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Mr. Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is a computer programmer by day,
and a computer hacker by night, known only as Neo. A mysterious
woman named Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) has contacted him, and
somehow she knows all about him. Things are not any better for
Mr. Anderson at work, where he runs afoul of some menacing suits
wearing sunglasses, which is always a bad sign. Annoying window
washers add to his anxiety. And then there is Morpheus (Laurence
Fishburne), another person Mr. Anderson encounters who might or
might not be telling him the truth. But Neo is about to discover
the secret of the Matrix, and he might not like what he hears...
The Matrix is a total testosterone rush. The action scenes are
exhilarating, and the special effects are groundbreaking. The
multi-layered story provides an appropriate setting for this visual
extravaganza. I have read that a lot of the story and action techniques
are largely derivative of other works in literature and film.
However, many of these other works are not very mainstream, and
that probably explains the major box office success of The Matrix,
since most people were being exposed to a lot of these ideas and
visuals for the first time. The Matrix was in production long
before it was released (and Directors/Screenwriters Andy and Larry
Wachowski supposedly had written the script before they made their
previous film, Bound), but the story similarities with Dark City
are an amazing coincidence, although Dark City is obviously a
much different film with less emphasis on action.
On the acting side, Reeves and Fishburne often deliver their
lines in a monotone fashion, which unfortunately are so unnatural
that they take me out of the movie experience in a few instances.
Hearing Keanu say "I know Kung Fu" with all the emotion
of George Will on sedatives left me shaking my head. The other
actors display more personality, and the character Mouse provides
some much needed levity. A major attraction of the film is the
action as well as the set design and overall vision of the film.
Of course, if you really need to know anymore about the plot,
you must have been living on a different planet for the last few
months.
And now the most highly anticipated DVD of 1999 has arrived in
what may be Warner's most ambitious DVD to date. Let's take a
look...
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
A dark film, this is a somewhat difficult image to judge because
of the lack of bright and bold colors. Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic
widescreen, the film is purposefully devoid of such color, and
sometimes viewers use deep hues to define a great-looking picture.
But it should be noted that this is entirely the intent of the
filmmakers. For example, the commentary track reveals that the
Wachowskis wanted to avoid the color blue at all cost, to help
better convey the world they had envisioned. So with the filmmakers
intent in mind the picture certainly rates highly. Black level
is perfect, and though there is film grain (again intentional),
detail is never wanting, and digital artifacts are not a problem.
Certainly a visually-arresting film.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
This is a powerful 5.1 soundtrack. You would never confuse it
with a mere 2.0 Pro Logic track! The .1 channel provides tight,
well-defined low frequency sound. Directional effects, including
split-surrounds, are used effectively to place the viewer in the
middle of the action. Dialogue is crystal clear, and not once
did anything sound distorted. This film should have great sound
on DVD, and Warner certainly delivered. Another one for the showroom
floor.
No other language dubs are included, only English Closed Captions
and English subtitles.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
Perhaps the best supplement on the video side is the HBO First
Look special, which I presume was first shown on HBO as a
promo for the theatrical release. It contains a in-depth look
at the intensive training the actors were put through, in addition
to an interview with the directors and other cast and crew. Next
are two special effects featurettes, including "What
is the Concept" featurette, which contains a lot of art and
storyboards, and can be accessed by highlighting the red pill
(Editor: Hmmm, sounds trippy!) that is located in the Wachowski
Brothers section of the Cast and Crew bios. The other featurette
is found via the red pill in the Dream World section, and attempts
to answer the question, "What is Bullet-Time?," which
are the groundbreaking motion effects much lauded in the film.
Surely the most unique feature is the Follow the White Rabbit
option that allows the viewer to look at alternate angle outtakes
from just about all of the major actions scenes as they were being
filmed. These outtakes are excellent documents of what the sets
were like before the CGI effects were added. They also demonstrate
that the actors really had to pull their weight for these scenes.
Unfortunately, though, the designers of the disc did not include
a simple way to access these outtakes. First you must click on
the "Follow the White Rabbit" option. Then you must
watch the movie, waiting for the white rabbit icon to pop up.
If you hit enter, the outtake will play and then return you to
the movie.
