HD DVD Review: The Complete Matrix Trilogy [HD DVD]

*Note: Images are from Matrix Reloaded DVD release not the HD DVD release.

In the thick of the HD format battle, Warner Brothers pulls out a trump card by releasing ‘The Ultimate Matrix Collection’ on HD-DVD, months ahead of a planned Blu-Ray release. Love or hate the Matrix series as films, there’s no denying that this release will be a major visual and audio showcase for HD, which will be more than enough reason for a lot of HD owners to pick it up. Ahh, ‘The Matrix’. Looking back at the phenomenon that would become ‘The Matrix’ series today is a fascinating thing indeed. With the benefit of hindsight, we can look back at the trilogy in a whole new light. Yet, with this review, I will not go into major plot details about the films or offer up an exhaustive review of each of the films, as, frankly, any added analysis of these films would be superfluous and moot and most likely tiring for the majority of readers. I’ll have various comments about each of the films, but I will mostly be focusing on the video and audio differences of these films compared to DVD and a breakdown of the gargantuan amount of extras included.

If you lived under a rock and are just now discovering the ‘The Matrix’ series and would be intrigued by a critical breakdown of each of the films, you can check out past reviews here: . Also to note is that there were two HD-DVD Matrix sets released, one being ‘The Ultimate Matrix Collection’ which I am reviewing that includes all three films of the series plus a mass of special features. The breakdown of this 5-disc set would be discs 1 through 3 being dual-sided HD-DVDs with the respective films and a few supplements on side 1, with side 2 having the bulk of the special features. Discs 4 and 5 of this set are standard-def double-sided DVDs that include ‘The Animatrix’ and a host of more supplements. There was also ‘The Complete Matrix Trilogy’ released on HD-DVD which basically just consists of the film-only side of the three HD-DVDs. So with that in mind, realize that all the special features are in standard-def only, including, sadly, ‘The Animatrix’ and that the only HD-DVD exclusive special features, the IME (the in-movie experience which I’ll explain later) commentary tracks for each of the three films can be found on both sets. So basically, if you just want the films for demo material along with the cool, new IME features, the ‘complete’ set is the way to go. If you absolutely want to know every in and out of the Matrix universe (and I mean everything!) and have yet to pick up ‘The Animatrix’, the ‘ultimate’ set should be your huckleberry. So let’s sally forth! I’ll break this set down as organized as I can with a breakdown of each feature and its accompanying supplements and then the breakdown of the special features located on the two standard-def DVDs. If you’re only interested in the ‘complete’ set, just pay attention to side one of the three HD-DVDs and ignore the rest.So we arrive at 1999s ‘The Matrix’, easily one of the most influential films of the past couple decades. With only 1996s clever little lesbian heist flick ‘Bound’ to their name, The Wachowski Brothers defied all reasonable odds by making Science-Fiction and Keanu Reeves cool again. And if you’ve seen ‘Johnny Mnemonic’, you know what a feat that was. An amalgam of Eastern and Western influences from Anime and Kung-fu to Cyber-punk and a mythic dose of philosophy, ‘The Matrix’ was word-of-mouth hit in the spring of ’99 which hit at exactly the right time. The now legendary use of “Bullet Time” became the de facto special effect of the time showing up in everything from Gap ads and Videogames to the endless parodies portrayed in films trying to tag along in its wake. Watching it again, it’s funny how almost quaint it has become when compared to the latest CGI-laden blockbusters. Film’s like ‘Spider-man 3’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ are constantly moving, never taking a breath, and always throwing swirly colors at the audience (admittedly an issue with ‘Reloaded’ and ‘Revolutions’ as well…) where even though ‘The Matrix’ has its fair share of action, The Wachowski brothers don’t shy away from telling a story and striking the appropriate balance. As a stand-alone film, it’s satisfying in every manner. Video: So here it is, ‘The Matrix’ in HD-DVD. Whoa. My day job basically consists of me QCing HD-DVD and Blu-Ray titles making sure no video and audio issues slip through so I can, in all confidence, tout that this transfer is reference quality. Certainly the best it’s looked on home video and probably will ever look, this HD-DVD is a shining example of how to do a transfer right. It’s not flawless as there are some re-tinting issues in some scenes. They apparently went back and brought out the green hues a little more in the film to stay consistent with the hues in the sequels which result in a minor distraction but I doubt it would be really noticeable unless you were looking for it. There’s also some grain present, but that’s par for the course for an eight-year old average budget film (‘The Matrix’ only cost $60 million!). And neither are issues inherent with the transfer. Nice Job.

