this special-effects-laden, science-fi extravaganza a sonic joy. The surround channels place ambient and background noises all around us, sometimes hardly noticeable except subliminally or subconsciously, to make the overall environment vivid and lifelike. Moreover, the TrueHD appeared a touch more robust to me than the DD+, which again seemed slightly brighter and more constricted.
Extras:
The HD-DVD for "The Matrix Reloaded" contains all of the extras we found on the standard-definition two-disc set, plus the picture-in-picture "In-Movie Experience" and several audio commentaries. The commentaries include ones by the philosophers and critics named above, and they pretty much continue along the same lines. There are also again the same language and HD-DVD options and a written introduction by the Wachowskis.
Among the extras are "Behind the Matrix," which includes four segments: "Preload," a twenty-two minute, behind-the-scenes production overview with the cast and crew explaining their part in the filmmaking; "The Matrix Unfolds," a five-minute look at the influence of "The Matrix" across movies, games, anime, and the Internet; "Get Me an Exit," nine minutes on the commercial advertising inspired by "The Matrix," like the Samsung phone used in the movie; and the cutest bit in the extras department, "The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded," nine minutes of fun and parody. After that is "Enter the Matrix," on the making of the video game, with a series of scenes from the game; a music video, "Sleeping Awake," by P.O.D.; and a whole lot of theatrical trailers and TV spots for the movie.
If you flip over the disc to the DVD side, you'll find even more stuff, all of it in standard definition and full-screen. First, there is a segment called "I'll Handle That," seventeen minutes on weapons and fighting. Second is the "Teahouse Fight," seven minutes on the famous fight scene. Third is "Car Chase," close to an hour-and-and-half of featurettes, nine in all, on "The Freeway Chase" from storyboards to models to actual shooting. It's probably more than you ever wanted to know about the intimate details of filmmaking, but it is informational at the very least. Fourth is "The Exiles," seventeen minutes on "The Exiles" and "The Architect's Office." Finally, there is "Unplugged," a forty-minute section on "Creating the Burly Brawl," with Master Wo Ping and others.
When Warner Bros. say there are over thirty-five hours of material in this collection, they aren't kidding.
The Matrix Revolutions
"The Matrix Revolutions" is well named. It continues to go around and around and around. Sometimes, it's better to quit when you're ahead.
"The Matrix" (1999) was an enjoyable sci-fi experience because it introduced us to some mind-boggling special effects, and it had at its core an interesting, although not entirely original, premise. The film's makers, Andy and Larry Wachowski, informed us in the first movie that we were all living in a dream. Machines had taken over the world, and each of us "humans" was really a prisoner curled up in a little pod being fed a program that simulated our existence. These ideas were not unprecedented. The view of life as a dream has been around since the ancient Greeks, and the idea of machines taking over the world has intrigued moviemakers before--in the twenties with "Metropolis," in the fifties with "Forbidden Planet," and, of course, in the eighties with "The Terminator," among others. But the concepts had never been elaborated so thoroughly or so graphically until "The Matrix."
You'll also remember that in the first film a small group of human resistance fighters were doing all they could to thwart the machines while waiting for a savior, who turned up in the person of a computer hacker named Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), later called Neo, presumably the new deliverer of Mankind. The plot of "The Matrix" unfolded slowly, finally revealing the predicament the world was in and implying that Neo would save the day. It was fun. And it probably should have ended right there. But where would the profits have been in that? Sequels are a time-honored Hollywood tradition.
So, we got "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," made back to back and released in 2003. It was a two-for-the-price-of-one deal. Frankly, though, one movie would have been enough, since there really wasn't enough material to spread out effectively over two complete films.
"Reloaded" started out several months after the first movie left off, the machines marching against the last remaining human city, Zion. Added was the script's exploration of free will versus fate, a point pursued only to a minor extent and which I had hoped would be amplified in the final segment, because the way it was handled in number two had simply left things confused. Alas, it was not to be. "Revolutions" only expands upon the action-adventure aspects of the previous movies.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed "Reloaded" for its extended visual style, meaning that its sets and special effects were more complex and more fascinating than ever to look at. The second film was less innovative than the first film, true, but it was still enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately, this third episode, "Revolutions," does little new in terms of storyline or visual-effects. It is basically just more of the same, with nothing surprising, nothing any longer mind-boggling, and nothing most viewers couldn't guess would happen going in.
As the movie begins, there are only some twenty hours left until the machines reach the human citadel of Zion, and it's up to Neo to rescue the human race. He must go to the Emerald City, speak to the Wizard, and free the land of the Wicked Witch of the West. Or something like that. If you're the sort of person who enjoys finding pieces of "The Wizard of Oz" in Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," you'll have a field day with this picture.
As "Revolutions" starts, Neo is trapped between the real world and the Matrix, and only the Frenchman can help transport him between the two planes. Next, a whole lot of stuff happens inexplicably, just because it looks good. We meet some program people, for instance, who turn out to be more human than most humans. But practically nothing is made of it.
In fact, the whole movie comes more than ever to resemble a video game, with one encounter after another, each bigger and more eccentric than the ones it left behind, each with increasingly more-exaggerated special effects. The movie is overlong at 129 minutes, but if you take out all of the punching, kicking, shooting, somersaulting, jabbering, and intense staring, it's about two minutes, probably long enough. And don't forget the old war-movie clichés and red herrings, which don't help, either.
People in the film continue to indulge in the same sort of fortune-cookie philosophy they were spouting in the last film, like the Oracle saying, "No one can see beyond a choice they don't understand." This kind of pseudo-mystical dialogue permeates "Revolutions" for no other reason, I suspect, than to make the movie appear more profound than it really is. Apparently, the filmmakers expended their repertoire of abstruse ideas in the first film and had to resort to nonsense in the second and third segments. The "Architect." The "Source." The "One." Whatever happened to the magic and mystery of the first installment? They've been replaced by more diffuse language, more extravagant computer graphic imagery, and more mundane explanations. Arthur C. Clarke did not improve upon "2001" by over-explaining things in "2010." Neither do the Wachowskis improve upon "The Matrix" by taking us behind the curtain of Oz. More is not necessarily better.
I was willing to give "Reloaded" the benefit of the doubt because I enjoyed its look. But "Revolutions" adds nothing fresh to the formula. The big battle sequence, which comprises maybe half the film with its conflict between squid-like machine Sentinels and Mech-Warrior human weaponry, is glorious for about ten minutes but then seems to go on forever. What's more, while some of the CGI work is terrific (the aforementioned Sentinels especially), too much of it appears frustratingly ordinary rather than approaching anything like fantasy realism. The laser fire, for instance, seems to me no better than the laser blasts in the original "Star Wars" over a quarter of a century ago. Then, after an admittedly clever confrontation with Smith, the movie ends. Sort of. Yet it doesn't really end. As any computer user knows, what can be deleted can be undeleted.
It isn't that "The Matrix Revolutions" is a bad movie; it isn't. It's that "Revolutions" is a disappointing movie, given all that has come before it and all that it could have been. I suspect many "Matrix" fans like me were looking forward to some kind of smart, startling, imaginative climax, something that would make us all say, "Wow! Cool! I never expected that!" But it doesn't happen. Instead, we get a wholly prosaic, commonplace ending.
"The Matrix Revolutions" may go out with a lot of loud bangs, but when it's over, it seems more like a whimper. Maybe we can pretend it didn't happen. 5/10
Video:
Since "Revolutions" and "Reloaded" were filmed at about the same time, we would expect them to look pretty much alike, and they do. The HD-DVD continues to improve the picture quality over the old standard-definition editions, and the remarkable clarity continues to improve one's enjoyment of the film's often spectacular visual effects.
