The Animatrix

Rating:
Summary: people are too shallow
Review: I am surprised that people are impressed by such mediocre film like "Final Flight of the Osiris" and found "Matriculated" too abstract or boring. That's the problem man, people are just too shallow. "Final Flight of the Osiris" is basically just Hollywood-esque plot garnered with Final Fantasy technology. Very superficial, very crappy story. Perhaps the reason why people love it so much is 'cos it almost feels like watching a Hollywood productions with the standard hero/heroine love affair nonsense.

Well, on the other hand, "Matriculated" in my opinion, while not graphically superior to the aforementioned film, certainly stands out for its extremely thought provoking story line. I cannot see why people cannot make out its meaning. I'll probably shed some light on it. Human beings in this film tried to convert the robot to their side, and actually succeeded in doing so. But it is not out of empathy, but rather selfishness. Human beings simply cannot accept a robot as his own kind. When the robot(after being infused with human emotions) tried to complete the union of the souls (a healing process for the dying human girl)in the dream sequence, the human girl rather screamed and fled into oblivion, and thus leading to eternal death of the girl. What can the robot do, but stare blankly at the girl, trying to comprehend the meaning of it all?

The other stories range from dull to ok, but "Final Flight of the Osiris" and "Matriculated" are two polar extremes.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible *Some Spoilers*
Review: There's only one reason that this doesn't get 5/5 and that's because of Program and World Record. Other than those two, this is perfect. It's unforgetable.

Final Flight of the Osiris 4/5
This is the bridge between The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded. The Osiris descovers the machines drilling to Zion, and all hell breaks loose. The animation is top notch, and the voice acting is good too. This is animated by those who did Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and it's kicked up a couple of notches.

Second Renaissance Part I 4.5/5
This is the story of the events that lead up to the war against the machines. Robots are mistreated slaves. They are disrespected and ridiculed. When one robot rebells and kills his owners he is tried, and destroyed by the humans, thus causing an upriding and an enormous riot, which leads to a short fight with rebelling machines. The riots are stopped, and dead robots are buried.

Second Renaissance Part II 5/5
This IMO is the best of the entire 9 shorts in The Animatrix. After the riots, machines create their own city called "01". There they manufacture robotics and weaponry, along with other technological advancments. Of course, humans are feeling uneasy against the machines, and when they send embassadors ro make peace, they aren't accepted. Huamns decide to bomb 01 causing a war. They blacken the skies to cut off the machines' main source of power. What happens next is a truly horrific portrayal of humanity's last desperate stand against the machines on a scale that goes beyond any world war. Humans don't get any second chance and are used as an alternate power source, since the sun is cut off.

Kid's Story 4/5
This is the story of how The Kid comes to know of the matrix. He is then found out by the agents and has to escape. The animation is truly visionary due to the fact that The Kid beleives he feels more in real when he dreams than when he is awake.

Program 2/5
This short doesn't seem to fit in at all and plays better as an episode of a long running TV show. Most basic and bland animation.

World Record 2/5
This one really needed some extra time to explain more in-depth what is really going on. The animation makes it seem like a moving comic book, which isn't bad.

Beyond 3.5/5
A girl loses her cat and follows some kids into a "haunted house" where she finds her cat. The whole thing is a glitch in the matrix, allowing these kids to fly around the house and perform amazing stunts. In the end the agents ultimately find out about the house's discovery and correct the glitch.

A Detective Story 4/5
Mr. Ash, a private investigator is sent to find Trinity by an un-named man over the phone. Ash discovers that three others have been assigned on this wild goose chase and have all failed in different ways. Featuring the voice of Carrie Ann Moss, this has probably some of the most interesting and unique animation of them all.

Matriculated 4/5
This is about a group of humans who are disconnected from all the conflicts involving Zion, and simply live at a small outpost "converting" machines to fight for humanity. It starts out gloomy, but then ends up in a wild world of color and imagination where the humans do their strange ritual of convertion.

