Customer Reviews

The Complete Matrix Trilogy [Blu-ray] [1999][Region Free]

5 star:		(157)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I'm assuming that by reading this you have already seen all 3 films and you're just reading this for an opinion. If by some crazy rule of physics you haven't actually bought/seen this, then what are you waiting for?! It is well documented that the first film is a true classic, and that the sequels are slightly poorer. But at this price, who is to complain?

The first film was, and is, awesome, and represents a milestone in action cinema. To be fair, even if you didn't watch the other two, it would be worth buying just for this film alone.

The 2nd and 3rd films generate such different opinions that it's hard to give an objective analysis of them. I personally enjoyed both of them, but at the same time felt that the script and story were trying to be more intellectual than they actually were. Using lots of big words in a string of incoherent sentences does not make you an intelligent script writer (see Matrix Reloaded).

The story of Reloaded does twist itself up a bit, and is pretty vacant really. Revolutions is definitely better, and the main battle scene between man and machines is definitely the highlight of the film.

I can think of many worse things to spend my money on than this.

A word about the Blu-Ray quality first. There are some very strange rumours on these pages such as saying that these films are just upscaled DVDs. I don't know where people get these ideas from, but it is simply not true. For a 10 year old film "The Matrix" is very close to the top of the Blu-Ray tree. The close-ups, particularly of Neo and Morpheus, are stunning reference level examples of depth and plasticity. I watched this projected c. 3m wide, and just gawped at the detail in Fishburne's pock-marked face: it was more like having a giant statue of his head on the wall than looking at a flat TV-like image.

What some people are looking at and not liking is probably either (a) the occasional use of green colour filtration which is a clever cinematic trick conveying the irreality of The Matrix or (b) the crushed blacks which are a stylistic choice by the film's makers. Yes, the black levels on "The Spirit" make a mockery of these, but that's the look they've gone with. It is also true that not all scenes have reference level sharpness and HD image quality. But very few films 'pop' constantly as it gets boring, and with the aesthetic choices made the film has a very good share of stupendous image quality

Audio quality is very good (5.1 True HD) with dialogue and effects well balanced, although some late scenes are significantly louder than earlier ones (and I mean comparing action scenes with action scenes); again, a directorial choice no doubt.

In "The Matrix Reloaded" the picture quality is maybe slightly better, the audio a touch more forceful (although the actual music is not as good as in "The Matrix". For me, "Revolutions" is on the same BD level as Part II. But on balance, the boxset is a very good HD release at a crazily cheap price, and it does not deserve the false criticism of its supposedly sub BD-level standard.

The films themselves were interesting to see again after what, for me, was quite a long term. The original is magnificent as ever, and I found the second installment much less disappointing than back at the time of release. If you mentally prepare in advance for the wilfully tedious scenes with "The Merovingian" and "The Architect" then you realise that the film is actually a pretty good sequel, and not the disaster it seemed back then. The party scene in Zion is also fairly dull and overlong, but otherwise much better than I remembered. And even if the ending of "Revolutions" is not very satisfying, it remains my second favourite Matrix film, and as Mr Anderson loved to say, perhaps the way it is was "inevitable".

For just over a fiver a disc, you cannot go wrong. These are not upscaled DVDs, they are very good BD transfers. Free your mind!

I drew up a list recently of must-buy Blu-Ray films as an upgrade to replace the DVD versions of these films, and this is a definite must buy. The picture clarity on all 3 films is simply astoundingly good. I particularly enjoyed the 2nd film with several amazing scenes in a row, specifically the Agent Smith clones fight, then the Chateau fight along the staircases and the Motorway chase scene. It's definitely worth buying this because Blu-Ray is meant for audio and visual quality as stunning as this.

Just editing this in more depth now. In The Matrix, the picture quality is ahead of its time. When they filmed it, the cameras must have been very expensive because the HD on this BluRay is eye poppingly good, for a 12 year old film. It's 'probably' the best in the series, overly talky with some good actions scenes, I preferred the 2nd film in terms of the fight scenes. The huge Agent Smith fight in particular has outstanding choreography, I just don't know how Keanu Reeves did all those moves because it looks amazing. The 3rd film is the most disppointing, it just feels cold to me. Make no mistake there's some superb action scenes in there, but I didn't like it as much as the first 2.

Hi ,today i have recived it ,where a list of what i read:

Audio:
English: Dolby True Hd ,Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: 5.1,
French: 5.1
German 5.1
Italian 5.1
Latin Spanish: 2.0
Brazilian Portuguese: 2.0

Subtitles:
English, Brzilian Portuguese, Dutch, french ,Italian & Latin Spanish

Movie and Select Bonus Material

Extras:

* Written Introduction by the wachowski Brothers
* Comentaries by:
-Philosophers: Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber
-Crits: Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson
-Cast: Carrie_Anne Moss, Jazh Staenberw and Johnm Gaeta for the Matrix
-Composer: Don David with Music-Only track for the Matrix
* Feature-Length Documentary The Matrix Revisited
* Behind The Matrix Documentary Galleries
* The Music Revisited
* Music Videos: Marilyn Manson's Rock is Dead and POD's Sleeping Awake
* Enter The Matrix: The Game documentary
* Enter the Matrix. View 23 Live-Action Scener Shot for the video Gamet that Plug into the action of de the Matrix Reloades
* Theatrical Trailers and Tv Spots

Well i hope this post maybe can help someone.

Thanks to all

I know of friends who only saw the first Matrix movie and that is a shame, as all three parts of the trilogy belong together as the journey of Neo and the change that happens to him along the way. It is a fantastic job that has been done in keeping the quality at the top without descending into making B-grade follow up movies as is often the case with sequels.

