Final Flight of the Osiris

I strongly suggest that any fans of the Matrix should see this short animated feature. It is a sort of ''mini-prequel'' to Matrix Reloaded. The computer animation is quite remarkable, similar to that of Final Fantasy, or the Starship Troopers TV series. Also, I thought it was a very clever (devious?) move by the film studios to show this as a featurette with Dream Catcher - I guarantee this ploy must have at least doubled the box office takings for that film (quite a good movie in it's own right, in my opinion). Animatrix: The Final Flight of the Osiris is highly recommended viewing for Matrix devotees, enthusiasts of computer animation and sci-fi fans in general.

Set just before the beginning of The Matrix Reloaded, the crew of the ship Osiris escape a flurry of Sentinels by escaping to the surface where they see the massive drillers begin their descent into Zion. The crew must warn the city before it's too late.

This could have been a spectacular short, but they just don't know what to do. A chunk of the running time is made up of a superfluous fight scene right at the start, and there really isn't much story. The visuals however are amazing (director Andrew R. Jones designed the SFX for Titanic and Superman Returns), even for 2003 standards the motion capture is very photo-realistic.

It's just a shame that it doesn't amount to much.

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. In this episode, the fight scenes were very good.

Unlike most the people who saw Dreamcatcher, I knew that this trailer was attached to the movie- though honestly- I went and saw 'The Core' and snuck in just to see this trailer. The people who did the fantastic CG work on 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within' improved on their techniques and realism with their newest work that raises the bar on CG animation, which at many times becomes indistinquishable as CG and appears to be real actors! The sword fight scene was sensual, sexy and OMG the girl was super hot. Put me in the Matrix! The action and drama is suspensful as you realize the situation they have encountered. This short certainly helps to progress the story of the Matrix and certainly makes me more anxious in seeing the Matrix: Reloaded and its sequel Matrix: Revolutions.

This is the first of the Animatrix shorts, found on the DVD of them. It is arguably the most entertaining. This maintains a rather fast pace throughout the entirety, without ever becoming overwhelming. It takes place a little before, and sets up, Reloaded(and also the Enter the Matrix). That doesn't mean it is a requirement to view this, however. The plot is well-written, and the story-telling is good. The CGI is stunning, incredibly naturalistic and quite close to being seamless. This was animated by the people who also made Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and you can tell that their talent was applied to this. The visuals are amazing all the way. The music is fitting. The sound in general is great, and the voice acting is nice. The characters are well-written, but there is little time devoted to developing them, particularly beyond the two leads. This is 9 minutes long, and the focus here was on making it feel like one of the awesome action scenes from the films(this is definitely the one most true to that aspect of the trilogy). They succeed. This has strong sensuality, but not particularly anything objectionable beyond that. The disc also holds a making of, six and a half minutes, very worth watching, with the crew talking about it, clips of it, and we even get a glimpse at some of the short they created to prove they could pull this off. I recommend this to any fan of the concept and the movies. 8/10