If you enjoyed The Matrix Trilogy, than you'll probably like Second Renaissance. I can't really guarantee that you'll like the others, but you probably will. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Great companion to the matrix universe
Review: Wow, was all I could say when I first saw the beautiful animations done by Square pictures (final fantasy the spirits within) in the opening short final flight of the osiris. It was an excellent short that really set the stage for the enter the matrix videogame and the two sequels, and I would buy this DVD simply for that film alone but there's still so much more. The rest of the films are excellent tie in's that answer alot of questions and are truly enhanced by the commentary. Speaking of bonus content there is a great feature on the history of anime that is extremly enjoyable to any anime fan out there. With excellent music, great extras, and some wonderful animated films the animatrix deserves all 5 stars

Rating:
Summary: A great addition to the Matrix Trilogy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: The Animatrix is an interesting work.It features nine anime shorts that are wonderfully animated. The shorts are as follows:

Final Flight of the Osiris:As mentioned in Reloaded,this is about the ship The Osiris and its crew who find out the sentinels,the squid-looking machines,are digging towards Zion and now the crew must try to reach Zion before the machines do in this wonderful CG animated short from the makers of Final Fantasy.The second best of the set.

The Second Renaissance parts I and II:This story,separated into two parts,is the story of how the war started beween the humans and the machines.This movie explains how the humans blackened the sky,how the machines rose to power,why all the cities were destroyed,etc.But be warned,this is a very graphic and distrubing work,so I wouldn't recomened this for the very young.Still,in my opinion,this is the best of the set because it explains how everything started.

Kid's Story:Remember the Kid who from Reloaded and Revolutions who said Neo saved him? Well,this is his story.It explains how he met Neo and how he escaped the Matrix and got into the real world.Due to the fact it has a image of an imparent teen suicide,this is also not a good one for the very young.However,if you liked the kid for the matrix sequals(you learn his actual name in this),then this is a good one to check out.

Program:This is a short about a woman who is training in the Matrix when a fellow member of her crew tells her he wants to go back to the Matrix and wants her to come with him.She responds with no and a violent fight ensures.This one has some good action and a good story.Definently one of the best!!!

World Record:Certainly the worst of the shorts,this is about a man deternined to break a world record in track and ends up escaping the Matrix for a couple of seconds.Very confusing and somewhat dumb,it is good to watch once,then never watch it again.

Beyond:This is about a girl who loses her cat and ends up at a house that kids play at.The house has a glitch in it,allowing the kids to defy gravity.But soon,the agents find out.Overall,a good but disappointing short which is kinda enjoyable.

A Detective Story:A detective,who wants to leave the profession,gets a call from a mysterious person to find and capture Trinity.He gets on a train and meets her,which leads to a encounter with agents.Better than Beyond and World Record,Detective Story is a well done short that will please fans.

Matriculated:The last of the shorts,this is about a crew which capture one of the machines and take it inside the Matrix.This one doesn't make much sense,but has some good animation and action scenes.Still,I think this one will take multiple viewings to really understand it.

I hope my review was helpful.This is worth checking out,especially Final Flight and The Second Renaissance.But or rent today.

Rating:
Summary: Less is cool
Review: As someone who's not into the Matrix movies (I only saw the first) and hasn't seen much Japanese anime I was pleasantly surprised by the high quality animation in this disk. All nine short animated films can be appreciated by someone, like me, who's unfamiliar with the Matrix mythos. The live action documentary on the history of anime was fascinating, as well.
One warning. Each animated sequence last between 16 and 22 minutes, but they all have incredibly long (7 plus minutes) of credits at the end. I was running the time counter on the first sequence and couldn't believe they were running credits half way through.

Rating:
Summary: Mostly Good
Review: The Animatrix is the final piece of the Matrix series that contains details into the original trilogy that makes the story whole, instead of filled with microscopic holes. There are nine short stories in all:

THE SECOND RENAISSANCE: PARTs I &II

This was my least favorite. Though the story shows the true beginnings of the century-long war against the machines, it contained violence for violence sake. Not much dialouge, barely any plot, obsurdly violent. Some may appreciate it for its explination of the Matrix and the fight to destroy it but I felt sick watching such mindless carnage. Two stars for both, only becuase it explains humans started the war.

PROGRAM

By far my favorite in the entire collection. This story concerns two unplugged humans fighting inside a medievil Matrix. Very detailed, the fight sequence on horseback is something Akira Kurosawa would have made. Some may say the plot is a little shaky (if existant) but I felt the story good enough and the animation above average in detail. Five stars.

