Matriculated

On the edge of a human colony, two `runners' surface from the sea and plan a homing device to call the sentinels to attack. As the sentinels approach, the runners are drawn into a trap by the human guards.

Part of the series of animations making up the Matrix companion piece `The Animatrix', I saw this as a stand alone piece recently at a festival of shorts and animations and it displayed a problem that I noticed in some of the other shorts that I had seen on other days - that of fitting in with the matrix. In this short, the humans capture a robot as part of trying to convert them to join them and fight against the other machines. However in the Matrix itself we never see this side of the story. While I'm open to the idea that this was set many years before the films, in a more advanced time than the Zion we see, it still should have really done more to fit in.

Given that it doesn't, it matters more whether the short works or not. The plot goes all a bit funny as they try and trick the robot and it clearly is going for style instead of substance. In terms of leaving out substance it does it very well - producing a film that doesn't do very well in regards logic and engaging plotting. In terms of style it only does so-so. It is good at the start and end but in the program it just seems to be as many colours as it can get rather than a style that is clever or stimulating.

Overall this was the least of the shorts for my money. It has an interesting idea at the end that isn't delivered very well, thus fitting it in well with the rest of the short that never really interested me in the slightest. It doesn't fit with the incarnation of the matrix as we know it from the films and it didn't impress me with it's style or substance. The animation is good but that is not enough by itself - which it sadly was.

The ninth and final Animatrix short, as well as the longest, running at about 16 minutes. This is the most surreal of them all, with downright psychedelic images. The animation is amazing, well-done 2D Animé with well-integrated and utterly stunning 3D CGI elements. One can tell that this was done by Peter Chung(directed as well as written), the man who brought the world Aeon Flux(the television series, *not* the movie). With a brief philosophical debate making up nearly all of the dialog in this, this also has food for thought, including some in the basic idea of it, in which there is great irony. The sound and visuals are impeccably well-done. I could imagine many not enjoying this on account of how weird it is(not to say that anyone who doesn't care for this has that particular reason for it), it definitely is not for everyone. There is a making of on this, as with all the others(albeit in a couple of cases, two share one), on the DVD, and it is an interesting watch at almost seven minutes. There are various disturbing things here, and it will be up to the individual viewer to decide what is and what isn't, really. I recommend this to fans of the Matrix universe, trippy, off-beat and imaginative efforts and/or science fiction. 7/10

Somehow the Animatrix shorts with the most interesting premises have the worst outcome. Matriculated is the worst of the bunch (although it's a close call with Program), as it takes a great idea (showing the machines the beauty of mankind by plugging them in) and turns it into the worst experience of the 9.

As I said, the story begins promising and interesting, but ends with a long, long, long sequence of 'weird' images, a cross between the famous scenes from 2001 and VGA-rain (who can remember it), but not as interesting as neither of them.

Too bad as the Animatrix wasn't great to begin with. Add the fact that Revolutions as well as Reloaded were a huge disappointment... who knew it would end this way 5 years ago when we were all in awe of The Matrix... don't you hate sad endings? 3/10.

Although it was the longest part, this was the weakest part in my opinion. I got bored while watching it. Maybe it was a very good episode, I don't get it. I do not know. It was very boring to me.

This short film has an interesting twist on the Matrix universe, which is that of converting a machine by putting it into its own matrix. There are a lot of surreal and pretty sights in this world. I liked the weird designs of the robots as well.