The Matrix Revolutions (DVD)

Can someone please tell me what it would take to get the Wachowski Brothers to make a statement about their Matrix trilogy. Even on the DVD for the original Matrix the brothers are absent from commenting on the film and as it goes on from there they are once again absent from this DVD release of Revolutions, despite a few glimpses we get of them in passing, but I can handle it, I am composing myself, and lets get to the discs.

Starting with the first disc, which contains the movie as well as the teaser trailer for The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Animatrix as well as the theatrical trailer for Revolutions. Now, I don't know about any of you, but I love to watch the trailers on DVDs, many times I will watch the trailer before watching one of my favorite movies, which is why I was pumped to have all four of these trailers on this disc, although I could have done with a few more of the trilogy trailers and without The Animatrix trailer, but oh well.

As for the movie, it is spectacular in look and sound, and even though it was my least favorite film of the trilogy I have already caught myself watching it more than once since it arrived.

I know you aren't here to hear my opinion on the movie, if you wanted to hear that you would read my review, but to hear more about the special features this release has to offer. So lets head on over to the second disc where you have features galore.

First to the guts of the disc with "Revolutions Recalibrated", approximately 45 minutes long, this documentary covers every aspect of the creation process for The Matrix Revolutions including exactly what you would expect to see with behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with cast and crew down to the effects shots, which are covered more in-depth later on.

Now, by later on, I mean here with "CG Revolution" where you get an extremely cool and detailed look at the work that went in to making the effects for Revolutions, and after this you will be racking your brain to try and figure out just how the Academy could have possibly passed this film up for an Oscar^® nom, but whatever. You will get looks at the miniatures, or big-atures as they are described due to their size, and how they were used along with all the CGI that went into the creation of the battle for Zion. It is also really cool to go back and watch the film again looking for the scenes that you were shown in this piece and then marvel at just how real it all looks.

But the effects features don't stop there as you now move on to "Super Burly Brawl", a feature dedicated to the final battle between Neo and Agent Smith as it is show to you from three different perspectives. You have the choice of watching the fight either in animatic, storyboard form or the final production and at any time you can switch between the options using the Angle button on your remote. This is one cool feature and it is extremely impressive how little the filmmakers deviated from the original storyboards, and I was surprised how I could just watch the storyboards with the sound of the final product in the background and be just as entertained as I was watching the actual thing.

Next we have "Future Gamer", which I already knew was about the soon-to-be-released video game, The Matrix Online, so I was pretty much expecting a short ad describing the massive multiplayer game that is expected to release some time in 2004, but what you get is a full-on featurette going over the creation process of the game. Now, while the feature was intriguing and sounded cool, I am not a huge video game person, so I am not sure just how good this will be, especially since it will be online and it sounds like it is going to take a TON of time to play.

Now I have told you about all the good, but that doesn't mean there are some features you should just skip over, which I'll get into now starting with "Before the Revolution".

"Before the Revolution" is a boring, time intensive timeline spanning from The Matrix to The Animatrix, up to the ending of The Matrix Reloaded, and as you navigate the timeline using your remote you will be extremely bored if you happen to make it to the end of this little section.

And finally you have "3-D Evolution", which is a large collection of storyboards, concept art and stills from the film, and these types of features have never been a huge interest of mine, but I am assuming studios have done studies and someone must be watching them.

Overall I believe buying this DVD is a necessity for anyone that owns the first two or is a fan of the Matrix series. While this may not be the best of the trilogy you have always got to remember that you are going to look one movie more than another at all times, and to have the final chapter of this intriguing philosophical revolution would just be a shame.