Audio: This will apply to all three films - Flawless when using the Dolby True HD 5.1 tracks. True HD is considered lossless audio meaning they use a 100 percent lossless coding technology that is bit-for-bit identical to the studio master. The music is clear and smooth, the dialogue pronounced, and the action pounding. The detail, range and separation among channels can’t be beat. I think a lot of people assume that it’s only the video that’s getting a significant upgrade with HD but these True HD audio tracks will convince otherwise. If you have close neighbors, you will definitely be fighting the urge to turn it way up…Supplements, Side A: We’ll start off with the HD-DVD exclusive, the In-Movie Experience or IME. A fun WB addition to several HD-DVDs now, WB seems to have provided the ‘Matrix’ films with the most engaging ones yet. Basically a video commentary of sorts that you can select on from the special features menu bar, a consistent stream of picture-in-picture windows will pop up with various interviews from cast and crew and on-set footage that go into more detail about whatever specific scene you are watching. Take the opening sequence from ‘The Matrix’ where Trinity must escape some agents by running across some roof-tops and finally through a window and to a phone booth. A small window will appear in the lower right-hand corner of the screen showing on-set footage of how they filmed this, then a new window will pop up with Carrie Ann-Moss explaining the difficulties of the scene, followed by another window with the special effects guy explaining his take on the scene - all very informative stuff and one of the more inventive and entertaining special features to be created since the original audio commentary. These windows pop up continuously throughout the film with nary a dry spot. The one slightly annoying aspect of this feature is that all of these clips and footage are taken from pre-existing footage. It’s understandable that they went this route as I can’t imagine that any new footage would be available or the cast and crew would have anything new to say, but it’s still slightly grating to see and hear the same stuff later in the disc exploration - still very cool for the casual viewer not willing to wade through 40 hours of featurettes.Along with the IME, there are four commentaries along with a ‘Written Introduction by The Wachowski Bros.’ that explain the contrasting commentaries from the philosophers and critics. The 1st commentary is by Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber, and is meant to be a track which would have the philosophers discuss in depth the multi-faceted universe that is ‘The Matrix’. What we got is a rather humorous track that has the two philosophers dropping all train of thought once an action scene appears so they can ooh and ahh. Some mildly intriguing stuff here but it is definitely entertaining for all the wrong reasons. Next is the film critic commentary with Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson who are fairly honest about the film and praise the directors as truly talented but also call into issue the dialogue. Honestly, I expected a more positive commentary regarding this first film.A commentary featured on the much-touted original DVD release involves Carrie-Anne Moss, Zach Staenberg and John Gaeta. I remember listening to this commentary years ago and it’s still not very entertaining - a fairly dry technical track with only Anne-Moss providing a few intriguing anecdotes. The last commentary is by Composer Don Davis with a music-only track. Expectedly blah and holds little interest outside of serious film composition fans. Also on Side A is the original set of 7 featurettes entitled ‘Behind The Matrix’ that add up to about 40 minutes. Some of this footage is presented in the IME feature and most of this stuff is downright antiquated compared to what’s found on the 4th and 5th special features discs. 3 hours of music tracks make up ‘The Matrix Revisited’ with a ‘Rock is Dead, Marilyn Manson Music Video’ and Trailers and TV Spots finishing off the extras on Side A. Side B: Continuing the task of carrying over features from the original DVD release finds us at ‘Follow the White Rabbit’. A similar type of feature to IME, the original DVD had a feature where the user could select a white rabbit icon that appeared on screen during the feature to be taken to a featurette about that particular scene. All of these clips are now compiled into this one feature where you can play them individually or all at once in order. ‘Take the Red Pill’ contains two featurettes with one focusing on the technology behind the ‘Bullet Time’ sequences and the other a montage of the films special f/x set to techno music.