It is a movie that can be seen on many levels. Some will see it just as a great action movie which it is, but there is so much more to this film. It is a fantastic depiction of the journey of the spiritual seeker and the difficulties that he encounters within himself as he starts pushing against the prisons of his own mind and the multitude of programs that operates and which keep us small.

It also neatly depicts the way humans are kept as 'food for the moon' in Gurdjieff's words or simply food for ultra terrestrials. In the film this is depicted as humans, being little less than cultivated biological batteries for the machines.

All three parts are worth watching more than once, as you will undoubtedly see new things each time. Things that start making sense only after some time of reflection and reading. In this regard I can recommend reading the book by Ouspensky called "In Search of the Miraculous", and the book by Laura Knight-Jadczyk called "The Secret History of the World".

The Matrix trilogy is a really good set, the films are great!, i like them all and watch them over and over they are really interesting and just plain awesome!. I also really enjoy the plot and depth of the character's personalities and the just different style of the films and that the scenes are set in different places.

I really like the idea of film sets (box sets) as well so when The Matrix Trilogy has a 3 Disc Box Set for a cheap price it's really worth buying in my opinion.

I would of liked to of known a little about the films in the discription and i would of also liked to of known that disc/film 2 finishes with a "to be continued.." which it then leads onto disc/film 3 which i think it would of been handy to know that so that i could of planned better how and when i watched them all.

Very short review but good if you are in a hurry

Matrix: Superb, innovative, wow special effects, excellent story

Matrix reloaded: OK, Bit confusing but made up by pretty sci fi effects

Matrix revolutions: Complete bollocks

Ignore those moaning about this not being the mega American set. It clearly states that this is the 3 disc version. Take those reviews out and only 5 star reviews remain. Amazing reference quality picture. Everybody's skin looks terrible in the movie because of the detail this blu-ray brings. The final fight scene in the rain is unreal, the lobby scene, the detail in the leather jackets is just astounding. Up there with the top 5 or so blu-rays I have watched. Buy it

The Matrix Trilogy must be one of the most significant films of our time, and is likely to go down as an all time sci-fi classic along with the likes of Blade Runner. It is obviously laden with symbology fished from a variety of sources, but I wonder if the Watchowski brothers realised just exactly how powerful a metaphor for our reality they were creating.

The central premise that our lives are not 'real' but are steeped in illusion in order that our life force may be fed upon whilst we are enfenced unwittingly like cattle - this is a relevant and powerful message on many levels. It can easily be seen that this is true on a superficial level, with the rampant rise of ultra-aggressive capitalist consumerism, whereby everyone is 'sold a dream' in order to siphon off all income to profit the few, but it goes deeper than that, and can be used to catch a glimpse of some ideas on the true nature of reality. The overlap with material such as Castaneda is remarkable, with stories about the archetypal predator who is invisible, and feeds on us because he has 'given us his mind'. In all, it is a striking metaphor for the human condition.

Of course the great thing is that, even if you don't want to explore things to those levels, taken at surface value as a piece of entertainment, the Matrix is still a fantastic sci-fi/action trilogy, with colourful characters, awesome visuals, and a solid original plotline. Taken as a trilogy, this is a fantastic piece of film-making artwork, and this is the best way to enjoy it. For me, like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, this amazing piece of entertainment should be enjoyed whole, with the complete epic story all in one package.

This is an incredibly cheap way to get hold of all three films, but the only other thing I would say is, if you can stretch to the extra money, go for the 'Ultimate Matrix' box set, which contains many extras, but more importantly, the several mini-film 'featurettes' which flesh out the background story.

[I've added a photo to the item page for each disc showing the back of the Blu-ray box which details the disc specification and content. Note that I believe these discs have been re-issued after earlier specification inaccuracies printed on the box insert - my photos are of the latest editions...]

I have written individual Amazon reviews for the Blu-ray disc of each film in the trilogy, please refer to them for in-depth information of each film/disc (easier done by selecting the 'See all my reviews link' near the top of this review entry), but here are the links to the individual Blu-rays anyway :

The Matrix [Blu-ray] [1999]
The Matrix Reloaded [Blu-ray] [2003]
Matrix Revolutions [Blu-ray] [2003]

'The Matrix' trilogy of films were written, directed and produced by the Wachowski brothers. Although dating from the 1990s to the early 2000s, they will continue to stand as a benchmark for the use of special-effects in films for many years to come....

They are arguably THE series of films which should be watched first on any new Hi-Definition video format to fully appreciate it and the films; Blu-ray is no exception to this 'rule' and I can confirm that they are simply astounding to watch (and listen to !) in this format.

Each film stands on it's own as a story, but the plot progresses through the 3 films and all need to be watched to get the whole picture and, of course, see the ultimate ending.

This boxset is simply a printed cardboard outer to hold the individual Blu-ray box for each disc of the film (ie they are EXACTLY the same box/discs as what you would get if you bought each individual disc).

The Blu-ray image on these issues is flawless/superbly detailed and the sound quality is an improvement over the DVD format. The extras on the discs are copious, including including a 'Picture-in-Picture' narrative inserted into the film, feature-length commentaries and loads of very interesting 'featurettes'; see the photos I've added to the item page showing the back of the Blu-ray box for each film/disc which details the disc specification and content.

*** A final notable aspect of 'The Matrix' disc is that the film is uncut with no change to the viewing classification; all previous UK versions (including that in the 'Ultimate' DVD boxset) had head-butting scenes from 2 of the main fight sequences removed....

Anyone who either already knows about, or wants to experience for the first time, this ground-breaking trilogy of films really should see them in Blu-ray format - they will blow you away !