Audio:
Again, choose Dolby TrueHD 5.1 if you can. Basically, the sound is identical to the sound in the previous film, with both TrueHD and DD+ a step up from regular Dolby Digital 5.1
Extras:
Again, we get all of the extras found on the two-disc standard-definition set, plus the "In-Movie Experience" and two audio commentaries. Like "Reloaded," this movie comes with English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. In addition, there are thirty-three scene selections and a big collection of theatrical trailers and TV spots. As before, there are two audio commentaries are by our pals the film critics and the philosophers. Add to that another written introduction by the Wachowskis and a ninety-minute documentary, "Behind the Matrix."
I swear after watching all of these making-of features, they all began looking alike to me. Anyway, "Behind the Matrix" contains things like "Neo Realism: The Evolution of Bullet Time," more on special effects; "Super Big Mini Models," filming the world of models and miniatures; "Double Agent Smith," a look at what it took to make the final scene, including the work to replicate Hugo Weaving with body doubles, lifelike mannequins, head casts, and costumes; "Mind Over Matter: The Physicality of The Matrix," a look at the dramatic stunts of "The Matrix"; and on and on.
The second side of the disc, the DVD side, contains hours more extras in seven categories. First, there is "Before the Revolution," a timeline of the development occurring in the "Matrix" story, followed by "3-D Evolution, with concept art and storyboards. Second, we have "Super Burly Brawl," seventeen minutes and divided into five segments: "The Skybarn," "The Crater," "The Egg," "Anatomy of the Superbrawl," and "Super Burly Brawl." Third is a thirty-nine-minute ordeal called "Aftermath," four segments on the film's composition and final adjustments. Fourth, there is "Crew," twenty-five minutes on the art department, the second unit, the cinematographer, and the lighting people. Fifth up we have "New Blue World," twenty-six minutes' worth of info on the geography of Zion, the ships, the Neb, and such. Sixth is "Hel," twenty-seven more minutes on special effects. And seventh is "Siege," about forty minutes on the final battle. Oddly, this was the only segment of the seven that refused to show me any timings in the "Play All" mode.
The Matrix Experience: Two-Disc Databank
Warner Bros. tell us that like the second sides of the first three discs, the fourth and fifth discs, together called "The Matrix Experience," are available only in "The Ultimate Matrix Collection." They don't say whether that's a good or a bad thing.
These final two discs are double-sided DVDs containing material in standard definition, and there is a lot of it. The centerpiece of disc four, side one is "The Animatrix," a series of nine animated short subjects, all of them related to the theme of "The Matrix." The nine films total about 100 minutes, and they range in style from 3-D CGI through anime, rotoscoping, dark comics, and graphic novels, mostly in color, with one in black-and-white. In addition, side one contains almost an hour of "Making of" material related to "The Animatrix"; audio commentaries on the films; text information on the directors and producers of the films; and a twenty-two-minute segment on "The History and Culture of Anime."
Side two is where you'll find the stuff that takes itself most seriously. There are two sixty-minute documentaries titled "Return to the Source: Philosophy and the Matrix" and "The Hard Problem: The Science Behind the Fiction." You can guess what they're about and how they try to persuade you that "The Matrix" movies are more than just punch-kick-and-special-effects extravaganzas.
On the final disc, side one, we find "The Burly Man Chronicles," "Pre-Production," "Alameda Shoot," and "Australian Shoot." I'd swear I had seen all of this the day before when I was watching the first three movie discs, but, as I've said, it began looking alike to me after a while. "The Burly Man" business is about ninety-four minutes long; the other three parts total about thirty-two minutes, with additional information if you want to click on the "White Rabbit" icons along the way.
Side two wraps everything up...finally. It contains "The Zion Archive," galleries of storyboards, characters, ships, machines, etc.; "The Rave Reel," nine minutes of spacey graphics; "The Matrix Online," a nine-minute preview of the video game; two music videos; and yet more theatrical trailers and TV spots.
On its sheer weight of numbers, the extras here should get a solid "10," but I'm giving them an "8" because so much of what is presented is repetitive. Does the word "redundant" mean anything to anybody?
Parting Thoughts:
Despite the fact that the original "Matrix" can stand perfectly well on its own, and despite the fact that the filmmakers could have combined the second and third installments into one movie instead of padding them out into two longer movies for more profit, I still find the story's premise fascinating enough, the stunts exciting enough, and the HD-DVD picture and sound good enough to sustain repeat viewing. My film rating below, a "6," is an average score for all three movies (7, 6, and 5).
And what do you mean, Won't Warner Bros. eventually make the movies available separately on HD-DVD and Blu-ray? They probably will. But who wants to wait that long?
The first "Matrix" movie was one of the biggest-selling DVDs of all time and helped move the fledgling DVD industry into the big time. Warner Bros. are hoping, I'm sure, that the box sets of all three "Matrix" movies on HD-DVD will do the same for high definition. Yes, at the moment, WB are making the films available only on HD-DVD because of present limitations in the Blu-ray format for their "In-Movie Experience," but Sony should have the bugs worked out soon, and Blu-ray afficionados ought to get their sets toward the end of 2007. And, yes, while the five-disc set, "The Ultimate Matrix 'Collection," under consideration here contains everything the "Matrix" fan could ever want, WB have also made available a three-disc HD-DVD set containing just the movies and relatively fewer extras.
The Matrix
Ever since "Jaws" set the trend, summer movies have been about action and adventure. When you can throw in fantasy and special effects, all the better. "The Matrix" comes in with all speakers firing, a sci-fi thriller that's short on logic but long on visual and visceral excitement. It's a futuristic film noir with big names like Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne, big sets, big budget, and enough weirdness to ensure HD-DVD sales for years to come.
The premise is promising: We all live in a dream. Literally. Nothing around us is real. In the movie's future world, most people on Earth are curled up in little pods, millions upon millions of tiny pods all over the world, with each pod's inhabitant fed and nurtured by giant, insect-like machines. Our lives are merely sensory implants, cyber visions to keep us pacified, while the machines feed on our energy. It's a tempting idea, one that will have you looking at your own world in a slightly different way, but it's undermined by too much mundane explanation. According to the story line, we got ourselves into this situation when we built computers that became smarter than we were. They took over and enslaved us. Yes, it's yet another "smart-ass machines taking over the planet" plot. How about, we were colonized millions of years ago by higher intelligences, and this is how they left us? How about, this is the way it's always been since time immemorial, sans God, gods, or any higher intelligences? How about the whole world is in the mind of the main character, and nothing else exists? Oh, where is John Conner when you need him? Where is Big Arnold?
Anyway, a few humans have escaped this illusory world, this "Matrix," and are working in a resistance movement headed by a character played by Fishburne. He has the unlikely but mysterious-sounding name of Morpheus (in mythology Morpheus was the god of dreams, and so the symbolism begins). Their latest recruit is a young computer worker named Thomas Anderson, played by Reeves. He is supposedly destined to be the world's savior, "the One." But first he has to be convinced that the Matrix business is all true, then he has to be sprung from his pod and brought into reality, and finally he has to be trained to use his new super powers. Oh, I didn't mention the super powers this savior possesses? It's not an easy job for Anderson, or his alter-ego Neo, or the viewer to keep up with all this.
