[CFM]

What a coincidence! I pulled out my copy of The Animatrix DVD just this past weekend to watch again. (I bought a giant LCD projection TV at the end of last year, and I'm slowly re-working my way through my small but prized-possession DVD collection.)

My 2 Cents:

"The Matrix"
It doesn't happen very often: a movie comes out of nowhere, you didn't see it coming, and it blows you away with something you've never seen before. I do not enjoy movies that seem like a video game, with one impossible stunt after another (ala "Jurrasic Park 2", "Van Helsing" and recent "James Bond"). Yet for me, the suspension of disbelief was there with "The Matrix", because what they can do fits within the context of the reality the story takes place in.

Many movies and shows are really great at introducing a mystery, but the answer to the mystery is rarely as good as the mystery itself, if there even is an answer ("X-Files" comes to mind). But the answer to the mystery "What is the Matrix?" was as unique of a movie-going experience as I can ever remember having. It introduced a modern day digital superhero mythology that I hope hasn't ended with the last movie.

We all have a list of great movie-going experiences. For me, "The Matrix" was definitely one of them.

"The Animatrix"
I saw "Final Flight of the Osiris" in the theater months before "Reloaded" was released, in front of a really bad Stephen King movie. I watched it again this weekend, using a 5.1 home theater turned up LOUD. It blows me away everytime I watch it. It's a great prologue to Reloaded.

Both parts 1 & 2 of the "Second Renaissance" documentary were amazing. I found them intense and horrifying, especially when you know how it ends.

Some of the nine Animatrix shorts I liked more than others, but they were all unique (or I just don't stumble upon enough anime). They all tied into the movies well, either directly (like how the kid in "Kid's Story" appears in both sequels) or by introducing a concept having to do with the Matrix mythology.

For example, "Beyond" introduces the concept of the Matrix as being a sort of 'haunted' or 'magical' place. As a group of kids discover the 'magic' of the local neighborhood haunted house, one kids swan-dives off a ledge. He should end up flat on his face with a broken nose. But because that 'area' of the Matrix is 'bugged', the kid 'magically' floats just above the ground. Yet his nose bleeds, because the programmed logic of the Matrix's physics dictates that he *should* have fallen flat on his face. Simply genious, imo.

Reloaded:
Great fun, expanded the mythology, continued to show us things I've never seen before in a movie as the first one did. Among other things, that highway chase scene was amazing (although, I still liked the last 30 minutes of The Road Warrior more, for some reason).

Revolutions:
Honestly... I've NEVER left a theater before, scatching my head unsure of whether or not I liked a movie. Never. I guess the unique experience that is The Matrix continues on. (For the record, I'm still not sure.)