I finally watched this short after months of people telling me it is "amazing", "awesome", etc. Perhaps all the build-up helped ruin it, but this is the goofiest thing I have seen in ages.
First, the film doesn't actually explain anything. It is simply re-telling the hoary old tale of "man makes machines, machines revolt". There is no explanation of the rise of the machines - they just rise. At the beginning of the film the machines are clearly machines. Then for a part they look like humans. Then they look like machines again. Which is it?
There's nothing new here. There's not even an explanation of how the machines become self-aware. One minute they aren't, next minute they are. And mankind is so cruel - he doesn't want to give the machines equal rights! Don't you see, that robot killed those humans because we're EVIL!
For years sci-fi has been attempting to sell us this navel-gazing, "mankind sucks" line of BS. The humans in this story are needlessly cruel - because to sci-fi geeks that's all humans ever are (why can't they accept me _and_ my wizard cape?).
It's thinly-veiled leftist nonsense. Examine the scene at the UN, where the robots come in (without human skin) dressed in a top hat, holding hands, carrying an apple of peace. Mankind will have none of this peace nonsense! Tear them apart!
Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy the film. It's like a hippie propaganda piece.
Fatalism and self-hatred are not automatically art. These shorts are just as weak as "AI". Their only saving grace is that they have some pretty cool animation.
"The Matrix" is an obvious rip-off of Dick and Gibson. What made it cool was the look and feel - there was a grittiness to the movie that made it very intense. Translated to a clean, hard-edged anime world, it doesn't retain its power. "Ghost in the Shell" is a much better handling of similar material. "Animatrix" is just a licensed knock-off.
First, the film doesn't actually explain anything. It is simply re-telling the hoary old tale of "man makes machines, machines revolt". There is no explanation of the rise of the machines - they just rise. At the beginning of the film the machines are clearly machines. Then for a part they look like humans. Then they look like machines again. Which is it?
There's nothing new here. There's not even an explanation of how the machines become self-aware. One minute they aren't, next minute they are. And mankind is so cruel - he doesn't want to give the machines equal rights! Don't you see, that robot killed those humans because we're EVIL!
For years sci-fi has been attempting to sell us this navel-gazing, "mankind sucks" line of BS. The humans in this story are needlessly cruel - because to sci-fi geeks that's all humans ever are (why can't they accept me _and_ my wizard cape?).
It's thinly-veiled leftist nonsense. Examine the scene at the UN, where the robots come in (without human skin) dressed in a top hat, holding hands, carrying an apple of peace. Mankind will have none of this peace nonsense! Tear them apart!
Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy the film. It's like a hippie propaganda piece.
Fatalism and self-hatred are not automatically art. These shorts are just as weak as "AI". Their only saving grace is that they have some pretty cool animation.
"The Matrix" is an obvious rip-off of Dick and Gibson. What made it cool was the look and feel - there was a grittiness to the movie that made it very intense. Translated to a clean, hard-edged anime world, it doesn't retain its power. "Ghost in the Shell" is a much better handling of similar material. "Animatrix" is just a licensed knock-off.