The movie's most obvious similarities are to "Blade Runner" for its dim, shadowy look; to "The Terminator" for its intellectual nucleus; and to "Dark City" for its overall feel. Unfortunately, it lacks the internal consistency of any of those films. Once "The Matrix" establishes its broad outlines, it turns almost exclusively to computer graphics, special effects, chases, and fights for its plot turns. The cold, dark, metallic look of the sets and costumes, so reminiscent of every other postapocalyptic movie ever made (at least since "Mad Max"), becomes tiresome; as does the routine, often wooden acting of its stars, especially the cornball posturing from Fishburne and Reeves. It's also hard to take the villains seriously when they speak in such deliberate, melodramatic voices and wear getups straight out of "Men in Black"; or to take Anderson seriously when he is "bugged" with an insect-looking implant. These are times when it strikes the viewer that the story may be intended as a parody of futuristic thrillers, but then the plot reverts back to its more serious tone and rebuts the notion.
Of course, the film does succeed in representing a bleak, gloomy future devoid of human emotion, and, undeniably, there are parts of it that are visually exciting, especially during its several climactic showdowns. The special effects can at times be breathtaking, as with the look of the giant squid-like mechanisms that constantly patrol the world. But a little of this goes a long way, and the plot too often bogs down in obscure complications that are hard to follow. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, and costars Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano, among others.
So, back to the question: Is life an illusion? "The Matrix" answers this age-old philosophical query in straightforward Hollywood fashion: Yes, it says, and machines are responsible! Well, at least the movie offers greater novelty than that provided by most other Tinseltown flicks. But there's still more surface here than substance, intriguing though that substance may be. OK, enough of this nit-picking. The film is fun to watch, which is all we really expect from action flicks. In that regard, count "The Matrix" a success. 7/10
Video:
For those folks who believe the movie is the thing, the video quality couldn't be better. The HD-DVD transfer is everything one could ask of it. The widescreen picture size measures as before, a generous 2.21:1 ratio across my screen (although this will vary from television to television due to differing degrees of overscan). The image is beautifully detailed, well defined, of course, and almost totally free of grain, except that which was inherent to the original film print, sometimes noticeable in wide expanses of white.
The Wachowskis chose an oddball color palette that runs high to shades of green and yellow, so it's a little hard to tell just how "natural" the colors really are. I'd say, though, that everything is in order and in sharp relief. And even though the black levels are intensely deep, darker areas of the screen allow one to see deeply and clearly into them.
Audio:
To complement the picture quality, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound are outstanding in every way, coming into their own in the last third of the movie during the rescue and fight scenes. The sonic range is wide, especially in terms of bass and dynamic contrasts, and the channel separation is clearly distinct from all six speakers. If you can, choose the TrueHD track. It is the wider, more cleanly focused of the two English tracks. Switching back and forth between TrueHD and DD+ reveals a more open sound stage in TrueHD, with a slightly tauter bass. Trust me, you'll like it. The DD+ track, while still very good, is a bit brighter and lighter by comparison.
Extras:
The first HD-DVD contains "The Matrix" film; thirty-eight scene selections, but no chapter insert; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired; bookmarks; a guide line of elapsed time; a zoom-and-pan feature; and an Elite Red HD case. All three films are housed in their own Elite Red cases, with the final two discs housed in a single, black, double case. The four disc cases are further enclosed in a handsome cardboard slipcover.
In terms of bonus items, these discs have them to spare. On disc one, the most important item is probably the "In-Movie Experience," which played flawlessly. It provides coverage from the cast and filmmakers, most often accompanied by picture-in-picture inserts to illustrate its points. Next up, we get three theatrical trailers and eight TV spots. After those, there are four separate audio commentaries. Whew! Who could listen to all of them? The first commentary is with philosophers Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber, a track that annoyed my colleague Eddie Feng, who thought it was ridiculous that they tried to make more of the film's philosophy than what was there. The second commentary is with film critics Todd McCarthy, John Powers, and David Thomson, who do their best to analyze the film's content and delivery. The third commentary features costar Carrie-Anne Moss, visual-effects supervisor John Gaeta, and film editor Zach Staenberg. And the fourth commentary track is with composer Dan Davis, who speaks over an isolated music-only track that allows him to comment on the music without dialogue or sound effects getting in the way. Not enough? There is also a written introduction by the Wachowski boys. In addition, side one contains a sequence of seven featurettes, forty-three minutes in all, called "Behind the Matrix"; a music video, "Rock Is Dead," by Marilyn Manson; and a forty-one music tracks that can be played independently or all together.
Side two of the first disc contains a standard-definition DVD layer with even more bonus items, which Warner Bros. say are only available in the "Ultimate Collection." The first item is a feature-length documentary, "The Matrix Revisited," about two hours long; plus two more galleries of featurettes, "Follow the White Rabbit," twenty-three minutes, and "Take the Red Pill," seventeen minutes. Frankly, after watching a few minutes of each of these segments, I felt like I had had about enough of "The Matrix" and all it had to offer. But I suppose the true believer cannot get enough of this stuff. If I have forgotten anything, be sure to check out the review of "The Ultimate Matrix Collection" in SD, the complete hard-hitting review by my friend, the aforementioned Mr. Feng.
I might add that the menus on the second sides of these discs as well as the final two discs look tacky and simplistic, as though they had come from an old DOS computer program. I suppose that's the point, I don't know.
The Matrix Reloaded
"The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead."
--Albert Einstein
If you liked "The Matrix," you'll probably like the second in the series, 2003's "The Matrix Reloaded." It's more of the same, plus even more nonsense.
Indeed, you might like "Reloaded" better, as it contains a few new explanatory riffs on a story that left more than a few people a bit confused the first time around. If, on the other hand, you didn't care for the original movie and found it merely a load of sci-fi foolishness, special effects, and fight scenes, I doubt you're going to think very highly of "Reloaded," which has an even higher quotient of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo, elaborate special effects, cast members, and fight sequences.
In the first installment we learned that most life on Earth as we know it is an illusion, a gigantic computer matrix of phony realities that we think we're experiencing, while we're really plugged into tiny cell pods controlled by machines. "Reloaded" starts out several months after the first movie left off, the machines are marching against the last remaining human city, Zion, and our hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) is the one great hope of Mankind. Fortunately, Neo is beginning to understand his powers and vision a little better now than in the first film, and he is more capable than ever of taking care of himself and his new world.
While I've never fully appreciated Reeves as an actor (except in "The Devil's Advocate" where he played the perfect innocent foil to Al Pacino's devil), Reeves does fine here as the ex-computer nerd turned mystic hero. Also back are Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, not so mysterious this time around but just as strong a presence; Carrie-Ann Moss as Trinity, whose role and involvement with Neo have been expanded thanks to their popularity in the previous episode; Hugo Weaving as the evil Agent Smith, this time there being more of him (literally) than ever; and Gloria Foster as the Oracle.
New to "Reloaded" are Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe, a Captain of the resistance fighters; Harold Perrineau as Link, an operator on Morpheus's ship; Harry J. Lennix as Commander Lock, a military leader of the resistance; Anthony Zerbe as Councillor Hamann, a political leader of the resistance; and Helmut Bakaitis as the Architect, the creator, the godlike father of the Matrix. Even world-champion boxer Roy Jones, Jr., shows up as a grim-faced good guy, Ballard, who, ironically, does no actual fighting.
New as well is the script's exploration of free will, choice versus fate, and destiny that are pursued to some small extent in the story. Unfortunately, most it only leaves things muddled. New, too, is the notion that in order to defeat the machines, Neo must reach "the Source," and to do so he must go through the "Keymaker." Shades of "Ghostbusters." And probably the silliest scene in the film is one where the fate of the world hangs on a single kiss! Where was the editor when he was needed?
But it's the visual appearance and action in "The Matrix" films that audiences find most compelling, and it is here that the Wachowskis top themselves. Yes, there are more turns and twists to the plot to follow and fascinate and mystify, but there are more visually stunning sets, too, more impressive CGI, and more spectacularly impressive fight sequences than before. Of course, none of it seems as fresh or imaginative as it did in "The Matrix" because then it was all so new and inventive. Our having seen such things done again and again in other movies since has taken some of the edge off the flying stunts and the slow-motion special effects.