Next is the best special feature regarding this first film, ‘The Matrix Revisited’, a feature-length documentary that was made after the completion of the original film with retrospective interviews by almost everybody. Shot at the same time of the sequels, everybody is eager to talk about the first film, a nice touch. The majority of the IME footage is culled from this doc, though, so prepare to see some stuff twice. I’m going to go ahead and combine ‘Reloaded’ and ‘Revolutions’ together in my comments as they were made as one and really play out as one big film. Arriving in May and November of 2004, the deafening buzz leading up the sequels was met with an equally thunderous backlash. As much as the Wachowski brothers and producer Joel Silver claim otherwise, it’s obvious watching the films back to back to back that this was not planned as a trilogy. When your hero basically becomes immortal by the end of the first film, where can you go? So the Wachowski’s do the only thing they can regarding this climatic development of the first film and that’s to ignore it. Neo is back to his seemingly superfluous fisticuffs in the sequels paying no particular regard to his Messiah-like powers. Once you get past this rather gaping plot hole (explained with one measly flippant line from Neo at the beginning of ‘Reloaded’….”upgrades”), the films remain entertaining feats of action set-piece filmmaking. ‘Reloaded’ has the series action highlight freeway sequence that I think approaches ‘The Road Warrior’ in pure visceral action propulsion. It also sports the best real-world effects and CGI that’s a bit more seamless. In the fight sequences, the CGI only three years old, is already badly dated. The Burly Brawl sequence is the worst offender of faux-CGI, that damn near takes the audience completely out of the sequence not to mention some lackluster editing that plays out more like spot the stunt double. Barely accepted upon its original release, this scene now plays out like a real-time footage from an Xbox 360 game. The script has small dollops of interest, but also doesn’t completely come through with a lot of its promises. The film hints that our fabled creatures, ghosts, werewolves, etc., are actually exiled programs with no where to go. A sensible person would get excited about this specific reference, our heroes facing off with such creatures in ‘The Matrix’, but this doesn’t really play out effectively even with the oblique addition of the dreadlock’d ghost twins. And the less said about the Zion scenes in ‘Reloaded’, the better. Some notable action sequences remain the driving force behind watching this film which applies even more to the series capper ‘Revolutions’. With a large part of ‘Revolutions’, the focus gets pulled off Morpheus, Trinity and Neo to focus on un-established characters that we could care less about. The Zion invasion remains a particularly rousing scene, that looks great in HD, but some of the effect is lost with unsubstantial characters at risk. Neo and Trinity’s journey to the Machine City also, upon first viewing, holds a lot of hold-your-breath suspense but the end result remains muddled and lacking for a lot of viewers. The two sequels look and sound great to be sure, but I don’t think anyone can deny that the two films end up being disappointing from a strictly narrative point of view.Video: The films were shot at the same time so the video image is obviously the same. The transfers, are of course, gorgeous without any of the grain that was present on the first film. The level of detail is amazing and makes the good CGI that much more impressive. On the flip side of that coin is that HD really exaggerates the flaws of the bad CGI. This will be a hot topic for HD for a variety of titles on HD seem to pull aside the curtain and really make clear the flaws of special f/x. The Dolby True HD audio was previously discussed.

