6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett SmithAction | 100% |
Adventure | 79% |
Sci-Fi | 69% |
Thriller | 53% |
Epic | 45% |
Martial arts | 24% |
Surreal | 21% |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps)
English SDH, French, Spanish, Dutch
Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
Digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
After its breathtaking 4K revival of The
Matrix earlier this year, it was inevitable that Warner
Brothers would also release the two disappointing sequels on UHD. Confirmed fans could be
expected to buy the entire trilogy, if only for the sake of completeness, and having assembled the
A-plus team of DP Bill Pope and MPI colorist extraordinaire Jan Yarbrough to regrade the varied
palettes of Neo's initial outing in HDR and Dolby Vision, why not have them complete the
hero's journey to its final, Christ-like destination? Warner is now releasing both of the
Wachowskis' sequels on UHD, as well as a three-film
set for those who held off purchasing the
original film, sagely anticipating the additional titles that were just around the corner.
Messrs. Pope and Yarbrough have done the same stellar work on the imagery of both Revolutions
and The Matrix Reloaded that
we have already seen in their handling of the first film, and the
trilogy's original sound team has done a similarly creditable job in remixing the aggressive
soundtracks for Dolby Atmos. Unfortunately, after the technical crews completed their work, it
was turned over to the same species of clueless Warner executive who assembled the botched
package for the Blade Runner UHD.
Whatever you do, hold onto your existing Blu-rays. While
the UHD iterations of the two Matrix sequels are worthy representatives of the format—whatever
one may think of their quality as films—unless this is your first time buying The Matrix sequels
on Blu-ray, you can take the two 1080p discs in each three-disc set and use them as coasters.
Screenshots accompanying this review are taken from the remastered 1080p standard Blu-ray.
While these images give some sense of the 4K disc's appearance, they cannot hope to represent
its visual subtlety.
According to information provided to me by a Warner Brothers source, this 2160p,
HEVC/H.265-encoded UHD of The Matrix Revolutions is based on a new 4K scan of the original
camera negative created by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility. Color correction and HDR
grading were performed by MPI's senior colorist, Jan Yarbrough, and overseen by Bill Pope,
director of photography on all three Matrix films. Reproduced below is the statement from Mr.
Yarbrough regarding the first Matrix film,
which was previously provided by the studio and
(again, according to a Warner Brothers source) applies equally to the two sequels:
The Wachowskis have entrusted the creation of the HDR mastering with the original Director of Photography Bill Pope, ASC. Working with Bill I have come to realize that he has a full understanding and appreciation for the dynamics of the HDR format. The Matrix is created in two worlds: the "real" world in cool blue tones; and the "data" world in ever present green. Now with HDR, this film can be viewed in its futuristic and data centric realm more accurately than previous formats would allow. HDR with its huge dynamic range of luminance and color gamut allows for a true film gamma replication while adding additional dynamic range for accurate highlights and deep detailed blacks. DP Bill Pope has taken advantage of this to create a version with color timing as it was originally intended, crafting a high resolution digital master that is more accurate than the original theatrical release.
Let's begin with the stupid disc authoring, which plagues all three discs in The Matrix trilogy and
appears to be a now-established standard practice at Warner Brothers. You have to wonder
whether the executives in charge of these projects actually play UHD discs, or if these titles are
just more "product" on their balance sheets.
In the early days of Blu-ray, when lossless audio was a relatively new phenomenon, Warner
opted to have its Blu-ray discs default to a lossy Dolby Digital track that would play on pretty
much any variety of equipment that existed in 2006. If the disc happened to offer lossless
audio—Warner preferred Dolby TrueHD in those days—you had to make a point of selecting it.
This was particularly problematic with Warner's early Blu-rays, because they began playing the
main feature immediately. You had to select the popup menu and switch tracks mid-film at
whatever point you remembered (or realized) that you were hearing an inferior sound
presentation. It's worth stressing that Warner was the only major studio to implement this design;
Blu-rays from every other studio defaulted to lossless audio, and people somehow managed to
play them without issue (probably because the lossless formats were designed to be backward-compatible, as is Dolby Atmos).
Well, at Warner Home Video, it's 2006 all over again. Each of the three Matrix films defaults to
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1, and the only advance from the early days is that the discs start with a
menu instead of immediately playing the feature. But if you don't remember to cursor over to the
"Audio" section and change the soundtrack, you won't get the new Dolby Atmos mix. This
anachronistic authoring choice—and make no mistake; it's a choice—applies to both the UHD
and the remastered 1080p Blu-ray, which also features the new Atmos remix. And once again,
Warner is the only studio to routinely adopt this practice of defaulting to a lesser audio track—here, a lossy one—which is
just as technologically inept today as it was in 2006.