But you're still bound to find some things of interest. Probably of most regard will be the infamous freeway scene, one of those ultimate car chases that go on forever and destroy about 800 vehicles in the process. It's pretty exciting no matter how familiar it may seem (and it seemed particularly familiar to me as it was filmed close by where I live). Indeed, the whole of "Reloaded" seems more like a fantasy video game than a sci-fi flick, but it's so remarkably well done, most people won't even notice.
I can't say I found Keanu Reeves too persuasive as a lead character in "Reloaded," nor did I find much in the way of high spirits or good-natured humor in the movie. Moreover, there's the overlong duration (138 minutes) of "Reloaded" to consider, the relentless pacing of its fight scenes, the constantly grim tone, and the inevitable degree of frustration and disappointment a person must feel knowing that "Reloaded" will have to be continued in a third part. It's a pall that hangs over the whole picture.
Yet there is still much to enjoy about "Reloaded" in its daring appearance, its goofy premise, its nonstop action, and its general feeling of wonder. "Reloaded" is fun stuff for sci-fi/fantasy buffs, well made and entertaining even if it tends to become more than a little static along the way with all its similarly constructed battle scenes. My recommendation: Don't even try to figure any of it out. Just look, listen, and try to enjoy it. 6/10
Video:
For a film so dark as this one is, the HD-DVD colors and definition stand out. The screen dimensions are a tad less wide in "Reloaded" than in the first movie, but it's close enough. The picture quality is probably the same, too, but I swear that if anything the detailing and object definition seemed even crisper this time out. Imagination? Maybe, but it's excellent in any case.
Audio:
Again I chose the Dolby TrueHD option, and again I was not disappointed. Everything about it is exemplary: the frequency range, bass, dynamic response, and six-channel stereo spread making this special-effects-laden, science-fi extravaganza a sonic joy. The surround channels place ambient and background noises all around us, sometimes hardly noticeable except subliminally or subconsciously, to make the overall environment vivid and lifelike. Moreover, the TrueHD appeared a touch more robust to me than the DD+, which again seemed slightly brighter and more constricted.
Extras:
The HD-DVD for "The Matrix Reloaded" contains all of the extras we found on the standard-definition two-disc set, plus the picture-in-picture "In-Movie Experience" and several audio commentaries. The commentaries include ones by the philosophers and critics named above, and they pretty much continue along the same lines. There are also again the same language and HD-DVD options and a written introduction by the Wachowskis.
Among the extras are "Behind the Matrix," which includes four segments: "Preload," a twenty-two minute, behind-the-scenes production overview with the cast and crew explaining their part in the filmmaking; "The Matrix Unfolds," a five-minute look at the influence of "The Matrix" across movies, games, anime, and the Internet; "Get Me an Exit," nine minutes on the commercial advertising inspired by "The Matrix," like the Samsung phone used in the movie; and the cutest bit in the extras department, "The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded," nine minutes of fun and parody. After that is "Enter the Matrix," on the making of the video game, with a series of scenes from the game; a music video, "Sleeping Awake," by P.O.D.; and a whole lot of theatrical trailers and TV spots for the movie.
If you flip over the disc to the DVD side, you'll find even more stuff, all of it in standard definition and full-screen. First, there is a segment called "I'll Handle That," seventeen minutes on weapons and fighting. Second is the "Teahouse Fight," seven minutes on the famous fight scene. Third is "Car Chase," close to an hour-and-and-half of featurettes, nine in all, on "The Freeway Chase" from storyboards to models to actual shooting. It's probably more than you ever wanted to know about the intimate details of filmmaking, but it is informational at the very least. Fourth is "The Exiles," seventeen minutes on "The Exiles" and "The Architect's Office." Finally, there is "Unplugged," a forty-minute section on "Creating the Burly Brawl," with Master Wo Ping and others.
When Warner Bros. say there are over thirty-five hours of material in this collection, they aren't kidding.
The Matrix Revolutions
"The Matrix Revolutions" is well named. It continues to go around and around and around. Sometimes, it's better to quit when you're ahead.
"The Matrix" (1999) was an enjoyable sci-fi experience because it introduced us to some mind-boggling special effects, and it had at its core an interesting, although not entirely original, premise. The film's makers, Andy and Larry Wachowski, informed us in the first movie that we were all living in a dream. Machines had taken over the world, and each of us "humans" was really a prisoner curled up in a little pod being fed a program that simulated our existence. These ideas were not unprecedented. The view of life as a dream has been around since the ancient Greeks, and the idea of machines taking over the world has intrigued moviemakers before--in the twenties with "Metropolis," in the fifties with "Forbidden Planet," and, of course, in the eighties with "The Terminator," among others. But the concepts had never been elaborated so thoroughly or so graphically until "The Matrix."
You'll also remember that in the first film a small group of human resistance fighters were doing all they could to thwart the machines while waiting for a savior, who turned up in the person of a computer hacker named Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), later called Neo, presumably the new deliverer of Mankind. The plot of "The Matrix" unfolded slowly, finally revealing the predicament the world was in and implying that Neo would save the day. It was fun. And it probably should have ended right there. But where would the profits have been in that? Sequels are a time-honored Hollywood tradition.
So, we got "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," made back to back and released in 2003. It was a two-for-the-price-of-one deal. Frankly, though, one movie would have been enough, since there really wasn't enough material to spread out effectively over two complete films.
"Reloaded" started out several months after the first movie left off, the machines marching against the last remaining human city, Zion. Added was the script's exploration of free will versus fate, a point pursued only to a minor extent and which I had hoped would be amplified in the final segment, because the way it was handled in number two had simply left things confused. Alas, it was not to be. "Revolutions" only expands upon the action-adventure aspects of the previous movies.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed "Reloaded" for its extended visual style, meaning that its sets and special effects were more complex and more fascinating than ever to look at. The second film was less innovative than the first film, true, but it was still enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately, this third episode, "Revolutions," does little new in terms of storyline or visual-effects. It is basically just more of the same, with nothing surprising, nothing any longer mind-boggling, and nothing most viewers couldn't guess would happen going in.
As the movie begins, there are only some twenty hours left until the machines reach the human citadel of Zion, and it's up to Neo to rescue the human race. He must go to the Emerald City, speak to the Wizard, and free the land of the Wicked Witch of the West. Or something like that. If you're the sort of person who enjoys finding pieces of "The Wizard of Oz" in Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," you'll have a field day with this picture.
As "Revolutions" starts, Neo is trapped between the real world and the Matrix, and only the Frenchman can help transport him between the two planes. Next, a whole lot of stuff happens inexplicably, just because it looks good. We meet some program people, for instance, who turn out to be more human than most humans. But practically nothing is made of it.
In fact, the whole movie comes more than ever to resemble a video game, with one encounter after another, each bigger and more eccentric than the ones it left behind, each with increasingly more-exaggerated special effects. The movie is overlong at 129 minutes, but if you take out all of the punching, kicking, shooting, somersaulting, jabbering, and intense staring, it's about two minutes, probably long enough. And don't forget the old war-movie clichés and red herrings, which don't help, either.
People in the film continue to indulge in the same sort of fortune-cookie philosophy they were spouting in the last film, like the Oracle saying, "No one can see beyond a choice they don't understand." This kind of pseudo-mystical dialogue permeates "Revolutions" for no other reason, I suspect, than to make the movie appear more profound than it really is. Apparently, the filmmakers expended their repertoire of abstruse ideas in the first film and had to resort to nonsense in the second and third segments. The "Architect." The "Source." The "One." Whatever happened to the magic and mystery of the first installment? They've been replaced by more diffuse language, more extravagant computer graphic imagery, and more mundane explanations. Arthur C. Clarke did not improve upon "2001" by over-explaining things in "2010." Neither do the Wachowskis improve upon "The Matrix" by taking us behind the curtain of Oz. More is not necessarily better.