Features consistent over Side A of ‘Reloaded’ and ‘Revolutions’: Again starting off with the IME feature, the pros and cons listed about the IME during ‘The Matrix’ still apply with on-set footage and notable comments from the complete cast. Unsurprisingly, The Wachowski brothers fail to show up for the sequel IMEs considering the critical drubbing and backlash associated with them. As everything used for the IMEs was shot on the set of the sequels, no retrospective look at the films are presented, but it is funny to see the cast and crew crow about how great the sequels will be. ‘Reloaded’ and ‘Revolutions’ both have 2 commentaries, one each from the philosophers and the critics. The philosopher commentaries are drier this time around, instead actually trying to convince the listeners that ‘The Matrix’ series could easily produce a bible. They wax on about outlandish theories most of the time with interesting comments few and far between. Worth listening too for the almost insane subtext that people can manage to project onto a film. The critics’ commentaries are much more fun as they take the gloves and really hammer into them. Pretentious critics calling into issue the self-indulgent excesses of the films is a bit akin to the pot calling the kettle black, but the three have a fun rapport and revel in letting their voice be heard. They do have positive things to say every so often, though, so it’s not a complete roast. Props to the Wachowski bros. for being confident enough to allow these critics free reign.Reloaded, Side A: In addition to the IME and 2 commentaries, we have ‘Enter the Matrix – The Game’, a 30-minute featurette on the making of the popular video game that was released around the same time as Reloaded which much was made about exclusive footage that would complement the film that followed the story of Niobe and Ghost. I wasn’t a fan of the game or the footage but your mileage may vary there. That exclusive footage is presented in ‘Enter the Matrix’ that way no one has to suffer through the game to suffer through the footage.‘Behind the Matrix’ presents four featurettes focusing on everything from the Zion dance sequence (Yikes!) to the advertising. Most interesting here is ‘The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded’ skit featuring some very funny stuff from Will Ferrell, Seann William Scott, Andy Dick and Wanda Sykes and less funny stuff from Justin Timberlake. A ‘P.O.D. Sleeping Awake’ music video and Trailers and TV Spots sum up Side A for ‘Reloaded’. Reloaded, Side B: ‘The Matrix Reloaded Revisited’ is broken down into 5 sections. The best of these sections is the ‘Car Chase’, a group of 9 featurettes that focus on every aspect of this great action sequence. Running at a formidable hour and a half by itself, you get to see interviews, set construction, storyboards, the whole enchilada.‘Teahouse Fight’ obviously focuses on the fight between Neo and Seraph in the teahouse, a competent scene at best. Some decent stuff here with Yeun Wo Ping, the fight choreographer, explaining the approach for these scenes. ‘Unplugged’ details the making of the ‘Burly Brawl’, a sequence so reliant on CGI that it becomes a joke. Clocking in at 40 minutes, we get a lot of time Keanu’s stunt double. ‘I’ll Handle Them’ looks at the fight sequence in the weapon’s filled foyer of the Merovingian. Fairly detailed, it’s interesting to get the perspective of a lot of the stunt people that make sure to serve the films needs over their own. A featurette like this really makes you think twice about trashing a film when there are so many behind-the-scenes crew and craftsman who give it their all – real enthusiasm is seen at all levels. ‘The Exiles’ focus on The Merovingian, Persephone and their lackeys. All in all, an exhaustive account of all things ‘Reloaded’.

Revolutions, Side A: We again have a ‘Behind the Matrix’ section which consists of 7 featurettes that all told run around an hour and a half. We have ‘Revolutions Recalibrated’, a basic making-of, ‘The Evolution of Bullet Time’ focusing on the evolving tech behind the visual effect, ‘CG Revolution’ about the CGI in the siege sequence, ‘Super Big Mini Models’ which take a look at a lot of the miniatures involved in the production, ‘Double Agent Smith’ looks at creating multiple Hugo Weavings, ‘Mind over Matter’ contains a lot of interviews from the cast regarding the physical pains that went through for the film and ‘Future Gamer: The Matrix Online’, a short look at the online game that I believe has not done to well in the light of ‘World of Warcraft’. Trailers and TV Spots finish up Side A. Revolutions, Side B: ‘Behind the Matrix’ section includes ‘Before the Revolution’, a mass of text summaries that tell the Matrix story leading up to the film. Most of this info can be found in the films and the Animatrix but it’s a cool feature nonetheless. Also included is ‘3-D Evolution’, a mass of still galleries that include concept art, storyboards and final scenes with a great setup and a variety of organized options to check them out. ‘The Matrix Revolutions Revisited’ has a massive 29 featurettes broken down into 6 