L'ultimo volo della Osiris

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.

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.

Presents a new wave in the marketing of trilogies. In 2004, "The Year of the Matrix", the filmmakers have promised us not only parts 2 and 3 but nine parallel mini-features - some of which are downloadable from the web. This, longer, mini-feature has a mini Matrix story using the high-tech animation (fully life-like characters) that we saw in Final Fantasy. The two leads manage to exude sexiness in an initial sword-play fight scene, the main objective of which seems to be to remove / slice off the opponent's clothing. the second scene involves a battle with seekers.

This short was visually stunning and full of action. It created a different world within the mind's of matrix fans. It made me care about other characters outside of the one's featured in the movie. Jue made me wish Lucy Liu had been cast in an upcoming sequel.