I was willing to give "Reloaded" the benefit of the doubt because I enjoyed its look. But "Revolutions" adds nothing fresh to the formula. The big battle sequence, which comprises maybe half the film with its conflict between squid-like machine Sentinels and Mech-Warrior human weaponry, is glorious for about ten minutes but then seems to go on forever. What's more, while some of the CGI work is terrific (the aforementioned Sentinels especially), too much of it appears frustratingly ordinary rather than approaching anything like fantasy realism. The laser fire, for instance, seems to me no better than the laser blasts in the original "Star Wars" over a quarter of a century ago. Then, after an admittedly clever confrontation with Smith, the movie ends. Sort of. Yet it doesn't really end. As any computer user knows, what can be deleted can be undeleted.
It isn't that "The Matrix Revolutions" is a bad movie; it isn't. It's that "Revolutions" is a disappointing movie, given all that has come before it and all that it could have been. I suspect many "Matrix" fans like me were looking forward to some kind of smart, startling, imaginative climax, something that would make us all say, "Wow! Cool! I never expected that!" But it doesn't happen. Instead, we get a wholly prosaic, commonplace ending.
"The Matrix Revolutions" may go out with a lot of loud bangs, but when it's over, it seems more like a whimper. Maybe we can pretend it didn't happen. 5/10
Video:
Since "Revolutions" and "Reloaded" were filmed at about the same time, we would expect them to look pretty much alike, and they do. The HD-DVD continues to improve the picture quality over the old standard-definition editions, and the remarkable clarity continues to improve one's enjoyment of the film's often spectacular visual effects.
Audio:
Again, choose Dolby TrueHD 5.1 if you can. Basically, the sound is identical to the sound in the previous film, with both TrueHD and DD+ a step up from regular Dolby Digital 5.1
Extras:
Again, we get all of the extras found on the two-disc standard-definition set, plus the "In-Movie Experience" and two audio commentaries. Like "Reloaded," this movie comes with English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. In addition, there are thirty-three scene selections and a big collection of theatrical trailers and TV spots. As before, there are two audio commentaries are by our pals the film critics and the philosophers. Add to that another written introduction by the Wachowskis and a ninety-minute documentary, "Behind the Matrix."
I swear after watching all of these making-of features, they all began looking alike to me. Anyway, "Behind the Matrix" contains things like "Neo Realism: The Evolution of Bullet Time," more on special effects; "Super Big Mini Models," filming the world of models and miniatures; "Double Agent Smith," a look at what it took to make the final scene, including the work to replicate Hugo Weaving with body doubles, lifelike mannequins, head casts, and costumes; "Mind Over Matter: The Physicality of The Matrix," a look at the dramatic stunts of "The Matrix"; and on and on.
The second side of the disc, the DVD side, contains hours more extras in seven categories. First, there is "Before the Revolution," a timeline of the development occurring in the "Matrix" story, followed by "3-D Evolution, with concept art and storyboards. Second, we have "Super Burly Brawl," seventeen minutes and divided into five segments: "The Skybarn," "The Crater," "The Egg," "Anatomy of the Superbrawl," and "Super Burly Brawl." Third is a thirty-nine-minute ordeal called "Aftermath," four segments on the film's composition and final adjustments. Fourth, there is "Crew," twenty-five minutes on the art department, the second unit, the cinematographer, and the lighting people. Fifth up we have "New Blue World," twenty-six minutes' worth of info on the geography of Zion, the ships, the Neb, and such. Sixth is "Hel," twenty-seven more minutes on special effects. And seventh is "Siege," about forty minutes on the final battle. Oddly, this was the only segment of the seven that refused to show me any timings in the "Play All" mode.
The Matrix Experience: Two-Disc Databank
Warner Bros. tell us that like the second sides of the first three discs, the fourth and fifth discs, together called "The Matrix Experience," are available only in "The Ultimate Matrix Collection." They don't say whether that's a good or a bad thing.
These final two discs are double-sided DVDs containing material in standard definition, and there is a lot of it. The centerpiece of disc four, side one is "The Animatrix," a series of nine animated short subjects, all of them related to the theme of "The Matrix." The nine films total about 100 minutes, and they range in style from 3-D CGI through anime, rotoscoping, dark comics, and graphic novels, mostly in color, with one in black-and-white. In addition, side one contains almost an hour of "Making of" material related to "The Animatrix"; audio commentaries on the films; text information on the directors and producers of the films; and a twenty-two-minute segment on "The History and Culture of Anime."
Side two is where you'll find the stuff that takes itself most seriously. There are two sixty-minute documentaries titled "Return to the Source: Philosophy and the Matrix" and "The Hard Problem: The Science Behind the Fiction." You can guess what they're about and how they try to persuade you that "The Matrix" movies are more than just punch-kick-and-special-effects extravaganzas.
On the final disc, side one, we find "The Burly Man Chronicles," "Pre-Production," "Alameda Shoot," and "Australian Shoot." I'd swear I had seen all of this the day before when I was watching the first three movie discs, but, as I've said, it began looking alike to me after a while. "The Burly Man" business is about ninety-four minutes long; the other three parts total about thirty-two minutes, with additional information if you want to click on the "White Rabbit" icons along the way.
Side two wraps everything up...finally. It contains "The Zion Archive," galleries of storyboards, characters, ships, machines, etc.; "The Rave Reel," nine minutes of spacey graphics; "The Matrix Online," a nine-minute preview of the video game; two music videos; and yet more theatrical trailers and TV spots.
On its sheer weight of numbers, the extras here should get a solid "10," but I'm giving them an "8" because so much of what is presented is repetitive. Does the word "redundant" mean anything to anybody?
Parting Thoughts:
Despite the fact that the original "Matrix" can stand perfectly well on its own, and despite the fact that the filmmakers could have combined the second and third installments into one movie instead of padding them out into two longer movies for more profit, I still find the story's premise fascinating enough, the stunts exciting enough, and the HD-DVD picture and sound good enough to sustain repeat viewing. My film rating below, a "6," is an average score for all three movies (7, 6, and 5).
And what do you mean, Won't Warner Bros. eventually make the movies available separately on HD-DVD and Blu-ray? They probably will. But who wants to wait that long?
The Matrix
Ever since "Jaws" set the trend, summer movies have been about action and adventure. When you can throw in fantasy and special effects, all the better. "The Matrix" comes in with all speakers firing, a sci-fi thriller that's short on logic but long on visual and visceral excitement. It's a futuristic film noir with big names like Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne, big sets, big budget, and enough weirdness to ensure HD-DVD sales for years to come.
The premise is promising: We all live in a dream. Literally. Nothing around us is real. In the movie's future world, most people on Earth are curled up in little pods, millions upon millions of tiny pods all over the world, with each pod's inhabitant fed and nurtured by giant, insect-like machines. Our lives are merely sensory implants, cyber visions to keep us pacified, while the machines feed on our energy. It's a tempting idea, one that will have you looking at your own world in a slightly different way, but it's undermined by too much mundane explanation. According to the story line, we got ourselves into this situation when we built computers that became smarter than we were. They took over and enslaved us. Yes, it's yet another "smart-ass machines taking over the planet" plot. How about, we were colonized millions of years ago by higher intelligences, and this is how they left us? How about, this is the way it's always been since time immemorial, sans God, gods, or any higher intelligences? How about the whole world is in the mind of the main character, and nothing else exists? Oh, where is John Conner when you need him? Where is Big Arnold?
