The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance Part I

What was always missing with the Matrix story was how things came to be in the real world. Say no more, because this part of the story covered most of the bases. What was truly interesting was how political it was, maybe even a cheap shot at the current presidential administration. Fascism and violence were the only things man could think of in regards to fighting the robotic horde, who were meant as nothing more than servants to humanity. What I also found interesting was the use of fear and how it was perpetuated by the idea of the unknown. We as humans tend to fall into that trap quite often, letting the lack of logic and thought overtake us because people can't believe the contrary. Well represented and put together, this a true testament to how illogical humans can be.

This is the second Animatrix short, and the first of them to be what one could call 'artistic'. It contains a lot of references, metaphors and symbols in the dense amount of material, especially with a running time of 9 minutes. I've heard some complaints that this is "anti-human", or tries to direct hate towards man, for their "sins against machine". I don't think that's true; it merely uses the robots to show us, that as humans, we aren't particularly accepting or open-minded towards anyone different from ourselves. I'd say it does a great job of that. The plot is good... it plays as a historical document, recounting what led to one of the main conflicts in the trilogy. Thus it holds clips from fictional news reports and the like. The voice acting is very good, if there is not a lot of it. The animation is nice, and the use of color, in spite of the usually realistic drawing style, makes it more open to do the smooth transitions and other surreal imagery. This has several bits of strong violence and disturbing visuals, as well as a little nudity. The disc holds a commentary, not in English but subtitled, and worth a listen/read. There is also a well-done and informative making of, based on both parts, so I would advise watching it after seeing the next one, as well. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys the Matrix universe, and/or science fiction in general. 8/10

It was interesting that it was short and animated at the same time. The Matrix is a series of movies with a very interesting subject and I love it. I already knew about this subject, but I had never watched this animation. It was good.

Brilliant visualisation. Love to see a full length version by the animators.

This short film forms part of the backstory of the Matrix universe. It shows a lot of violent imagery inspired by historical atrocities to show that humans were evil and shortsighted in their treatment of the robots. At times it went too far in this direction and the humans seemed unrealistically evil and made ridiculous decisions. A single robot kills its owner so the humans try to destroy every robot in existence, even though that is their entire labour force? Could they not have just done a product recall or software update? The story doesn't make a lot of sense but it was well made.