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The Final Flight of the Osiris

This short is one of the few of the collection to have a direct tie to the movies. This is ths story of the ship that sacrificed itself to get the information of the machines drilling to Zion back to the human military. In a short it’s very difficult to really explore characters, but with the two leads, I thought it did a phenomenal job in the allotted time. In a sensual spar that lasts mere minutes, I wanted to see more of the leaders of the Osiris.
The animation is spectacular even by today’s standards although I am far from an expert. It is very realistic especially the action sequences.
Overall it is one of my favorite of the collection.

B+

The Second Renaissance Part I

The Second Renaissance Part II

I chose to lump these two together for obvious reasons. I’m not certain why they are separated to be honest. Overall, I like what this one does even better than Osiris. Set as a prequel to the movies, we get to process a lot of information in a short time – namely how we got from where we were to the status quo of the Matrix world. I wasn’t a big fan of the animation, especially of the robots, but I guess that’s a stylistic device.
Highly reminiscent of I, Robot and Blade Runner, it is not altogether original, but it remains chilling enough to be both effective and entertaining. It is entertaining due to the many issues it raises. Religious implications of God being the Creator of Man and Man being the Creator of the Machines run rampant and are quite ironic. It is probably the most challenging short.

A-

The Program

This short was the first that was not really related to the movies per se, merely shared the same world. The animation was stylized but fitting. The story was of a young woman who sometimes longed to return to the Matrix, rather than living in the dreadful world of the truth, much like Cypher from the first film. Plugging into her “favorite scenario”, she is in feudal Japan getting her tensions out on some computer thugs.
Her lover joins her in the program and suddenly makes the choice more difficult. He tells her he wants to return to the Matrix and that they should go back together. When she hems and haws, he tells her that it’s too late. He’s already contacted the machines and he is going back either way. Enraged at his deception, she fights and after a spar seemingly kills her lover….until she finds out it was a test.
After knocking out her “instructor”, she walks away seemingly as conflicted as before.
Sometimes you don’t have to learn anything in a short, sometimes it’s enough just to see a particular slice of life…but I would like to have seen a more decisive portion. While it does confront the topic of what reality is compared to what our brains tell us, it is simply not long enough to explore it as much as it deserved. If this were continued, I may raise the grade, but as it is…

C+

A Detective Story

This was truly enjoyable. It’s the perfect combination of being related to the movies and just being a different part of the world. Having Trinity as one of the characters helps tremendously and you wonder if this is the scene that happens just prior to the beginning of the first film, at least thematically.
It is an homage to the noir film style with the old school detectives being given shout outs almost immediately, we get the short tale of a lonely private investigator hired to find Trinity. Along the way he discovers that almost everyone involved with trying to find Trinity are dead and the one that isn’t probably would be better off.
This short is proof that you don’t need a deep inner meaning to be enjoyable.

B+

Beyond

Beyond is a very worthy effort. Trying to relate to the Matrix films by almost not relating to it at all. It instead, is a very different take on the happenings of the Matrix. When a woman loses her cat, her search takes her to a place which is quite literally a glitch in the Matrix that some young kids have discovered.
It is a place in the world where kids can develop their inner Neo and manipulate the Matrix. Of course they have no idea what is going on, and in an interesting notion, they don’t care. They simply enjoy it for what it is. Does that comment on the youth of today or is it a nod to childhood innocence?
The jig is up though as the Matrix is always self correcting in some way and soon enough it gets closed down.
The animation is fairly straight forward, and is ultimately uninteresting, however the direction is well crafted. The only problem really is that it’s boring. I’m not sure how it does it given the interesting ideas behind it, but when I catch myself looking at my watch during A “short”…well that’s a problem.

C+

Matriculated

Martriculated is probably the best example of how a short can be effective without having to employ characters from the film or directly relate to the films. It’s a reverse of fortune, where a group of scientists are luring machines in to plug them into a matrix of their own, teaching them the good qualities of humanity and trying to introduce the concept of free will into machines instead of just with humans. They have had some success when an attack of sentinels finally come.
The “good” machines do rise up and defend their new friends but unfortunately they are all dead, except for one who clings to life. The machine saves her by plugging her into their own matrix which horrifies her to a degree, and raises the moral questions of physical life vs mental life.
The visuals are quite abstract but very well crafted as they keep you completely involved in the short. It is innovative and successful.

A

World Record

If Matriculated was the best, I feel World Record was the worst one, but I could see how some might love it. Highly stylized animation, which was unappealing to me…in fact it was repulsive. I’m not saying it wasn’t good, as I’m sure there are fans of the style, but to me it was chunky and distracting. The story had some intrigue with the premise being that some special humans can go above and beyond and burst through the “reality” of the Matrix on their own without help from Morpheus and the like, and the machines have to put them back.
I think it’s an interesting idea, but I don’t think the execution was anywhere near where it needed to be to evoke more of an interest out of me

D+

Kid’s Story

The final part of the story is the one that most directly relates to the film as it contains the actual back story of the Kid that showed up in the second two films. It is also the only short that has an appearance from Neo.
The animation is slightly stylized but in a way that enhances the storyline which is not always the case. The storyline though leaves something to be desired, as it’s a lot like Neo’s awakening from the original Matrix, if Neo was a high school student.
Overall it could have been better, but it could have been worse.

C+

OVERALL:
I love anthologies and always have so I always think it’s a good idea as a ton of different creators playing in the same world always reveals different takes on a well known world. But at the same time they are almost always hit or miss by their very nature. So it’s difficult to grade for that reason. But I have to don’t I…

B-