Anyway, a few humans have escaped this illusory world, this "Matrix," and are working in a resistance movement headed by a character played by Fishburne. He has the unlikely but mysterious-sounding name of Morpheus (in mythology Morpheus was the god of dreams, and so the symbolism begins). Their latest recruit is a young computer worker named Thomas Anderson, played by Reeves. He is supposedly destined to be the world's savior, "the One." But first he has to be convinced that the Matrix business is all true, then he has to be sprung from his pod and brought into reality, and finally he has to be trained to use his new super powers. Oh, I didn't mention the super powers this savior possesses? It's not an easy job for Anderson, or his alter-ego Neo, or the viewer to keep up with all this.
The movie's most obvious similarities are to "Blade Runner" for its dim, shadowy look; to "The Terminator" for its intellectual nucleus; and to "Dark City" for its overall feel. Unfortunately, it lacks the internal consistency of any of those films. Once "The Matrix" establishes its broad outlines, it turns almost exclusively to computer graphics, special effects, chases, and fights for its plot turns. The cold, dark, metallic look of the sets and costumes, so reminiscent of every other postapocalyptic movie ever made (at least since "Mad Max"), becomes tiresome; as does the routine, often wooden acting of its stars, especially the cornball posturing from Fishburne and Reeves. It's also hard to take the villains seriously when they speak in such deliberate, melodramatic voices and wear getups straight out of "Men in Black"; or to take Anderson seriously when he is "bugged" with an insect-looking implant. These are times when it strikes the viewer that the story may be intended as a parody of futuristic thrillers, but then the plot reverts back to its more serious tone and rebuts the notion.
Of course, the film does succeed in representing a bleak, gloomy future devoid of human emotion, and, undeniably, there are parts of it that are visually exciting, especially during its several climactic showdowns. The special effects can at times be breathtaking, as with the look of the giant squid-like mechanisms that constantly patrol the world. But a little of this goes a long way, and the plot too often bogs down in obscure complications that are hard to follow. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, and costars Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano, among others.
So, back to the question: Is life an illusion? "The Matrix" answers this age-old philosophical query in straightforward Hollywood fashion: Yes, it says, and machines are responsible! Well, at least the movie offers greater novelty than that provided by most other Tinseltown flicks. But there's still more surface here than substance, intriguing though that substance may be. OK, enough of this nit-picking. The film is fun to watch, which is all we really expect from action flicks. In that regard, count "The Matrix" a success. 7/10
Video:
For those folks who believe the movie is the thing, the video quality couldn't be better. The HD-DVD transfer is everything one could ask of it. The widescreen picture size measures as before, a generous 2.21:1 ratio across my screen (although this will vary from television to television due to differing degrees of overscan). The image is beautifully detailed, well defined, of course, and almost totally free of grain, except that which was inherent to the original film print, sometimes noticeable in wide expanses of white.
The Wachowskis chose an oddball color palette that runs high to shades of green and yellow, so it's a little hard to tell just how "natural" the colors really are. I'd say, though, that everything is in order and in sharp relief. And even though the black levels are intensely deep, darker areas of the screen allow one to see deeply and clearly into them.
Audio:
To complement the picture quality, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound are outstanding in every way, coming into their own in the last third of the movie during the rescue and fight scenes. The sonic range is wide, especially in terms of bass and dynamic contrasts, and the channel separation is clearly distinct from all six speakers. If you can, choose the TrueHD track. It is the wider, more cleanly focused of the two English tracks. Switching back and forth between TrueHD and DD+ reveals a more open sound stage in TrueHD, with a slightly tauter bass. Trust me, you'll like it. The DD+ track, while still very good, is a bit brighter and lighter by comparison.
Extras:
The first HD-DVD contains "The Matrix" film; thirty-eight scene selections, but no chapter insert; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired; bookmarks; a guide line of elapsed time; a zoom-and-pan feature; and an Elite Red HD case. All three films are housed in their own Elite Red cases, with the final two discs housed in a single, black, double case. The four disc cases are further enclosed in a handsome cardboard slipcover.
In terms of bonus items, these discs have them to spare. On disc one, the most important item is probably the "In-Movie Experience," which played flawlessly. It provides coverage from the cast and filmmakers, most often accompanied by picture-in-picture inserts to illustrate its points. Next up, we get three theatrical trailers and eight TV spots. After those, there are four separate audio commentaries. Whew! Who could listen to all of them? The first commentary is with philosophers Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber, a track that annoyed my colleague Eddie Feng, who thought it was ridiculous that they tried to make more of the film's philosophy than what was there. The second commentary is with film critics Todd McCarthy, John Powers, and David Thomson, who do their best to analyze the film's content and delivery. The third commentary features costar Carrie-Anne Moss, visual-effects supervisor John Gaeta, and film editor Zach Staenberg. And the fourth commentary track is with composer Dan Davis, who speaks over an isolated music-only track that allows him to comment on the music without dialogue or sound effects getting in the way. Not enough? There is also a written introduction by the Wachowski boys. In addition, side one contains a sequence of seven featurettes, forty-three minutes in all, called "Behind the Matrix"; a music video, "Rock Is Dead," by Marilyn Manson; and a forty-one music tracks that can be played independently or all together.
Side two of the first disc contains a standard-definition DVD layer with even more bonus items, which Warner Bros. say are only available in the "Ultimate Collection." The first item is a feature-length documentary, "The Matrix Revisited," about two hours long; plus two more galleries of featurettes, "Follow the White Rabbit," twenty-three minutes, and "Take the Red Pill," seventeen minutes. Frankly, after watching a few minutes of each of these segments, I felt like I had had about enough of "The Matrix" and all it had to offer. But I suppose the true believer cannot get enough of this stuff. If I have forgotten anything, be sure to check out the review of "The Ultimate Matrix Collection" in SD, the complete hard-hitting review by my friend, the aforementioned Mr. Feng.
I might add that the menus on the second sides of these discs as well as the final two discs look tacky and simplistic, as though they had come from an old DOS computer program. I suppose that's the point, I don't know.
The Matrix Reloaded
"The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead."
--Albert Einstein
If you liked "The Matrix," you'll probably like the second in the series, 2003's "The Matrix Reloaded." It's more of the same, plus even more nonsense.
Indeed, you might like "Reloaded" better, as it contains a few new explanatory riffs on a story that left more than a few people a bit confused the first time around. If, on the other hand, you didn't care for the original movie and found it merely a load of sci-fi foolishness, special effects, and fight scenes, I doubt you're going to think very highly of "Reloaded," which has an even higher quotient of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo, elaborate special effects, cast members, and fight sequences.
In the first installment we learned that most life on Earth as we know it is an illusion, a gigantic computer matrix of phony realities that we think we're experiencing, while we're really plugged into tiny cell pods controlled by machines. "Reloaded" starts out several months after the first movie left off, the machines are marching against the last remaining human city, Zion, and our hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) is the one great hope of Mankind. Fortunately, Neo is beginning to understand his powers and vision a little better now than in the first film, and he is more capable than ever of taking care of himself and his new world.
While I've never fully appreciated Reeves as an actor (except in "The Devil's Advocate" where he played the perfect innocent foil to Al Pacino's devil), Reeves does fine here as the ex-computer nerd turned mystic hero. Also back are Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, not so mysterious this time around but just as strong a presence; Carrie-Ann Moss as Trinity, whose role and involvement with Neo have been expanded thanks to their popularity in the previous episode; Hugo Weaving as the evil Agent Smith, this time there being more of him (literally) than ever; and Gloria Foster as the Oracle.
