Excellent, a Must See

Am I Missing Something?

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The Second Renaissance was the best short on the Animatrix DVD. The first half was the stronger, showing the show and political world before the machines took over the Earth. But The Second Reaissiance is still pretty good.Part II tells the story of the war between humanity and the machines. The human nations attempt to nuke 01 but nuclear weapons have little affect to machines who are not living creatures. The machine quickly conquer the Middle East and Europe, and winning the war. The humans take the drastic action and block out the sun, believing they would take out the machines' energy supply. But humanity is still loosing the war, and soldiers even take solace in religion. There are many brutal battles and the machines force humanity to sign a humiliating peace treaty in the UN in New York before blowing up the city. However, victory seems hollow. The machines in the end have to enslave humanity by making them their power source; thereby forming the Matrix as a system of control.The plot and narrative is weaker in this short. This short is more about the action, with gory violence, and shows how bleak the world becomes. The style of the animation is beautiful and the action well down. There are also some interesting themes, like humans in their darkest hour look to religion, that victory can be hollow, the link between machines and humans and desperate actions humans may take. The signing of the peace treaty also reminded me of the Armistice between France and Germany during World War 2 where Hitler found the same train carriage where the Germans were forced to sign the armistice in World War 1. Cruel irony. It's only 9 minutes, it's worth watching.

Of the Animatrix shorts, this is the third, and, obviously, of The Second Renaissance, it is the second part. After the first one(which perhaps had more to say, but that is debatable) told us the events leading up to the war, this shows just that: The stand-off between the two forces. We already know the final result, so this is not about the destination, but the journey. The depiction is very dark, bleak and apocalyptic, and it achieves what was obviously one of the things they went for: It is not a pleasant sight. The irony is bitter and arguably cruel. The story-telling is similar. The animation is nice, with a well-integrated mix of 2D and 3D. Very effective direction and choice of color schemes. This has nudity or what comes very close to it, and definitely violent and disturbing images, and is not for the faint of heart. This is controversial, just as the one before it. On the DVD, there is a making of that goes over both, and is very informative and well-done, and a commentary track, not in English but with subtitles, and it is definitely worth taking in. I recommend this to any fan of the Matrix franchise, Part I of these(watching it is a must for the experience of this one) and/or science fiction in general. 8/10

There is no comparison to this short film. While it is the bloodiest and possibly has the least amount of plot, the idea and brutality of this story brings about a side of the Matrix that no one could ever have dreamed of. The eventual taking over of mankind was rather interesting, but the thing that was missing was the beginning of the human revolution and the first tests of the actual Matrix. But then again, this film did just fine without those two little plot points, considering the story moved along quite nicely. The only other question I have though is, why weren't the two stories combined for the sake of continuity?

Who is the lesser of two evils?I think the hook in this film was how the machines located their city, 01, in an area of great turmoil: The Middle East.When the peaceful robots offer recognition, the world reacted negatively. When the world fell, 01 tortured the world that abused and refused them.Is it really justice for the machines to enslave humanity? Is it really the best interest for the world to destroy itself to destroy its enemy through private agendas and contractors, likewise, is it really the best interest for the enemy to the world through terrorism and fear that the world will continue to use them for what they can only provide?The terror does not come from 01 or the world, it comes from people with personal interest, great influence, and strong ideology.Like all good films, they are the red pill stories. This is one of them.Wake up, it's not a dream! IT IS REAL! An inevitable end...WAKE UP! Delay the apocalypse by taking action and responsibility for ones own mistakes.