| Review by Jim |
| Plot: Years after their adventures on Mars, Armitage and Ross are married and live a quiet life with their daughter Yoko. After receiving a distress call regarding a factory of robots getting slaughtered, Armitage soon finds herself taking up her old hotpants-todding ways. It's then revealed that a robot manufacturing tycoon is behind it all and is bent on discovering how the thirds reproduce. So now it's up to Armitage and her hubby to rescue their daughter from him. A pretty blah anime sequel ensues. Review: Dual Matrix is the sequel to the anime movie Armitage III, which was actually several episodes sewn together and in my opinion, it was a pretty good anime. While it was always about showing Armitage fight off gigantic robots with martial arts and getting slammed through walls in skin-tight hotpants, the story was involving and we did care about the characters. The story was set on Mars where robots called "thirds" (robots that think and act like humans) were allowed to live like real people. The main theme was that of humans and robots living together as equals and so forth, nothing really original, but it worked for me. The same can't be said for Dual Matrix, which really doesn't have any of the charm or themes from the original to back it up. The animation doesn't feel as gritty as in the original thanks to digital animation. Don't get me wrong, the colors and animation are overall smooth and definitely up to par, but the cyber-punk atmosphere just doesn't feel the same. And a few brief thoughts on the computer-generated effects--they look like shit. They don't fit in whatsoever with the rest of the scenery, and the scene with the helicopter? Christ, that looked just as bad as the one in Golgo 13! I'm really sick of this CG junk in anime. If you're going to go through all that trouble, at least take the time to make it look semi-realistic. The characters just aren't as interesting as they used to be either, and the absence of Keifer Sutherland as Ross is felt. Without Sutherland, Ross is now just a meathead without a personality, and there's hardly any real feelings or chemistry between him and Armitage now, which is odd considering they're husband and wife and have a kid. Armitage is now voiced by Juliette Lewis (who starred in From Dusk Till Dawn and Natural Born Killers) who really shines throughout the entire movie. She's pretty good, but still not as good as in the original Armitage. She goes around beating up the baddies and occasionally has a heart-tugging scene with Ross and Yoko, but we really don't feel much for her as we used to. Another big minus in the voice-acting department is that one of the characters is voiced by none other than Jar-Jar Binks himself, Ahmed Best. The torture this man has subjected us to in Star Wars Episode 1 was as immeasurable as it was barbaric, and now I have to put up with him in an anime? Every time he opened his piehole I tuned him out. I'll pass on listening to that irritating mother fucker, thank you very much. The main bad guy has the usual arrogant speaking pattern you'd expect and is forgettable when compared to the psychotic villain in the original movie. To live up to the cliche, he even sports an evil goatee. The story is pretty thin stuff and the themes take a backseat to the action. The robots and humans theme is presented for maybe a few seconds onscreen before another robot crashes through a wall looking to kill Armitage. Plus it's never really explained how Armitage can have a kid anyway (what with being a robot and what have you). The plot falls off its wheels quickly, and the motives behind the villain aren't ever fully explained. So ultimately what it boils down to is Armitage taking on whatever baddies the villain throws at her, and in that regard, it delivers. All the robot vs. robot action is still here and Armitage has plenty of punches and kicks to go around, too bad that you'll probably lose interest and just fastforward to the action sequences. Dual Matrix works as a mindless 90-minute actionfest, but as an Armitage movie it falls short big time. In the end, I really didn't like this sequel because of how flat the characters and storyline was, but the action and animation is decent enough to make it watchable. As a fan of Armitage III, however, I'm severely disappointed. So if you just want to see Armitage kick the crap out of a few duplicates of herself and some other robots, then you might want to take a look at Dual Matrix. On the other hand, if you were expecting an honest to God sequel that had all the good qualities found in Armitage III, then I say just skip this one. |
| Rating: ** |
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