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.

Animatrix: The final flight of Osiris is a short, computer generated film which demonstrates the wonder-stuff that is the Wachowski brothers.

Osiris is a ship that like the Nebacaneza and crew of the Original Matrix feature film flies aimlessly around the matrix trying to avoid nasties and keeping its small crew alive.

The opening fight training scene is amazing to say the least. The use of this short animation film as a background filler to the release of The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions (coming out in 2003) is a clever idea that definitely gets the juices flowing and wanting more.

A tantalising teaser of what is to come and what we want to see.

The Final Flight of the Osiris is referenced in "The Matrix: Reloaded" although only briefly. That makes it one of the two short movies in the Animatrix which are, the other being the incredible "Kid's Story" which actually gives that annoying sidekick from Reloaded an amazing new dimension that I had never expected.

Back to Osiris. The movie starts with some nice training fight sequence that seems to be the Wachowski's wet dream: Kung Fu + Anime + Eroticism. Seriously, I felt slightly disconcerted at enjoying the sexiness of it all. I suppose they wanted to make a point: Computer generated animation can be sexy. They made their point a little too well for my liking.

Anyway, after the strip-fight, the story begins, but to be honest, the fight took up so much of the time of this short that the rest seems oddly rushed through. Of all the shorts, this is the one that felt like it simply wasn't meant to be short, and had to be rushed too much for its own good. It's about sentinels, the discovery of the premise of Reloaded (Zion is threatened) and a desperate attempt to save the world, martyr-style.

Visually, it is stunning throughout. This left Final Fantasy (made by the same people) out in the cold, it looked so much better, especially the skins of the main protagonists. If being able to photorender people was sufficient to make a movie for humans, we'd be nearly there. Unfortunately, the animation of the mouths when talking is still not quite perfect, but everything else nearly is.

But it's all style and little substance. That's why this is definitely not my favourite short, although it is very interesting to watch.

7/10

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.

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