New to "Reloaded" are Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe, a Captain of the resistance fighters; Harold Perrineau as Link, an operator on Morpheus's ship; Harry J. Lennix as Commander Lock, a military leader of the resistance; Anthony Zerbe as Councillor Hamann, a political leader of the resistance; and Helmut Bakaitis as the Architect, the creator, the godlike father of the Matrix. Even world-champion boxer Roy Jones, Jr., shows up as a grim-faced good guy, Ballard, who, ironically, does no actual fighting.
New as well is the script's exploration of free will, choice versus fate, and destiny that are pursued to some small extent in the story. Unfortunately, most it only leaves things muddled. New, too, is the notion that in order to defeat the machines, Neo must reach "the Source," and to do so he must go through the "Keymaker." Shades of "Ghostbusters." And probably the silliest scene in the film is one where the fate of the world hangs on a single kiss! Where was the editor when he was needed?
But it's the visual appearance and action in "The Matrix" films that audiences find most compelling, and it is here that the Wachowskis top themselves. Yes, there are more turns and twists to the plot to follow and fascinate and mystify, but there are more visually stunning sets, too, more impressive CGI, and more spectacularly impressive fight sequences than before. Of course, none of it seems as fresh or imaginative as it did in "The Matrix" because then it was all so new and inventive. Our having seen such things done again and again in other movies since has taken some of the edge off the flying stunts and the slow-motion special effects.
But you're still bound to find some things of interest. Probably of most regard will be the infamous freeway scene, one of those ultimate car chases that go on forever and destroy about 800 vehicles in the process. It's pretty exciting no matter how familiar it may seem (and it seemed particularly familiar to me as it was filmed close by where I live). Indeed, the whole of "Reloaded" seems more like a fantasy video game than a sci-fi flick, but it's so remarkably well done, most people won't even notice.
I can't say I found Keanu Reeves too persuasive as a lead character in "Reloaded," nor did I find much in the way of high spirits or good-natured humor in the movie. Moreover, there's the overlong duration (138 minutes) of "Reloaded" to consider, the relentless pacing of its fight scenes, the constantly grim tone, and the inevitable degree of frustration and disappointment a person must feel knowing that "Reloaded" will have to be continued in a third part. It's a pall that hangs over the whole picture.
Yet there is still much to enjoy about "Reloaded" in its daring appearance, its goofy premise, its nonstop action, and its general feeling of wonder. "Reloaded" is fun stuff for sci-fi/fantasy buffs, well made and entertaining even if it tends to become more than a little static along the way with all its similarly constructed battle scenes. My recommendation: Don't even try to figure any of it out. Just look, listen, and try to enjoy it. 6/10
Video:
For a film so dark as this one is, the HD-DVD colors and definition stand out. The screen dimensions are a tad less wide in "Reloaded" than in the first movie, but it's close enough. The picture quality is probably the same, too, but I swear that if anything the detailing and object definition seemed even crisper this time out. Imagination? Maybe, but it's excellent in any case.
Audio:
Again I chose the Dolby TrueHD option, and again I was not disappointed. Everything about it is exemplary: the frequency range, bass, dynamic response, and six-channel stereo spread making this special-effects-laden, science-fi extravaganza a sonic joy. The surround channels place ambient and background noises all around us, sometimes hardly noticeable except subliminally or subconsciously, to make the overall environment vivid and lifelike. Moreover, the TrueHD appeared a touch more robust to me than the DD+, which again seemed slightly brighter and more constricted.
Extras:
The HD-DVD for "The Matrix Reloaded" contains all of the extras we found on the standard-definition two-disc set, plus the picture-in-picture "In-Movie Experience" and several audio commentaries. The commentaries include ones by the philosophers and critics named above, and they pretty much continue along the same lines. There are also again the same language and HD-DVD options and a written introduction by the Wachowskis.
Among the extras are "Behind the Matrix," which includes four segments: "Preload," a twenty-two minute, behind-the-scenes production overview with the cast and crew explaining their part in the filmmaking; "The Matrix Unfolds," a five-minute look at the influence of "The Matrix" across movies, games, anime, and the Internet; "Get Me an Exit," nine minutes on the commercial advertising inspired by "The Matrix," like the Samsung phone used in the movie; and the cutest bit in the extras department, "The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded," nine minutes of fun and parody. After that is "Enter the Matrix," on the making of the video game, with a series of scenes from the game; a music video, "Sleeping Awake," by P.O.D.; and a whole lot of theatrical trailers and TV spots for the movie.
If you flip over the disc to the DVD side, you'll find even more stuff, all of it in standard definition and full-screen. First, there is a segment called "I'll Handle That," seventeen minutes on weapons and fighting. Second is the "Teahouse Fight," seven minutes on the famous fight scene. Third is "Car Chase," close to an hour-and-and-half of featurettes, nine in all, on "The Freeway Chase" from storyboards to models to actual shooting. It's probably more than you ever wanted to know about the intimate details of filmmaking, but it is informational at the very least. Fourth is "The Exiles," seventeen minutes on "The Exiles" and "The Architect's Office." Finally, there is "Unplugged," a forty-minute section on "Creating the Burly Brawl," with Master Wo Ping and others.
When Warner Bros. say there are over thirty-five hours of material in this collection, they aren't kidding.
The Matrix Revolutions
"The Matrix Revolutions" is well named. It continues to go around and around and around. Sometimes, it's better to quit when you're ahead.
"The Matrix" (1999) was an enjoyable sci-fi experience because it introduced us to some mind-boggling special effects, and it had at its core an interesting, although not entirely original, premise. The film's makers, Andy and Larry Wachowski, informed us in the first movie that we were all living in a dream. Machines had taken over the world, and each of us "humans" was really a prisoner curled up in a little pod being fed a program that simulated our existence. These ideas were not unprecedented. The view of life as a dream has been around since the ancient Greeks, and the idea of machines taking over the world has intrigued moviemakers before--in the twenties with "Metropolis," in the fifties with "Forbidden Planet," and, of course, in the eighties with "The Terminator," among others. But the concepts had never been elaborated so thoroughly or so graphically until "The Matrix."
You'll also remember that in the first film a small group of human resistance fighters were doing all they could to thwart the machines while waiting for a savior, who turned up in the person of a computer hacker named Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), later called Neo, presumably the new deliverer of Mankind. The plot of "The Matrix" unfolded slowly, finally revealing the predicament the world was in and implying that Neo would save the day. It was fun. And it probably should have ended right there. But where would the profits have been in that? Sequels are a time-honored Hollywood tradition.
So, we got "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," made back to back and released in 2003. It was a two-for-the-price-of-one deal. Frankly, though, one movie would have been enough, since there really wasn't enough material to spread out effectively over two complete films.
"Reloaded" started out several months after the first movie left off, the machines marching against the last remaining human city, Zion. Added was the script's exploration of free will versus fate, a point pursued only to a minor extent and which I had hoped would be amplified in the final segment, because the way it was handled in number two had simply left things confused. Alas, it was not to be. "Revolutions" only expands upon the action-adventure aspects of the previous movies.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed "Reloaded" for its extended visual style, meaning that its sets and special effects were more complex and more fascinating than ever to look at. The second film was less innovative than the first film, true, but it was still enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately, this third episode, "Revolutions," does little new in terms of storyline or visual-effects. It is basically just more of the same, with nothing surprising, nothing any longer mind-boggling, and nothing most viewers couldn't guess would happen going in.
As the movie begins, there are only some twenty hours left until the machines reach the human citadel of Zion, and it's up to Neo to rescue the human race. He must go to the Emerald City, speak to the Wizard, and free the land of the Wicked Witch of the West. Or something like that. If you're the sort of person who enjoys finding pieces of "The Wizard of Oz" in Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," you'll have a field day with this picture.