Once you've selected Atmos, you'll be treated to a remix of the same careful and deliberate
quality as appears on The Matrix and
Reloaded UHDs. The layers of
sound aren't different, just
better, with each element of the elaborately engineered sonic environment distinctly audible
without being popped out to the point of distraction. The Mobil Ave subway station is a marvel
of quietude, with only distant train sounds underpinning Neo's encounter with Sati and her
family. (When the Trainman's transport does finally arrive, it's thunderous.) The battle when
Trinity, Morpheus and Seraph first penetrate the Merovingian's Club Hel rivals the first film's
famous lobby shootout, with its symphony of weapons fire, bullet hits and crumbling masonry.
The interior of Club Hel itself offers a careful balance of crowds and music surrounding a fraught
confrontation between the three rescuers and the Merovingian with his minions. And of course
the two grandest audio set pieces are the machines' attack on Zion (pulsating weapons fire,
massive explosions, groaning collapses of weighty structures) followed by Neo's final battle with
Smith, which is an odd concatenation of real sounds of destruction with artificial effects that
suggest a video game come to life (which is essentially what Smith and Neo have become).
Dialogue remains seamlessly integrated and perfectly prioritized, and Don Davis' scoring and
songs are just as vividly rendered as on The Matrix and Reloaded UHDs. There's never a
moment in Revolutions when something interesting isn't happening on the soundtrack, even if
it's quiet. The UHD's remix is Atmos done right, and the more speakers your system has to assist
in the object-based placement of the effects, the better it will sound.
As with The Matrix UHD, Warner has separated the independent special features onto a separate
disc, except that with both Reloaded
and Revolutions, they've dropped some of them:
specifically, the films' trailer(s) and TV spots. Who knows why? They've also failed to take
advantage of the extra space now left vacant on the 1080p feature disc to maximize the bitrate,
which clocks in at a measly average of 21.46 Mbps, with over 11 Gbs of space left unused. As
with the audio authoring, it's 2006 all over again. (And once again, these are choices made by the
executives overseeing the project. Perhaps inadvertent choices—certainly ignorant ones—but
choices nonetheless.)
As I did with The Matrix on 4K, I have not attempted to retrace the history of extras that the
series has accumulated over the years. I have simply listed the extras included in the UHD
package, so that readers can make their own comparisons to whatever version(s) they already
own. As an aid to such comparisons, I have also included a listing of the extras on the single-disc
release of the original Revolutions Blu-ray
that Warner has now chosen to omit, even though they
would have fit on any one of the three discs in the package.
Also, I have not given this release a rating for extras. What is the point of rating a "feature" so
obviously incomplete that it requires retaining (or acquiring) additional discs just to restore what
should have been there in the first place?
There are sequences in the Matrix sequels that I still enjoy, and I suspect I'm not alone in finding
these films more pleasurable in small doses. Neo's encounter with the Architect in Reloaded is
always good for a chuckle; the more you listen to the old man's clipped dialogue, the more
ridiculous it gets—and more entertaining as a result. (It was the first hearing that disappointed;
after so much buildup, the Wachowskis delivered a "payoff" that undid everything the first film
established, leaving the audience to feel cheated and betrayed.) And the early subway station
reunion of Neo and Trinity in Revolutions has the passionate intensity of a great love story, even
more so when you know where the couple is heading.
Taken as a whole, however, the movies are laughable, and never more so than when the two
worlds of "real" and "data" carefully delineated in the first film begin to merge, with Neo's
"data" powers leaking into the "real" world and Agent Smith successfully integrating himself
into a human body. The trilogy's ending is a joke—much like the omitted extras, cramped
bitrates and ignorant authoring decisions featured in these two UHD packages. Don't bother
acquiring them unless you're already equipped for UHD or expect to be soon, because the
remastered 1080p discs aren't that big an upgrade. If you're already UHD-capable, then you
won't be disappointed with the 4K image and sound, but keep your existing Blu-ray sets, and
above all remember to select the Dolby Atmos track, or you'll find yourself wondering why the
audio is so ordinary.
2003
1999
2009
2015
Limited Edition
1997
Director's Cut
2009
20th Anniversary Edition
1996
2020
2003
2004
2012
+BD with the 3 versions
1991
2014
1080i
2003
2005
3 Disc Edition
2012
2014
2004
2013
Collector's Edition
1998