6:15pm - 2000s - The Matrix Re-Edited -
dir. The Wachowski's - Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne... Edited by Daniel McClelland
Daniel McClelland has re-edited the Matrix sequels down from two films, into one film. He's re-edited their collective length from 4.5 hours down to... 3 hours. He's chopped out fights, entire characters, sub-plots, individual bullets, endless psycho-babble, and - most importantly - the cave-rave dance sequence. Movie-Fest 10 will unveil this work and, hopefully, you won't notice the edits. However, you will notice the overall effect of them on a series that was once regarded as bloated and overly complex.
The Matrix Re-Edited will astound you with its scope, and its brevity.
Let's start with a history lesson: Warner Brothers' marketing machine declared 2003 "The Year of The Matrix." They gamely released two sequels (
The Matrix Reloaded and
The Matrix Revolutions) within six months of each other, and in the process made off with well over a billion dollars in cash worldwide. Public opinion on
Reloaded was divided. Respected publications like Variety, The Washington Post and Empire Magazine gave glowing reviews, while others were quick to admonish its creators for spending on time with characters we didn't care about, talking in endless riddles and pseudo-scientific babble.
Revolutions, on first watch at least, has less going on subtextually, and was regarded by most as a "so-so" effort at tying up the many loose ends introduced by its predecessors.
Over the years, public opinion went from 'mixed' to 'violently opposed to' and then back to an even shadier territory: 'forgotten'. So, why bring them back? Firstly, because sequels became a genre unto themselves in that decade, and the approach to them deserves to be examined as closely as a silent-comedy from the 1920s. Secondly, because The Wachowski's, unlike others from the era, embedded more thought and more complexity into their sequels. Thirdly, because the main reason people don't like the sequels is because of their perceived lack of clarity. The Matrix was marketed on the concept of a question: "What is the Matrix?" Its sequels were marketed on the idea that we were getting more of it, whatever it was.
The Matrix Re-Edited hopes to bring you a definitive answer to the questions that should have been guiding the team making the sequels: what will Morpheus do now he's found The One and finished playing the John The Baptist role? What will Trinity do now that The One has developed a love for her that is more important than his job as humanity's saviour? How will Neo ever free the minds of the millions of people connected to The Matrix, and thus end its dictatorship over our lives? Here's a trailer that outlines the stakes:
