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Intro:
To celebrate the release of the third and final Matrix movie this week, MATRIX:
REVOLUTIONS, I’m reviewing the first two films. And as an added bonus today I’m
going to review THE ANIMATRIX. This is a little strange to review, as it’s actually
9 shorts. And unfortunately I can’t remember where my copy is, so they probably won’t
be in the order on the DVD... Anyway, here are 8 little reviews of 9 little movies.
Final Flight of the Osiris:
This short is the most integral to Reloaded, and also leads into the computer game
ENTER THE MATRIX. The Osiris, a hovercraft, discovers the machines digging towards
Zion and races against time to get an agent inside to deliver a message to warn the
humans.
This is the short that was shouted about most to promote this disc. And it’s very
pretty. Square, the company behind Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, animated it
and if you look closely enough that’s pretty obvious. Apart from the style, the
characters themselves are the same models as the movie (Final Fantasy that is).
A bit of a cop out, but when you’re doing animation at this level it takes a while.
The opening sword fight is very pretty and quite erotic really. Tension is maintained
throughout and it comes to a great conclusion.
The Second Renaissance Parts 1 and 2:
I’ll just treat this as one. The Second Renaissance tells the story of humanities
last days and the start of the war with machines. It’s presented as if we are
accessing the Zion main frame.
Now I have a slight problem with this. Morpheus said in the first film “we don’t know
who started it, but we know we are the ones who scorched the sky”. Well, the
information is apparently on the main frame if he’d just went to Google and did a
little research... The short is done by the same people behind the Metropolis Anime,
and the look is much the same. Humans use mechs that look kind of like the Albert
series of droids in that movie. It’s a pretty good short, showing that we more or
less did this to ourselves, but the Zion interface that opens and closes the shorts
is kind of sore on the eyes. Some of it is shot documentary style and it worked
pretty well.
The World Record:
I didn’t like this one at first. A runner runs so fast and hard that he briefly pops
out of the Matrix and finds himself in his tube, before being drawn back in. His legs
literally burst and he ends up crippled and brain damaged.
I hate the style of this. It’s very hard to watch and everything is stretched out.
After watching it a few times it grew on me a little, I tried to look at substance
instead of style, but it’s pretty pointless. Not a terrible concept, but a bit
stupid really....
A Detective Story:
A P.I is hired to track down a hacker called Trinity. The world starts getting weird
for him when he gets close to his goal, and he winds up switching sides.
This is the first of two shorts that I really looked forward too, due to the director.
Shinichiro Watanabe is the man behind Cowboy Bebop, and the detective reminded me a
lot of Spike. The short is animate in black and white; it’s film noir after all.
Basically, this kicks on a number of levels.
The Beyond:
There is a haunted house in a neighborhood where weird things happen. A girl’s cat
runs away and she enters the house to try and find it. When she does she meets up
with some kids, and they have some fun with the weird rules inside the house.
This is something I hadn’t thought of, and possibly the best concept of all the
shorts. The house is a bug in the Matrix. The rules are broken there. The characters
are very real and alive, and you share their disappointment when some agents come
along and fix the house. Great little tale.
The Kids Story:
“I didn’t save you Kid, you saved yourself”. That doesn’t make any sense unless
you’ve seen this. A young boy is in the position that Neo was in; though Neo is
the one talking on the PC not Trinity. The kid is chased in his school by agents
and scrambles to get away...
The Kid is a nice little tale that gives the character in the film some meaning.
Self-release from the Matrix apparently is possible, but only in special cases.
Frankly I would have thought the Kid was more likely to be ‘The One’ than Neo
after this little stunt. The animation is quite pretty in places, though it’s
somewhat distorted when the Kid is on his skateboard. Incidentally this is the
second Watanabe short. Technically the first, as it appears on the disc before
A Detective Story.
The Marticulated:
Some rebels in the real world try and recruit a sentinel by hooking it up to a
construct and communicating with it.
ARGGGGH! I have no problem with the concept, but the animation in this is so
damned annoying, and the execution so weird, I hate it. They ‘communicate’ with
the sentinel in some kind of “trippy” world, and never actually talk. Plus the
residual self-image of the machine is humanoid. Why? It’s got multiple legs and
arms. It should look like a squid in the virtual world too... I hate this short.
It opens quite well, then craps all over itself...
The Program:
A girl and her captain spar in a Samurai construct. He offers her a chance to go
back to the Matrix, or die...
This is very lazy as the man behind this short also did Ninja Scroll, which this
is very reminiscent of. Well, except for the dialogue and the conclusion. But the
story is good, and may well have been inspired because of Cipher in the Matrix. I
can’t explain exactly why as it ruins the great twist ending. Another good short.
Conclusion:
9 shorts, 8 stories. Anime heavily inspired the original film, so this concept makes
perfect sense. With the exception of The Matriculated and, to a certain extent, World
Record these are all great shorts. The animation styles vary, but like food you’d get
bored if it was the same all the time. People who have never watched anything but
Disney may have some issues, but if you like anime you’ll love at least one or two
of these shorts. And if you have never seen Anime before, check out Detective Story
and the Beyond. Then go rent Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Rojin Z and Cowboy Bebop.
You’ll feel better for it.
Can’t you just smell Revolutions?
Macgyver Rating: 4 Planets
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