The Matrix 4K UHD (1999)

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

The Matrix looks mostly fine, but if you look at the bitrate then Jesus, it can drop to some ridiculous lows!

Right, which is why I don't watch the bitrate meter. Bitrates can tell a story for sure, but are more for reinforcing what I'm seeing.

[DAT_JB]

[WhiskeyGnome]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

The Matrix looks mostly fine, but if you look at the bitrate then Jesus, it can drop to some ridiculous lows!

Yeah it does. I never thought this disc was super premium or anything when watching it. It's decent, they get away with it, but only barely. You can tell they could have gotten more detail and what not out of this.

It's a highly dynamic encode, and that can obviously be very good and very bad. If you have a little filtering I think most people would not notice, but it definitely absolutely tanks at times, yet it's clear they had somebody watching it because it rarely produces awful results. I haven't done any big zoom comparisons looking for macroblocking though. I am sure it's apparent in some scenes with zoom.

I don't really pay attention to bitrate either, but it just bugs me sometimes knowing they could have given it the full push toward a perfect disc on this format. Same thing with films like Blade Runner and Heat.

I just wish Warner had their stuff together from the start ya know? Because this could have been an almost perfect encode and disc with 80Mbps and great compression. It bugs me that they do this for way too many classic films. Like come on man who is doing the guessing here on the audio tracks?

I know we could say well hell they PLANNED this for a 66 I get it, but not ONE person knew they were going to go over lol? At that point get in there and tell the guy he can encode for 100GB! GRRRR!

[Moviefan2k4]

Well, I just finished watching my 4K copy of this for the first time...and wow, it blew me away. I'd only seen one previous film on the format (the original Highlander), so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

Now, just one small detail - I do not remember seeing this in theaters 25 years ago. I was old enough, but for some reason the premise of the film didn't appeal to me. I'd never heard of the directors, and of course Keanu was the only "fairly big name" attached. So even though I'd seen it several times on other formats, I was going in blind compared to the original version.

But now, after finishing it, I am truly struggling to process what I saw. The various color tones were usually appropriate for the scenes they were set in, but keeping track of them all required some extra concentration. The Lady in Red was as radiant as a live-action Jessica Rabbit, while most scenes inside the Matrix itself were strongly saturated with yellow or green. The only real exception to this was the helicopter rescue sequence, where the colors sometimes shifted from shot to shot. For example, when Morpheus jumps out the window and Neo catches him, everything is very blue...but when Trinity escapes the falling chopper seconds later, the footage is notably brighter.

The only other color issue I noticed, is toward the end when Neo is trying to work his way through the crowd full of Agents. Just for a few shots, it seems Neo's hair is more gray than black, and then it goes back to normal. This could be something with the source, though.

I don't have a home theater sound system, but my room is so small I've never needed one, so everything played back fine in that regard. On the whole, a solid 4.5 of 5 - major props from WB!

[BrokenGlass41]

I got this for 15 bucks from Gruv the other day. I got off work early and decided to put my soundbar system to the test, having very recently reconfigured it to Dolby specifications. I put on the lobby scene and let it play until the helicopter is destroyed. It started to play and sounded tinny and compressed. Once I realized it was set to Dolby Digital 5.1, I changed the audio settings to Atmos and let ‘er rip.

It’s a crazy good sonic experience. It’s replacing Cloverfield as my go-to for great surround sound. I could hear shots going across the room and debris flying in every direction. I could track the position of characters within the scene because of the spot-on panning and placement. Overhead sound effects are along extremely powerful, even with my 5.1.2 upfiring speakers. The water from the sprinkler system was convincing enough that I actually looked up reflexively.

To be perfectly honest, it’s a ridiculous movie. The premise is nuts, the slow motion is gratuitous, it’s a bit campy — but I love it. And the Atmos makes me love it even more. 6/5

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by BrokenGlass41

I got this for 15 bucks from Gruv the other day. I got off work early and decided to put my soundbar system to the test, having very recently reconfigured it to Dolby specifications. I put on the lobby scene and let it play until the helicopter is destroyed. It started to play and sounded tinny and compressed. Once I realized it was set to Dolby Digital 5.1, I changed the audio settings to Atmos and let ‘er rip.

It’s a crazy good sonic experience. It’s replacing Cloverfield as my go-to for great surround sound. I could hear shots going across the room and debris flying in every direction. I could track the position of characters within the scene because of the spot-on panning and placement. Overhead sound effects are along extremely powerful, even with my 5.1.2 upfiring speakers. The water from the sprinkler system was convincing enough that I actually looked up reflexively.