As "Revolutions" starts, Neo is trapped between the real world and the Matrix, and only the Frenchman can help transport him between the two planes. Next, a whole lot of stuff happens inexplicably, just because it looks good. We meet some program people, for instance, who turn out to be more human than most humans. But practically nothing is made of it.
In fact, the whole movie comes more than ever to resemble a video game, with one encounter after another, each bigger and more eccentric than the ones it left behind, each with increasingly more-exaggerated special effects. The movie is overlong at 129 minutes, but if you take out all of the punching, kicking, shooting, somersaulting, jabbering, and intense staring, it's about two minutes, probably long enough. And don't forget the old war-movie clichés and red herrings, which don't help, either.
People in the film continue to indulge in the same sort of fortune-cookie philosophy they were spouting in the last film, like the Oracle saying, "No one can see beyond a choice they don't understand." This kind of pseudo-mystical dialogue permeates "Revolutions" for no other reason, I suspect, than to make the movie appear more profound than it really is. Apparently, the filmmakers expended their repertoire of abstruse ideas in the first film and had to resort to nonsense in the second and third segments. The "Architect." The "Source." The "One." Whatever happened to the magic and mystery of the first installment? They've been replaced by more diffuse language, more extravagant computer graphic imagery, and more mundane explanations. Arthur C. Clarke did not improve upon "2001" by over-explaining things in "2010." Neither do the Wachowskis improve upon "The Matrix" by taking us behind the curtain of Oz. More is not necessarily better.
I was willing to give "Reloaded" the benefit of the doubt because I enjoyed its look. But "Revolutions" adds nothing fresh to the formula. The big battle sequence, which comprises maybe half the film with its conflict between squid-like machine Sentinels and Mech-Warrior human weaponry, is glorious for about ten minutes but then seems to go on forever. What's more, while some of the CGI work is terrific (the aforementioned Sentinels especially), too much of it appears frustratingly ordinary rather than approaching anything like fantasy realism. The laser fire, for instance, seems to me no better than the laser blasts in the original "Star Wars" over a quarter of a century ago. Then, after an admittedly clever confrontation with Smith, the movie ends. Sort of. Yet it doesn't really end. As any computer user knows, what can be deleted can be undeleted.
It isn't that "The Matrix Revolutions" is a bad movie; it isn't. It's that "Revolutions" is a disappointing movie, given all that has come before it and all that it could have been. I suspect many "Matrix" fans like me were looking forward to some kind of smart, startling, imaginative climax, something that would make us all say, "Wow! Cool! I never expected that!" But it doesn't happen. Instead, we get a wholly prosaic, commonplace ending.
"The Matrix Revolutions" may go out with a lot of loud bangs, but when it's over, it seems more like a whimper. Maybe we can pretend it didn't happen. 5/10
Video:
Since "Revolutions" and "Reloaded" were filmed at about the same time, we would expect them to look pretty much alike, and they do. The HD-DVD continues to improve the picture quality over the old standard-definition editions, and the remarkable clarity continues to improve one's enjoyment of the film's often spectacular visual effects.
Audio:
Again, choose Dolby TrueHD 5.1 if you can. Basically, the sound is identical to the sound in the previous film, with both TrueHD and DD+ a step up from regular Dolby Digital 5.1
Extras:
Again, we get all of the extras found on the two-disc standard-definition set, plus the "In-Movie Experience" and two audio commentaries. Like "Reloaded," this movie comes with English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. In addition, there are thirty-three scene selections and a big collection of theatrical trailers and TV spots. As before, there are two audio commentaries are by our pals the film critics and the philosophers. Add to that another written introduction by the Wachowskis and a ninety-minute documentary, "Behind the Matrix."
I swear after watching all of these making-of features, they all began looking alike to me. Anyway, "Behind the Matrix" contains things like "Neo Realism: The Evolution of Bullet Time," more on special effects; "Super Big Mini Models," filming the world of models and miniatures; "Double Agent Smith," a look at what it took to make the final scene, including the work to replicate Hugo Weaving with body doubles, lifelike mannequins, head casts, and costumes; "Mind Over Matter: The Physicality of The Matrix," a look at the dramatic stunts of "The Matrix"; and on and on.
The second side of the disc, the DVD side, contains hours more extras in seven categories. First, there is "Before the Revolution," a timeline of the development occurring in the "Matrix" story, followed by "3-D Evolution, with concept art and storyboards. Second, we have "Super Burly Brawl," seventeen minutes and divided into five segments: "The Skybarn," "The Crater," "The Egg," "Anatomy of the Superbrawl," and "Super Burly Brawl." Third is a thirty-nine-minute ordeal called "Aftermath," four segments on the film's composition and final adjustments. Fourth, there is "Crew," twenty-five minutes on the art department, the second unit, the cinematographer, and the lighting people. Fifth up we have "New Blue World," twenty-six minutes' worth of info on the geography of Zion, the ships, the Neb, and such. Sixth is "Hel," twenty-seven more minutes on special effects. And seventh is "Siege," about forty minutes on the final battle. Oddly, this was the only segment of the seven that refused to show me any timings in the "Play All" mode.
The Matrix Experience: Two-Disc Databank
Warner Bros. tell us that like the second sides of the first three discs, the fourth and fifth discs, together called "The Matrix Experience," are available only in "The Ultimate Matrix Collection." They don't say whether that's a good or a bad thing.
These final two discs are double-sided DVDs containing material in standard definition, and there is a lot of it. The centerpiece of disc four, side one is "The Animatrix," a series of nine animated short subjects, all of them related to the theme of "The Matrix." The nine films total about 100 minutes, and they range in style from 3-D CGI through anime, rotoscoping, dark comics, and graphic novels, mostly in color, with one in black-and-white. In addition, side one contains almost an hour of "Making of" material related to "The Animatrix"; audio commentaries on the films; text information on the directors and producers of the films; and a twenty-two-minute segment on "The History and Culture of Anime."
Side two is where you'll find the stuff that takes itself most seriously. There are two sixty-minute documentaries titled "Return to the Source: Philosophy and the Matrix" and "The Hard Problem: The Science Behind the Fiction." You can guess what they're about and how they try to persuade you that "The Matrix" movies are more than just punch-kick-and-special-effects extravaganzas.
On the final disc, side one, we find "The Burly Man Chronicles," "Pre-Production," "Alameda Shoot," and "Australian Shoot." I'd swear I had seen all of this the day before when I was watching the first three movie discs, but, as I've said, it began looking alike to me after a while. "The Burly Man" business is about ninety-four minutes long; the other three parts total about thirty-two minutes, with additional information if you want to click on the "White Rabbit" icons along the way.
Side two wraps everything up...finally. It contains "The Zion Archive," galleries of storyboards, characters, ships, machines, etc.; "The Rave Reel," nine minutes of spacey graphics; "The Matrix Online," a nine-minute preview of the video game; two music videos; and yet more theatrical trailers and TV spots.
On its sheer weight of numbers, the extras here should get a solid "10," but I'm giving them an "8" because so much of what is presented is repetitive. Does the word "redundant" mean anything to anybody?
Parting Thoughts:
Despite the fact that the original "Matrix" can stand perfectly well on its own, and despite the fact that the filmmakers could have combined the second and third installments into one movie instead of padding them out into two longer movies for more profit, I still find the story's premise fascinating enough, the stunts exciting enough, and the HD-DVD picture and sound good enough to sustain repeat viewing. My film rating below, a "6," is an average score for all three movies (7, 6, and 5).
And what do you mean, Won't Warner Bros. eventually make the movies available separately on HD-DVD and Blu-ray? They probably will. But who wants to wait that long?
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