The Animatrix (2003)

Directors: Peter Chung, Andrew R. Jones, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, takeshi Koike, Mahiro Maeda, Koji Morimoto, Shinichiro Watanabe

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Olivia d'Abo, Carrie-Anne Moss, Clayton Watson, Akio Otsuka, Pamela Adlon, Hedy Burress, Terrence T.C. Carson, Melinda Clarke

More info: IMDb

Plot: The Animatrix is a collection of several animated short films, detailing the back story of the "Matrix" universe, and the original war between man and machines which led to the creation of the Matrix.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

I'm stunned.  I really dig the first MATRIX movie but the second and third were painful to get through.  I only saw them once each in the theater and that's all I could take.  They were overlong, boring and pretentious.  I was a bit hesitant to watch THE ANIMATRIX until now because of it.  What a mistake that was.  It's actually a hell of a lot better than the two sequels.  Of the eight stories I enjoyed all of them to some degree.

Final Flight of the Osiris - Starts out great with a man and woman sword fighting.  The choreography is good and fun and the animation looks fantastic.

The Second Renaissance - Interesting origin story of how The Matrix came to be.  Nice visuals.

Kid's Story - This one is weak.  It's essentially Neo doing to a teen boy what Morpheus did to Neo in the first film.  That doesn't sound pleasant.  Anyway, this time the kid has to escape a classroom instead of an office.  It's pretty weak as it's just a variation on a theme with absolutely nothing to add to the mythos.  It's a retreaded tire of a story.

Potential - Yawn.  This segment is a virtual reality fight that turns out to be a test to see how the feels about leaving and going into The Matrix.  It's pretty uneventful.

World Record - Interesting animation (small heads yet long bodies and limbs) and interesting story about a competitive runner in a race he's told he shouldn't do.  The Matrix goons intervene.

Beyond - The quietest of the tales, this one felt dreamlike with its mellow use of sound and music.  It's a soft segment about a teenage girl who finds her lost cat and stumbles upon The Matrix but enjoys the playfulness of the physics without knowing what is happening and why.  Nice.

A Detective Story - I LOVE the look of this one and it's a fun little story, too, noir style about a detective hired to find Trinity. 

Matriculated - This one's just a big action piece that's here to end the film with a bang.  It wasn't too bad but not one of my favorite stories in the film.