Review of The Animatrix (2003) by J D — 08 Feb 2008

Episodes 1-3 of "Star Wars" and the second and third installments of "The Matrix" were the biggest disappointments ever for me as a sci-fi fan. But on the flip side, they inspired some great tangential work that equaled and surpassed the creators' original visions.

"The Clone Wars" animated films are a perfect example, as is this anthology. Anthologies tend to be very uneven, but the stories presented here are definitely not. Starting out with the excellent computer animation of "Osiris" and ending with the punk/metaphysical "Matriculation", every vignette here is visually amazing and extremely creative in exploring different aspects of the Matrix universe.

Of particular interest was "The Second Renaissance", which explains in-depth the rift between the humans and machines (and to me, kinda justifies what the machines ended up doing), and my favorite was "A Detective Story", a sci-fi noir full of great black and white imagery.

For fans of the series and even for those like me who were turned off by the second two films in the trilogy, this is a great one to watch.