The Second Renaissance Part I

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

along with it's partner, this is the greatest piece of animation ever created. the images and styles are amazing, and match perfectly with the story which is a brilliantly realistic reinterpretation of our own world, where is has been, and where it could go. quite affecting and sometimes painful to watch, it it a masterpiece of the visual art.

Entering the archives of Zion we are allowed a look at the history of the matrix. Many years before the machines turned the world into one of machines, man was on top and robots worked to support their lifestyles. When the destruction of a machine is ruled as legal under property rights, large marches for civil equality lead to murder and destruction, the machines retreat to the middle east where they set up a city - however trade wars soon lead to greater conflicts as peace becomes increasingly unlikely.

Having seen the animated short that sets up the warning on the attack on Zion I was then interested to see the vision of the rise of the machines. Part 1 exists separate from part 2 and I am looking forward to seeing the conclusion of the rise. Part 1 is delivered in a mix of Japanese and Western animation styles that is perhaps a little more graphically violent than I had expected. Starting with one machine's `rights' the film chronicles a civil rights movement that mirrors many events in recent human history, these bits don't work that well as it feels like it isn't being clever and is just re-imagining real history. However the actual story is gripping - mainly because even though events seem small, we know where (in this world) events will lead.

The animation is stylish but a little too violent - a human skull crushed and a `woman' sexually attacked are beyond what I expected to see, even though they do hammer home the point forcefully. Some of the machines are a little too crude to be convincing but overall the animation is strong and the direction is slick. It would be easy to dismiss this as a cynical marketing ploy I think it has more value than just that purpose. This short tells me more about a universe that I am interested in. I have not seen Reloaded at the time of writing this (but will be in a matter of days) but I know that the first film was hooked on discovering what the matrix was and the audience uncovering the extent of the false world at the same time as Neo did. This short succeeds because it allows further understanding of this reality.

On the whole it is easy to dismiss this but it does have enough style of it's own to justify it's existence as a short in it's own right. It shows that (unlike many blockbusters) this trilogy (for all it's flaws) was established in a world that was planned rather than one which was expanded when the box office suggested that it would be a good idea to try to do so.

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.

A really strong short with strong parallels and human history.

This is as always a great short to watch. The Animatrix is no doubt a mixed bag, but I think most can agree on, this is one of the better once. With an interesting story, strong imagery and art style this tells the tails of the rise of the machines, making parallels to human history and a warning that history could repeat itself that only feels more and more relevant with time.

Humans have developed robots to do their bedding, but AI learns to think, and starts asking questions about the world it´s in.

The animation can seem a bit stocky at times, but it´s rather beautiful with subtle art style changes that makes special imagery stand even more out.

The story is rather basic but told well. The parallels to earlier human history is strong and creates a strong story about a subject we might need to think about in our lifetime.

The usage of AI robots are paralleled with human atrocities throughout time. Slavery, genocide, dehumanization, racism, xenophobia and the list goes on.

The voice over is rather pleasant and tells the story in a good tempo. The story feels logical in it´s steps towards it´s ending. The different escalation and evolutions of the situations feel like natural continuations of each other.

The Second renaissance part 1 is a strong short mostly weighted down by it not being a complete story. True, you could see the second part as a natural extension and judge them as a whole, but looking at it by just itself, it ends on a rather weird note that doesn't lead naturally to a part 2.