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Topic: The Matrix

Geoff Jones
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 579
From: Broomfield, CO, USA
Registered: Feb 2006

posted 03-02-2019 04:36 PM

I took my teenage daughter to see The Matrix at the Alamo Drafthouse in Littleton, Colorado last night. It played in Auditorium 4, with Sony 4k projection, at least according to the trailer. I have no idea if the DCP was 2k or 4k. The theater was probably around 80% full.

We sat in the center of the 2nd row, which looks terrible on the online seating charts, but was actually perfect. I hate online seating charts that don't show proportional auditorium and screen layouts... which is most of them.

Picture and sound were both pretty good. I never noticed any stairstepping, but then, the credits for this movie are meant to look "pixel-y." When Neo first meets Morpheus the image was very "swim-y," sorta the way bad compression sometimes looks, but since that was the only time it looked bad, I assume it was in the source.

The Matrix holds up fairly well. My daughter liked it. She went in knowing virtually nothing about it, which was fun.

On the plus side, the concepts are intriguing and thought-provoking, the mysteries unfold at an engaging pace, and the action is mostly exciting and always spectacular.

On the negative side, the attempts to be cool (outfits and slow-mo) are dumb, the supporting characters are all impressively bland, and the plot is full of holes. But the movie does a good job of using its strengths to distract you from its weaknesses.

Drafthouse theaters are so bizarrely incongruous. They have this awesome zero-tolerance no-talking and no-device policy, but at the same time they have waiters walking back and forth past you during the entire movie.

So do I show her Reloaded and Revolutions? Or do I pretend they don't exist, like IJ&tKotCS and the SW prequels?

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 03-04-2019 03:36 AM

quote: Geoff Jones
Picture and sound were both pretty good. I never noticed any stairstepping, but then, the credits for this movie are meant to look "pixel-y." When Neo first meets Morpheus the image was very "swim-y," sorta the way bad compression sometimes looks, but since that was the only time it looked bad, I assume it was in the source.

Big chance you were looking at the Blu-Ray version. I've noticed similar artifacts while watching the Blu-Ray version on the big screen.

There is also this scene where they get "armed and loaded" and those racks loaded with weapons and ammo zoom by on a white background. It looks particularly bad on both Blu-Ray and DVD releases.

I've screened this movie on 35mm quite a lot, also in re-runs as part of a philosophical discussion about the concepts behind the movie. Granted, "full-white" scenes never were a strength of 35mm due to flicker and easy visibility of film damage, but I don't remember this scene looking this washed out on film.

quote: Geoff Jones
On the negative side, the attempts to be cool (outfits and slow-mo) are dumb, the supporting characters are all impressively bland, and the plot is full of holes. But the movie does a good job of using its strengths to distract you from its weaknesses.

Keep in mind, this was about the first movie that really introduced "bullet time", which was subsequently overused in a lot of other movies.

The way they did it, with lots of still cameras firing simultaneously, was also pretty daunting, nowadays this would be done using 3D models.

quote: Geoff Jones
So do I show her Reloaded and Revolutions? Or do I pretend they don't exist, like IJ&tKotCS and the SW prequels?

You live in North Korea, right? [Smile]

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David Ferguson
Film Handler

Posts: 12
From: United Kingdom
Registered: Sep 2018

posted 03-29-2019 05:44 PM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
I've screened this movie on 35mm quite a lot, also in re-runs as part of a philosophical discussion about the concepts behind the movie.

A question I have for people who have seen the original 35mm release is whether the scenes of inside the Matrix are tinted green or not? The DVD/BluRay copies have them tinted green, but there was some discussion somewhere (but I can't find it at the moment) where a couple of people claimed that the original theatrical release didn't have this tint. Can you remember?

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-29-2019 09:15 PM

I (just like many long time members of this forum) saw The Matrix during its original theatrical release back in 1999. This Sunday will mark the 20th anniversary of the movie's release. I can't say for sure if the scenes within The Matrix on the original 35mm film prints were tinted green or not. I'm pretty sure they were; the entire movie was big on various color tints for scenes inside and outside of the Matrix.

One clue might be looking at the original 1999 DVD and then comparing that to the Blu-ray version. Digital intermediates weren't a big thing in movie productions yet back then. The DVD came out 9/21/99, a little under 6 months after the theatrical debut, which was very fast trip from the big screen to TV. Some other movies were still taking upwards of a year or more before arriving on home video.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 03-30-2019 05:35 AM

According to this article, the scenes inside the Matrix were colored green, to match the color grading of the sequels.

The UHD version restores the original look though.

I don't remember the green tint to be overly present in the 35mm version, although a lot of scenes were pretty dark.

I still remember the scenes shot in daylight and I can't really remember any green tints being present there.

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Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 03-30-2019 03:49 PM

As a side note, I remember The Matrix DVD was one of the first that helped the format take off. The follow the white rabbit extra was pretty cool for the time.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-30-2019 04:54 PM

The DVD was a huge seller, partly aided by the fact it was priced ridiculously low. I think I paid something like $15 for it at Walmart back then while other new releases at the same store were in the $20-$25 price range or even higher. I might have actually paid more for the soundtrack music CD of The Matrix than I did for the DVD.

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