The Animatrix was written by the Wachowski Brothers and is (C) to Warner Brothers

Summary: A series of nine short films detailing some history explaining how the Matrix came into existence and the beginning of the war between man and machine.

Film 01: Final Flight of Osiris
Director: Andy Jones

The one most linked to the "Matrix" sequel "Matrix Reloaded" this film starts out with two of the crew of the Osiris having a sword fight, in this scene alone the stunning CG animation is apparent and the sword choreography is just as amazing. The fight is interrupted by a squadron of Sentinels who attack the Osiris when the ship's crew discovers the machines are digging through the planet to find Zion (The city of Humans) The woman returns to the Matrix and leaves a message at a drop-point (A mailbox, this message is what is being discussed by the other captains in the meeting scene in "Matrix Reloaded") The Sentinels destroy the Osiris and the woman drops dead. The animation (Done by Square of Final Fantasy fame) certainly puts the Final Fantasy film to shame even if it is only nine minutes long. Despite the incredible animation, brilliant sword fight and even the battle between the Osiris and the Sentinels, the film ends up feeling just like a nine minute long trailer for "Matrix Reloaded".

Rating - 7/10 (Stunning CG but ultimately non-essential if you've seen "Matrix Reloaded")

Films 02 and 03: The Second Renaissance Part One and Two
Director: Mahiro Maeda

This is the one everyone wanted to see, a traditional anim� style short that details the start of the war between man and machine, the machines at this point in time (Early 21st Century I assume) are Human like in appearance (For aesthetic reasons mostly) and following most man/machine films they are the slaves of Humans as they do menial jobs of construction and so on. However one machine rebels and kills his "owner" he is placed on trial , as his defence he says he doesn't want to die. Rioting soon takes place and the Humans begin smashing the robots to bits (One important scene is that of a group of people attacking a robot woman) the robots soon build their own city (Called ZeroOne and think about it will you, have you got it yet?) and they start manufacturing their own "goods" soon the economies of the world are collapsing as everyone wants to buy the AI enhanced stuff, ZeroOne applies to the UN for membership but they are attacked and so the war begins. The war feels like the ending battle from "Attack of the Clones" and is staged almost identically. The Humans realise that blocking the sun's rays are the only way of stopping the machines rampage. The sun is blocked by the deploying of missiles that create a large black smoke-screen around the planet's atmosphere (Wisely this is left unexplained) but the machines have already discovered alternative energy. Humans. This is before the Matrix exists so Humans are wired in like batteries and one disturbing scene shows the people connected to the machines going insane. Soon enough the machines start winning and everyone is connected to the machines.

Rating - 9/10 (If you want to know the beginning of the war and the "scorched sky" details then this is the one you need to see)

Film 04: Kid's Story
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe

To me the weakest of the "Animatrix" series. A teenager is sitting at his computer one day and wondering if it is all a dream, he is typing something in and is then contacted by Neo, in doing so the Agents come after him and he escapes on a skateboard, he apparently jumps off a building and commits suicide but in actuality he is woken up and rescued by Neo and Trinity (All though he "escaped" the Matrix by his own power) the animation, some say, is bad while I agree visually it isn't impressive the techincal aspects are amazing and has been done with great care however the story doesn't quite match the rest of the episodes and I feel this is the low end of the "Animatrix".

Rating - 4/10 (Animation is crude looking, the story is interesting but not nearly as good as the rest of the episodes)

Film 05: Program
Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri

This was going places I thought, a woman is a Matrix training simulation based on feudal Japan and is met by some guy (Possibly lover) and he says he wishes to return to the power-plant (The place were Humans are plugged into the "real" Matrix) he wanted her to go with him but she refuses and when she tries to escape she realises he has blocked communication back to their ship. She has to fight him in the second impressive sword fight the "Animatrix" has given us and also uses the "bullet-time" effect once or twice. It ends with her killing him but (This is the part that had me seething) she discovers it was another training simulation designed by the crew to see wether she would return to the Matrix or stay in the real world. Naturally she punches the guys lights out (I would of done the same).

Rating - 7/10 (I really enjoyed the impressive animation and sword fights but the weak ending left me enraged)

Film 06: World Record
Director: Takeshi Koike

Another fairly interesting idea but given poor execution. As the title implies a runner in a race is going for the world record but he has some kind of injury (Forgive me for being vague but I only watched it once) but he decides to run the race anyway and when he does so he runs so fast that his mind is freed from the Matrix and he wakes up in the power plant but when he does so the Agents (Who looked like rejected cultists so I assume this is "early-days" of the Matrix) are already prepared and his memory is erased by the machines and he is unable to walk again as well but he got the world record

Rating - 5/10 (Basically a re-run of "Kid's Story" but with better animation but the delivery style is terrible)

Film 07: Beyond
Director: Koji Morimoto

My personal favourite, a woman is attempting to feed her cat but it has run off so when she goes looking for it she finds an abandoned building which a couple of kids are playing in, she finds her cat but she decides to hang around when she sees the kids jumping off walls but hovering above the ground before hitting, various other oddities occur with this place as well, there is one room that is massive but completely dark, objects seem to hang in the air, and whenever you fall over you stop before hitting the ground. A clean-up crew is called in claiming there are "pests" in the building and so the woman and the kids are shoved out. When the woman returns the next day the building is gone and replaced with a parking lot (So that explains American car parks?) As I'm sure everyone watching guessed the building was a "glitch" in the Matrix and was deleted by the Agents. This is a really good short that shows how a normal person would react to, indirectly, discovering the Matrix and the sadness that follows when it is lost

Rating - 10/10 (Probably the best of the lot with stunning animation and "what happens when..." story)

Film 08: A Detective Story
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe

Probably, story and animation wise, the closest rival to "Beyond" as the best short. A detective is contacted by the Agents, to find a hacker named "Trinity" as the Agent's own efforts have failed. After numerous on-line searches he is able to arrange a meeting with Trinity were she removes one of those bugs from his eye. (He had a dream about an eye-exam, remember this next time you have a freaky dream) The Detective attempts to get Trinity off the train before the Agents come but he himself is nearly taken over and Trinity shoots him before the change occurs (Trinity had intended to get him un-plugged) The short ends with the Detective pointing a gun at the Agents to stall them so Trinity can escape. The mood and look of the short remind you of a 50's detective story (I made a funny) and the style is very much the same. Except in the 50's they didn't have hi-tech computers. Trinity looks far better in anim� form which is quite scary and overall probably second or third on my favourites.

Rating - 9/10 (50's style settings and mood as well as interesting story make this one of the best shorts)

Film 09: Matriculated
Director: Peter Chung

Well I'm not sure what to say about this one, woman is being chased across the wastes of the real world by a group of machines called "Runners" (Named because they run instead of fly) she manages to disable one and her and her comrades attempt to bring it over to their side but not re-program it (That's slavery you see and Humans are against that, but then again you can't fight your enemy without becoming it yourself, this concludes philosophy 101 and now we return to the review) They plug themselves and the Runner into the Matrix (Which curiously they access through an abandoned building and not ships, suggesting the machines haven't become that widespread yet) They attempt to convert the machine to good by showing it things like happiness and those other Human emotions (Yes I'm talking about the "S" word) In the end they are attacked by the Sentinels and mostly everyone is killed except the woman from the start who is saved by the machine which has become good (Insert celebration here) However in the sad ending style it plugs himself and the woman into the Matrix but she rejects him and she dies (Mental overload I guess, it makes more sense if you actually see it)

Rating - 8/10 (More excellent animation and a fairly deep story but it ends on a slightly confused note which leaves you scratching your head)