y now, you all know the story. Programmer by day, hacker by night Thomas Anderson (Reeves) discovers that the modern world he lives in is a computer-generated illusion. It's really the future, and the machines have taken over the blasted remnants of the real world. Humans are biological energy converters stored in tanks and dreaming of imaginary lives in the Matrix.
Awakened into the "real" world by revolutionaries Morpheus (Fishburne) and Trinity (Moss), and told he's the "One" who will save mankind, the renamed Neo sets off to discover the truth. Neo and his allies are pursued by the increasingly dangerous Agent Smith (Weaving), and must find a way to save the last human outpost, Zion, from the machines. What follows is a whirlwind of action and philosophy featuring flying robot squids (flying almost everything, actually), a revelation from the creator of the Matrix, a nice joyride on the freeway and what is, without a doubt, the best piece of cake ever.
Perhaps inspired by the massive Lord of the Rings box sets, The Ultimate Matrix Collection is well named indeed. Its 10 DVDs include every official piece of the Matrix canon except the Enter the Matrix video game—and actually a lot of the non-interactive content from that. The set starts off with all three films: The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Each gets two discs, one with the movie itself and a second with production documentaries specific to that movie. Each film has two commentary tracks, but not the kind you might expect. Philosophers Ken Wilber and Cornel West (who also appears as a member of the Zion council in the sequels) provide one track for each movie. Film critics Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson provide the other.
The set also includes The Animatrix, the collection of animated shorts that comment on the world of the Matrix and help tie together the continuity between the films. The remaining discs include The Roots of the Matrix, a pair of documentaries offering background on philosophical and scientific aspects of the movies; The Burly Man Chronicles, a collection of featurettes on the massive project to simultaneously produce the second and third films and the video game; and The Chronicles of Zion, a collection of concept art, storyboards, trailers and music videos.
Reviewing the review-proof
The problem with trying to review The Ultimate Matrix Collection is that it's pretty much review-proof. Casual viewers, those who thought the original was great but that the Wachowskis should have quit while they were ahead, are never going to watch 10 DVDs about The Matrix. For them, this set is massive overkill.
On the other hand, serious fans are going to want this regardless. Many will shell out extra for the "Limited Edition" collector's version, which includes a display case, an 80-page book and a bust of Neo. Since the purchase decision has nothing to do with how good the product is, all we can do is predict whether Matrix fanatics will be happy with it or annoyed that they've been roped into buying the whole thing over again.
For the most part, this presentation works. The extras aren't simply rehashed from the individual releases, and the set mostly avoids the cross-marketing emphasis that marred some of those discs. (Though there is a preview of the upcoming online role-playing game.) This set does a good job of presenting the story and illuminating the production of one of the most ambitious film projects ever.
The biggest disappointment—though it shouldn't be a surprise by now—is the lack of commentary from the Wachowski brothers themselves. In a written introduction, they explain that they prefer to let viewers create their own interpretations rather than pinning down the story by explaining everything. Instead, they choose to offer guidance from philosophers who liked the film, and from film critics who did not.
That's an interesting idea, but it doesn't quite work. The critics' tracks are especially pointless. For long stretches, they simply have nothing to say. When they do, pointing out what they don't like doesn't provide much benefit to the viewer. And even though philosophers West and Wilber sometimes offer interesting insights, they're very unstructured, and the middle of an action movie isn't the best place to absorb them.
The more traditional extras shine, if nothing else because of the number, and raw wattage, of thinkers and scientists who participate. And the behind-the-scenes material offers an encyclopedic view of nearly everything about the production. There is an enormous amount of somewhat disorganized material to wade through, but it's worth the time. For Matrix fans, this is indeed the ultimate treatment of the story.
