One of the better anthology movies made, "The Animatrix" is a collection of nine rather clever shorts all involving the world of 'The Matrix' and utilising elements both familiar and new to us. The result is a mix of different animation and storytelling styles which for the most part not only work but work superbly. Even at under an hour and a half, watching all nine in one slog is a little hard for those used to feature films (ala me) but its worth it. A good half of this is must see filmmaking, another quarter is pretty good, and the rest rather bland - but that's certainly a better ratio than 'Reloaded' to be sure for good quality cinema. Lets break 'em down:

"The Second Renaissance": The crowning gem of this collection, this two part short film chronicles the history of mankind from the 21st century right up until events in the first movie and shows how AI, The Machines and so on slowly took over. Its parallels with how war, fear, oppression, etc. impacts both men and machine draws many parallels to human cultures of both ancient and modern times. In many ways it makes quite a bit of this disturbing as despite its sci-fi elements you can really see a lot of events portrayed in this both happening and having happened throughout history. Its mercilessly dark and oppressive which makes it somewhat difficult to get through but its an extremely well-done piece.

"Final Flight of the Osiris": The best of the bunch, this beautifully CG-animated prequel to 'Reloaded' contains not only a fun dojo duel by two rather well-built people but events in both the Matrix and Zion which affect what happens in the movie. Its exciting, fast, and the most eye-catching of the films.

"Beyond": One of my personal favourites is this 13-minute piece about a woman who stumbles across a haunted house where kids are playing. What makes this interesting is that it fully utilises one of those concepts which the whole Matrix idea would naturally generate - that glitches in the program would result in rather unusual phenomena. Of course all good things come to an end and how the 'glitch' is fixed is handled quite well. Action fans may find it a little slow but this quieter segment is a welcome respite.

"Matriculated": The LSD segment, this is a wild explosion of color and wierd imagery that's best appreciated when one is very stoned. Beautiful, very strange and ultimately too long - pass the stogie please.

"Program": This Ninja Scroll-sque actioneer has a very Japanese feel about it with duelling warriors jumping across rooftops and riding through forests. Even though the story doesn't have much point, its an interesting segment.

"Kid's Story": Also tied into the movie, this is kind of story that you'd expect a lonely teenager to write as fan fiction if 'Matrix' was his favourite film. The animation style though has a nice feeling too it.

"World Record": The worst of the batch, a weak film about how an athlete pushes himself so hard that he's beginning to wake up. Skip it.

"Detective Story": Film noir, this tale is ultimately useless and even an appearance by Trinity can't help liven up an otherwise tired piece.

So for the most part these are good films which any Matrix fan should definitely see.