Matriculated (2003)

hyped garbage

Good concept, poorly executed.

Best movie of this year hands down!

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"Matriculated" is the last segment from the "Animatrix" movie. It is the longest or among the two longest in terms of runtime at roughly 15 minutes and in my opinion, unfortunately, it is also the worst. With one or two exceptions I fail to see any Matrix references here anymore. I wish writer and director Peter Chung could have stayed a bit closer to the Wachowski movie. Also, it's not real anime anymore, but that is somehow not surprising looking at Chung's body of work. An Asian name may not be enough. Then again, the "anim" in Animatrix can also stand for animation. However, the style is not the problem. the problem is that there's no really fascinating story in here as there is in some of the other segments. I was a bit disappointed with this one as I hoped they could go out on a high note. Sadly, they did not. Not recommended.

I'm stunned by the previous review. I thought the CG animations at the end were exquisite. My favorite of the 9 by far (well, 'Beyond' was also beautiful). Sophisticated, breathtaking and very trippy. And all on top really deep concepts:Scientist: "How do they know that the real world isn't just another simulation? How do you?"Alexa: "I know I'm not dreaming now because I know what it's like being in a dream."Scientist: "So dreaming lets you know that reality exists."Alexa: "No - only that my mind exists. I'm not sure about anything else."

On the edge of a human colony, two `runners' surface from the sea and plan a homing device to call the sentinels to attack. As the sentinels approach, the runners are drawn into a trap by the human guards.Part of the series of animations making up the Matrix companion piece `The Animatrix', I saw this as a stand alone piece recently at a festival of shorts and animations and it displayed a problem that I noticed in some of the other shorts that I had seen on other days - that of fitting in with the matrix. In this short, the humans capture a robot as part of trying to convert them to join them and fight against the other machines. However in the Matrix itself we never see this side of the story. While I'm open to the idea that this was set many years before the films, in a more advanced time than the Zion we see, it still should have really done more to fit in.Given that it doesn't, it matters more whether the short works or not. The plot goes all a bit funny as they try and trick the robot and it clearly is going for style instead of substance. In terms of leaving out substance it does it very well - producing a film that doesn't do very well in regards logic and engaging plotting. In terms of style it only does so-so. It is good at the start and end but in the program it just seems to be as many colours as it can get rather than a style that is clever or stimulating.Overall this was the least of the shorts for my money. It has an interesting idea at the end that isn't delivered very well, thus fitting it in well with the rest of the short that never really interested me in the slightest. It doesn't fit with the incarnation of the matrix as we know it from the films and it didn't impress me with it's style or substance. The animation is good but that is not enough by itself - which it sadly was.

Spoilers Ahead.Peter Chung, creator of the cult anime 'Aeon Flux' came late to the Animatrix series and directed probably what is the most philosophical, demanding and difficult pieces of animation in the series.Chung takes the Matrix philosophy and turns it on it's head. Instead of humans being enveloped, without their knowledge, in an imagined world invented by the machines, this small band of humans have developed their own form of coersion.Inviting danger to them, they tempt machines to their barren hideaway in the middle of nowhere on the surface of the earth and then 'turn' the machines into human empathising beings through a complex and deliberate use of the Matrix itself.They 'teach' the machines what it is like to be human. They show compassion, love, fear and a host of other emotions until the machine 'gets it'. At the point which the machines begin to truly understand human feelings, they immediately switch their allegiance to the humans and fight tooth and nail to protect them, seeing them as one of their own. The humans have provided the machines with a spirit, if you like, and the machines grab this new experience, unwary of the real consequences of what they are feeling.This is an effective tool for the humans. as they have machine allegiances that can protect them. The machines, after having gone through the process, view themselves as human and it is now natural of them to have protective feelings towards the human group that 'turned' them.If this was the other way around, it may be called brainwashing, though in this scenario, brain-cleaning might be a better term. You can honestly empathise with the feelings of confusion and helplessness felt by the machine during the 'turning' process. You don't feel sorry for the machine as it is being 'educated' but you do wish for a happy outcome for it.The film is highly psychedelic and takes this course in order to confuse the machine, by placing it in a completely alien world where it has no control and where the laws of mathematics and physics (which all machines live by, obviously) do not apply.This is all part of the psychological brain ripping needed to transform the machine from an unfeeling intelligence into a being that understands what it is all about to be alive.Many questions are asked in this picture. Does this make the humans as bad as the machines, in their attempts to fool their enemies into compliance? Does this prove that the humans have actually learnt nothing from their horrifying experiences with the machines? It was after all, their responsibility that the machines overthrew them in the first place.Does this action by the machines and the same actions by man on machine have the same meaning? It takes the concept of Artificial Intelligence to it's conclusion by turning the whole thing full circle and looking at it from an entirely new perspective and asks if it is right to do it.An excellent story, combined with outstanding special effects, this film truly makes you stop and think about the actions of both human and machine in the Matrix universe and it's consequences on the real world.Highly recommended for the Matrix fan in mind.