groups. ‘Crew’ is a set of featurettes that look into the various behind-the-scenes aspects of the film such as the art department, the 2nd unit and cinematographer. Some nice stuff and a chance for some people to get recognition that rarely do. ‘Hel’ looks at all things in the Club Hel sequence (the S&M club) from the compiling of the extras to the action choreography. ‘Super Burly Brawl’ of course shows us the final showdown between Neo and Agent Smith and leaves no stone unturned. ‘New Blue World’ includes a variety of subjects from Zion, the ships, to the Sewer System, the Bane/Neo fight and the work done for the digital graphics that appear on-screen in the films. ‘Siege’ looks at the enormous attack on the Dock from the machines and finally ‘Aftermath’, which peers into the post-production side of things with looks at visual f/x, the musical score, the editing and the sound design. Whew.Ok, so now we got the three HD-DVDs out of the way. Next would be the standard-def dual-sided DVDs dubbed ‘The Matrix Experience: 2-Disc Databank’.Databank Disc 1, Side A: This is where we find ‘The Animatrix’, a genuinely fascinating project conceived by The Wachowski brothers to fill out and broaden the world they created. Hand picking some of their favorite Anime directors to come up with some Matrix-related shorts, nine of these shorts is compiled into ‘The Animatrix’. Outside of the first film, I found this anime collection to be the most inspired takes on the ideas of ‘The Matrix’ easily outshining the two sequels. Which makes WBs decision to not present ‘The Animatrix’ in HD all the more frustrating. The biggest negative of this set is having to watch it in SD. As this review is running long as it is, breaking every short down would make it even longer with a lot of these shorts and ‘The Animatrix’ as a whole deserving of their reviews. There are audio commentaries for four of these shorts.‘Scrolls to Screen – The History and Culture of Anime’ focuses on why anime works really well within the Matrix world with interviews with several of the short directors as well as Joel Silver. ‘Creators’ provides text bios of the short director and producers with ‘Execution’ having a quick making of on each segment.

Side B: ‘Return to the Source – Philosophy and the Matrix’: This interesting doc again takes a look at the philosophies of the films with countless sources including the above commentators. A lot of interesting ideas and concepts are proposed here and balances the crazy with the reasonable fairly well. ‘The Hard Problem – The Science behind the Fiction’ is another fascinating subject looking at the science of these films as opposed to the fiction. Discussing advanced A.I., Video Games and the nature of reality, a solid, different take on things and a breath of fresh air after hours of on-set footage.There is also some DVD-ROM content to be accessed with this disc. Databank Disc 2, Side A: Here is where we find ‘The Burly Man Chronicles’, yet another feature-length documentary which traces the entire pre to post production of the two sequels starting almost a year before cameras shoot. An enormous amount of footage and on-set interviews, this doc also has the ‘Follow the White Rabbit’ feature which would have the user click on the white rabbit icon to be taken to even more footage. If it wasn’t on the other discs, here it is. The ‘Follow the White Rabbit’ segments have also been provided individually if you don’t want to mess with accessing through ‘The Burly Man Chronicles’.Side B: This side has the ‘Zion Archive’, a massive collection of all things on paper. Storyboards, concept drawings, production photos, advertising, posters, etc. – it would take hours to sort through this archive but needless to say, if this stuff fascinates you, you’ll be in storyboard heaven. ‘The Media of the Matrix’ compiles Trailers, TV Spots and Music Videos of all three films into this one index. A lot of these have been repeated on Side A of the feature HD-DVDs.‘Rave Reel’ is a montage of special f/x shots set to the super burly brawl music at the end of ‘Revolutions’. I have no idea what its purpose is. And finally, and I mean FINALLY, we come to our last feature, ‘The Matrix Online Preview’, a slightly more in-depth look at the multiplayer online role playing game back when it started. Frankly, the game doesn’t look that great. WHEW!Easily the most extensive look at a group of films ever put on disc, if you’ve ever had questions or curiosities about a films production and the various sects that make a film, here ya go. Obviously, the selling point for either of the two ‘Matrix’ sets will be getting the films in HD and that’s where this set shines with reference quality video and audio which will assure that this will be the set you pull out to impress your friends. I was disappointed that ‘The Animatrix’ was not in HD and that there were no new retrospective interviews, but I can’t say I was surprised. Small grievances however and rather you go with the ‘Complete’ set which mostly just include the films or crave all things ‘Matrix’ with the ‘Ultimate’ set, you will definitely be getting your money’s worth.