To be perfectly honest, it’s a ridiculous movie. The premise is nuts, the slow motion is gratuitous, it’s a bit campy — but I love it. And the Atmos makes me love it even more. 6/5

In other words, it's one of the best films ever made. Got it.

[BrokenGlass41]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

In other words, it's one of the best films ever made. Got it.

Ridiculous, and campy, and overly slow-motioned, and HECK YEAH!

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by BrokenGlass41

Ridiculous, and campy, and overly slow-motioned, and HECK YEAH!

I saw The Matrix three times in 1999 and it made quite the impression on my 17 year old self. Until that point the only film that made that kind of impact on me was Star Wars.

[BrokenGlass41]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

I saw The Matrix three times in 1999 and it made quite the impression on my 17 year old self. Until that point the only film that made that kind of impact on me was was Star Wars.

I saw it years and years and years ago, remembered very very very little, and went to see it theatrically last year when a nearby theater did a rerelease. For me, it falls into a category of movies that are flawed in someway or a little goofy or what have you, but I love ‘em anyway. It’s films like The Matrix, or U-571, or Plan 9 from Outer Space, where my brain is saying “Wait a minute, this makes no sense!” and I just don’t care.

I’m not comparing The Matrix to Plan 9 (Plan 9 is objectively better, of course ), it’s just they give me the same feeling of pure I LOVE THIS MOVIE!

[Sage00]

Originally Posted by 49218

How do I embed the video?

To post a YouTube video to bluray.com, click on the 3 dots under video, then click share, more, copy, then go to website and click earth with paper clip icon, then click paste. At least that’s how I do it from my phone.

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by 49218

I can't seem to make it work.
Can anybody else, please, do it?
Thanks.

Interview w/ Tom Althouse (Part 1) - Creator of "The Immortals" (aka "The Matrix") - YouTube

I sit down with Tom Althouse to discuss everything related to his project "The Immortals" and how Hollywood stole his work to put together "The Matrix" series, "Minority Report", "Elysium", "Sense8", "Altered Carbon", "Interstellar", and many more. Recorded on May 14th, 2022.

[suspiciouscoffee]

Lol I'm sure Minority Report and every sci-fi movie to come out this century is based on this nobody's totally original, not-at-all derivative story. I don't even need to watch his hours-long diatribe, I'm already convinced! Philip K. Who?

[Telemachus]

Matrix ripped off it's entire concept from Megazone 23, there's no way those two Wabachonskis didn't see that anime before they wrote it, I think they denied knowing what it was but sounds like cap to me since they were clearly influenced by Hong Kong stuff as well and even made a Matrix anime (Lol).

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Matrix ripped off it's entire concept from Megazone 23, there's no way those two Wabachonskis didn't see that anime before they wrote it, I think they denied knowing what it was but sounds like cap to me since they were clearly influenced by Hong Kong stuff as well and even made a Matrix anime (Lol).

George Lucas ripped off The Hidden Fortress. Coppola ripped off Blow-Up. Kurosawa ripped off John Ford.

Nothing is original. It's how filmmakers contextualize and utilize the form of their influences to espouse their world view and inherent idiosyncrasies that matters. The Matrix had many influences. Just like Star Wars. Lord of the Rings. Megazone 23, even, had influences. Hell, Blade Runner, for an influential as it is, basically creating the texture of Cyberpunk, owes much of its visual language to Heavy Metal and Moebius.

[Telemachus]

Many such cases, it's just funny when creators play coy that they couldn't have possibly known about influence x/y before them, they always want to seem better than they are and ego is a helluva drug, considering they never created anything close to the Matrix afterwards I'd call them one trick ponys.

[yetanotherone]

Um, the Wachowskis are very clear about their influences.

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Many such cases, it's just funny when creators play coy that they couldn't have possibly known about influence x/y before them, they always want to seem better than they are and ego is a helluva drug, considering they never created anything close to the Matrix afterwards I'd call them one trick ponys.

Bound, Cloud Atlas, and Speed Racer are brilliant.

While they love manga/anime, it's entirely possible they weren't aware of it. They wrote the script in the 90's, in a pre "everything is online" environment and access to international shows and movies was limited to bootlegs in a lot of instances.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by CreasyBear

Bound, Cloud Atlas, and Speed Racer are brilliant.

While they love manga/anime, it's entirely possible they weren't aware of it. They wrote the script in the 90's, in a pre "everything is online" environment and access to international shows and movies was limited to bootlegs in a lot of instances.

Cloud Atlas is one I would definitely get on UHD.

[RegressiveScan]

Originally Posted by 49218

When WB found out about those planted clues in the movies, they forced the Wachowski to dress like women.

Um, what?

[yetanotherone]

He's just another transphobic fraud like Sophia Stewart and others.