Then comes the two audio commentary tracks. The first
features editor Zach Staenberg, special effects supervisor John
Gaeta, and actress Carrie-Anne Moss. However, the commentary is
almost entirely by the first two, with Moss disappearing after
the first five minutes, as though she had very little to say and
decided to go to lunch. But the track still is pretty good, as
the two guys do reveal much about the special effects despite
several long pauses where nothing is said. The second commentary
track contains features composer Don Davis. He reveals many things,
including his work with the Wachowskis and his methods and reasons
for the artistic choices he made. Fortunately, he only talks during
the quiet passages, otherwise the purpose of having an isolated
score would have been defeated. The rock music can also be
heard on this track. A nice addition for music fans.
Overall, the commentary tracks are adequate, but for some reason
the Wachowski Brothers are not indeed. This is quite strange considering
they did a great commentary track for their previous film Bound,
with Joe Pantoliano also joining in, as he could have done on
this one. (Editor: The Wachowski's will be featured on a live
interactive web event this November accessible via the DVD, which
will feature more footage and their thoughts on the film.)
DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc
in your PC?
Maybe everyone already knows this, but being the idiot that I
am at first I could not figure out how to access the DVD-ROM material
on my computer. Eventually I figured out that I had to go to "My
Computer," click on my DVD-ROM drive icon (the E:Drive in
my case), and install the PC Friendly program from the Matrix
DVD. Once that is done, restart your computer (I did not at first,
which led to more problems), and then open the PC Friendly program
(it should be accessible by clicking Start then Programs). If
you are lucky a screen should open where you are given a choice
between clicking on the red pill or the blue pill. One takes you
to the DVD-ROM material, while the other plays the movie.
Though at first the DVD-Video supplements looked somewhat disappointing,
I soon found there was a lot more to this disc than a cursory
look revealed. The ROM section includes trailers for The Matrix,
Demolition Man, The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,
Outland, and Soldier. Unfortunately I am only able to viewer the
trailers in a small box on my monitor, which leaves a lot to be
desired, particularly for The Matrix trailer, which really should
have been put on the DVD-video section. To access the trailers
you need to first click on the "DVD Sampler" channel
on the left side of the screen.
"The One" trivia game is a minor time killer. Actually
some of the questions are difficult, and I think it is odd the
way they force you to watch a clip before answering the question.
Unfortunately the questions began to repeat the second time I
played it, so this is definitely not going to replace solitaire
anytime soon.
Next is the Alternate Realities section, which contains five
essays and links to two others. None of the five are incredibly
in-depth, but someone totally unfamiliar with The Matrix and its
influences might find them useful like Cliff's Notes. There is
also a link for "Matrix Events," but the link only leads
to the Warner Bros. Online site, as of right now. Again, there
will be future Matrix live events here. Another link leads to
the current Matrix website, which is not that important since
the disc also contains the entire original theatrical website
as of June 1999, which provides for much quicker navigation than
the Internet version. A section called The Zion Archives contains
some art and text material. Evidently this is a work in progress,
as there wasn't much there at the moment.
The most impressive DVD-ROM extra on the disc is the screenplay/storyboard
section. The overall menu and navigation design of this disc might
have been lacking for me at times, but not this part. The screenplay,
always displayed on the right side of the screen, is divided into
the chapters of the film. You can easily skip to a different chapter
by rapidly scrolling through a chapter menu on the lower left
side of the screen. You are given the option to watch that particular
chapter of the film in a box on the top left side of the screen.
Some chapters do not have any storyboards, while others contain
many. The storyboards are also displayed on the top left side
of the screen (you have the choice of looking at the chapter's
storyboards or watching the chapter video). It also allows you
switch to a still frame from the movie that most closely approximates
the storyboard.
One final caveat is that it could all have been easier to access.
Trying to view everything on this disc takes much time and effort.
To be fair, it would have been easier, I suppose, if I had several
days over which to peruse the supplements. Still, overall, an
impressive and extensive set of supplements.
Parting Thoughts
If you are thinking about buying this DVD not only for the film
but for the supplements, there are some issues to consider. The
added materials are primarily slanted toward the special effects
arena, and remember, the only way you can access many of the extras
like the trailer and the screenplay is through a computer DVD-ROM
(and only a PC, unless you do some tweaking on your Mac). But
the disc rises above most of the competition and delivers in the
audio and video department, and is especially attractive at Warner's
nice price point. Recommended.
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