Friday, April 2, 2004

   The Matrix Revolutions DVD

Finally, the DVD has arrived in Australia. As I mentioned in a previous entry, I had reserved it a couple of weeks ago. And tonight I watched the movie itself and checked out all of the special features. I don't really see any point in reviewing the movie itself, because many of you have already seen it at theatres. I will say a couple of things though. One, watching the movie on DVD is obviously increasing my understanding of what this franchise really is. More viewings equates to greater understanding, which is pretty obvious. But moreover, I've noticed a lot of truly beautiful/artistic shots in the movie, upon closer inspection. The Siege scene is still impressive, even on the small screen. The complexity, artistry and sheer size of this scene really hits home the more you watch it. Also, Don Davis's score is probably better in Revolutions than in the previous two movies. There's a better sense of continuity, greater emotion and a very "final" sense about everything. Even during the opening credits, where we see that "gold particle explosion", accompanied with the slightly more urgent opening theme, there's a strong sense that everything is finalizing and coming together. And of course, that's what happens. Even the untimely death of Gloria Foster (the woman who played the first Oracle) didn't manage to significantly set the movie off its core track. Obviously, the Wachowskis had to explain why the Oracle looks different in Revolutions -- and they had to do this after the fact, which, as you can imagine, is insanely difficult...especially when the script had been completed. However, it was done, and it was done quite well. Luckily, it doesn't become a focus of the movie. The woman who plays the new Oracle (May something? I forget) was also involved with Gloria Foster on stage. So she has a good understanding of how Foster works. And I think that in general, she did a great job as the second Oracle. I didn't find it as jarring as I had expected. As with Reloaded there are two things that helped me to appreciate the movie further. One is the repeated watching/research that was involved on my part. The other is taking a look at how things were done, and the kind of investment of energy and creativity that was involved. This is where extra features come in. And luckily, Revolutions has about twice the number (probably more, in fact) than Reloaded. And that makes for quite a lot of content, as well as the answers to some important production questions. I thought I'd do a really brief rundown of the features, for those who are considering purchasing the DVD. Trailers: Pretty standard fare, except that this DVD includes trailers for all of the Matrix movies, including Animatrix. It does not include every trailer/teaser variant (like the web site), but it certainly contains more in this department than the other DVDs. Revolutions Recalibrated: Much like the "making of" documentary in Reloaded, Revolutions Recalibrated is really almost a conversational piece. It's a very loosely structured documentary, which focuses on the opinions of the various actors and creative personnel behind the project. You learn a lot of fantastic little tidbits when watching this, though. And you do get an overall appreciation for the sheer innovation that went into much of this movie. Even with this one film alone, new techniques had to be created that didn't exist for the first or second movie. Some of it is definitely very self-congratulatory, but I don't know what else one would expect. I think it's a pretty accurate overall viewpoint of how the filming went, how long it went for and what the various challenges were, on all fronts. It's a good overall production summary. CG Revolution: Pretty self explanatory. We hear a lot about the sophisticated CG techniques used throughout the movie, which includes raw CG and compositional elements. Of particular interest to me, was the way that "Megacity" was constructed. It was based on Sydney, but it was also reconfigured with CG elements. So it was kind of a "hyper Sydney" -- Sydney, but with more buildings and with some reconfigured elements. There's also plenty of information about "The Siege". This was a truly impressive feat of CG animation and it's covered quite thoroughly in this documentary. We also hear about CG rendering of human figures, as well as various compositional CG elements (the way "fat rain" was made for the Super Burly Brawl, and how a composition of real/CG was made). Very worthwhile. Super Burly Brawl: Again, pretty self explanatory. This entire documentary relates to the SBB and I found it very interesting. You may be surprised at how challenging it was to develop that scene. I was under the impression that a lot of elements were CG, when many were far more based on CG/non-CG compositional elements. On a technical basis, there's a huge amount of stuff to go through here. Those of you who are even remotely interested in "how things work" will love this piece. Future Gamer: The Matrix Online: This is kind of a "making of" of The Matrix Online, which is a sequel to Revolutions. The game isn't yet complete, so obviously we don't really get a fully rounded "making of" video. Instead, we get more of a "this is what it will be when it's done" type of thing. That's not to say that the video isn't worthwhile. You get a better idea of how this game will play and in particular, there's a strong sense of the kind of scope that it will represent. I can't say that I'm majorly interested in TMO, despite my love of the franchise itself. But we'll see how it turns out. There's more...I'm only about halfway. I think I will write the rest tomorrow, because I'm too tired now. But rest assured, if you loved the movie you will really enjoy the DVD. Even if you felt indifferent toward the movie in theaters, I think you'll still get something out of the DVD. I would say that this represents one of the most feature-packed DVD releases I've yet seen.

Comments (7)