A DETECTIVE'S STORY

This is one of two stories that actually contain characters from the Matrix trilogy (this one has Trinity). My memory on the story is shaky but the story is something along the lines of a detective getting a call and winding up running from Agents. The animation is in black-and-white, inspiring a sense of the old, 1930s style of detective work. Very good, Five stars.

WORLD RECORD

An interesting story but shaky in animation. The story is about an athlete who tries to break the world record but somehow discovers to break free from the Matrix's constraints (similar to Neo). A very freaky set of Agents attempt to stop him from releasing himself from their bonds. Four stars, for the animation.

FINAL FLIGHT OF THE OSIRIS

An exceptional CGI-story about the Osiris, mentioned in RELOADED, and how it discovers the Sentinel army digging to Zion. Excellent CG (ten times better then that of PIXAR's work or FINAL FANTASY) makes this story a wonder to the eyes but the plot is quite basic: Let's get this message to someone before we die. Five stars, even with the overused plot.

MATRICULATED

This is one I've almost completely forgotten becuase I didn't like it. The story is something about humans in the Real World capturing a Sentinel to convert it to their side but more Sentinels come. The conversion scenes are quite weird (similar to what I'd call an "acid dream") but that doesn't stop me from giving it three stars.

BEYOND

An interesting story and a weird main character make this one better then MATRICULATED but not as good as PROGRAM or FINAL FLIGHT OF THE OSIRIS. The plot is a young woman looses her cat and runs to find it. She travels with some kids to a haunted house which seems to produce Matrix-defying fields that allow broken bottles to fix once smashed and people to fall from buildings but stop before death. But the Agents are on the way and they don't like it. Five stars, quite intersting

KID'S STORY

Remember that annoying boy from RELOADED who said Neo "saved" him. This is the story. A kid is typing on his computer (similar to Neo in MATRIX) when he's contacted (lo and behold) by Neo himself. The kid is soon attacked by Agents and, well, you know what's going to happen basically but the sketchy Korean artwork is quite interesting. Four stars, only becuase though I liked sketchy for its message, I didn't like it that much.

Rating:
Summary: "How Deep Does The Rapid Hole Goes"
Review: "Final Flight of the Osiris", "Kid's Story", and "The Second Renaissance part 1 and 2", will explain more about the matrix than any of the three film, the difference is that the original film is original. Like I said about "Revolutions", we simply don't know what their talking about, the Wachowski's just can't keep it simple. "Final Flight", "Renaissance 1 and 2" give me more information than I needed, but how was Neo born, and what's the purpose of Trinity. Well aparantly we'll never know.

THE PLOT

Welcome to "The Animatrix", a visionary fusion of CG-animation and Japanese anime from the world's most revered anime directors. Experience the prequel to "The Matrix" and learn about the last cities of mankind. Witness "The Final Flight Of The Osiris", which stes the stage for "The Matrix Reloaded" and "Enter The Matrix". Expand your mind even further, it's time to plug in.

This was a good anime, considering that this film is going up against "Ghost In The Shell", and "Akira." Brovo Wachowski's, brovo.

Rating:
Summary: Animatrix falls flat
Review: I regret watching the Animatrix film and am thankful I just borrowed it from a friend and didn't spend money. This type of film is, to me, what is wrong with Hollywood or mass market films in general. I found the short films to be in one of two categories:

1. A storyline that was better left to the imagination of the user. Nothing "new" is shown, it is kind of like a documentary about how something referenced in the movie came about. Most of these shorts are completely centered around the point that the human race is becoming too reliant on technology. This removes any thought or imagination from the moviegoer, something that was present in the first Matrix film but every successive release removes pieces.

2. An attempt to bring in some new angle to the story by proposing a new "deep" theory. All of these shorts just came off as confusing jumbles of random thoughts and images. You end up confused as the storyline makes no sence. The ones that do have a point aren't very interesting for all the work they put in to depict it.

The quality of animation is quite nice. Like many of thse reviews have mentioned, the shorts are all done by different people so the styles are all different. That part of it, I found quite refreshing.

This is not a DVD I would want to own, my recommendation if you really want to see it is a quick rental and low expectations. Otherwise you will be very disappointed.