The Animatrix: Final Flight of the Osiris / Enter the Matrix

DVD NTSC Region 1 10-disc box set for North America U.S. U.S. Canada DVD PAL Region 2 10-disc box set for the U.K. U.K.

(The Animatrix, segment 1, starring Kevin M. Richardson as Thadeus, and the video game footage starring Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe) written by the brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski directed by Andy Jones produced by Larry and Andy Wachowski, Michael Arias, Eiko Tanaka, Hiroaki Takeuchi music by Don Davis 10 min. action plus 8 min. credits for the Animatrix segment 41 min. for the "Enter the Matrix" footage Story: Captain Thadeus of the Osiris makes a horrific discovery and must undertake a dangerous mission to pass the information on to Captain Niobe of the Logos....

So far, the first film and most of the Animatrix segments have been standalone episodes that take place in the Wachowski universe. But here, that is about to change, as one overriding A-plot opens its maw to engulf the bulk of the rest of their franchise, swallowing two live-action feature films, an Animatrix episode, and a video game.

Final Flight of the Osiris

First up is a semi-erotic bit of combat, as the segment's two main characters - Thadeus and Jué - cross swords in some kind of Matrix simulation and seem to be enjoying themselves. If there's any point to this, it seems to be all about showing off how "real" they could make animated characters look as of this point in 2003. It's not completely unimpressive either, with the fluidity of body movement and the expressiveness of the eyes helping to sell the characters on a level that was very rare for animation then, although Gollum in "The Two Towers" had slightly pre-dated this and made much the same point with a slightly less human form.

But of course, in terms of story or philosophy, there isn't much to impress here. At best, this opening's effect on the rest of the episode merely helps Thadeus and Jué stand out a little more than the other members of the Osiris crew and help the audience root for them a little more strongly.

The second part of this might otherwise be a completely different narrative. In this part, we basically kick-start the main plot of feature films two and three. From here on, Zion is under immediate threat, and the clock is ticking for all captains and crews of all the various ships in the trilogy. While it makes sense for the makers of the Animatrix to put the Osiris segment first to impress the audience with its visual style, a more narrative-sensitive placement would obviously be to have it come last, as we have done here. Of course, if you've just seen the whole live-action trilogy and THEN come back to this Animatrix bit, it feels like a re-run and worthy of a groan, which will eat into the segment's ranking.

The characters continue to look impressive in their photo-realism, but don't quite have a chance to shine in the dark interior of a hover-ship while wearing the usual Zion rags. However, the exteriors with the ship and the sentinels is a close enough match to those in the feature films that you could intercut them and not really notice any difference. Not surprising, since both are CGI generated, and apparently from some identical modeling files.

There's not much story here, and about twice as much external battle and graphics as one would need for the ideas present, although the creativity surrounding Jué's acrobatics adds some worthy entertainment value here, and is something that the feature films would not be able to easily duplicate. Bravo.

Thankfully, it's not too hard to invest in these characters and their goals, but with that working, it seems that it all ends too quickly and leaves the audience hanging. Not to worry though, the solution is to jump immediately into the cut-scene footage shot for the "Enter the Matrix" video game, which quickly passes the baton to Niobe and the crew of the Logos, and keeps this plot running ahead at full speed....

"Final Flight of the Osiris" doesn't actually work too well narratively as a standalone segment within the Animatrix, and consequently won't rise that high in the rankings, but it does work as a prelude or teaser sequence kicking off a viewing of the "Enter the Matrix" game footage, or even the second feature film. In the Animatrix, it seems like it is trying too hard to show off. In this case, context is everything.

"Enter the Matrix" video game cutscenes

What takes place in these scenes happens at the same time as the events of film 2, and there is much crossover. Occasionally, they merely expand on scenes that are in film 2, only this time you get to see what happened before the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar enter the room, or after they left. In these scenes, Jada Pinkett Smith's character of Niobe is highlighted and quickly comes to the fore as the main character.

Some time ago I decided that the best way to enjoy these scenes was to edit them into a new version of film 2, and tack on relevant sections of "Final Flight of the Osiris" as well to kick things off. At 2 hours 45 minutes, this "overloaded" version of film 2 is a bit unwieldy but still works and is highly enjoyable. However, Pinkett-Smith so owns the screen when she is on, that with her getting so many strong scenes early on, it almost feels that her character is the main protagonist instead of Neo.... though this balance is redressed later.

Even then, it was clear to me that not all of the footage could or should be included as part of film 2's narrative. For starters, it was designed to be part of an interactive format, where the gamer chooses to play as either Niobe or her second-in-command Ghost. In some sections, both Niobe and Ghost repeat the same scene, with slightly different dialogue, and it is clear that both cannot be meant to happen during one airing of the film. Typically, Niobe's sections are relevant to the story seen in the films, while Ghost's versions are off on a tangent all their own, although an exception occurs during their interviews with the Oracle. Both offer crucial bits, and only Ghost's interview actually reveals the basic mechanics of what happened to the Oracle to cause the switch in her avatar shell.

Additionally, we see Niobe and Ghost coming up against a lot of the same challenges that Neo does in film 2, only they get to those challenges ahead of him in the chronology. In a game, I'm sure that's all fine. As a part of film 2, it would only dilute the threat of those challenges and make Neo appear far less important, so I did leave out many such action-sequence lead ups, particularly since there is often no footage of the battles - that would be taken care of by in-game action. It may be important to note, I haven't actually played the "Enter the Matrix" game, nor seen how its action fits in with the cutscenes. I have only seen the live-action footage on its own, while taking educated guesses as to what each scene sets up or leads away from.

Critical Contributions

Adding the "Enter the Matrix" scenes also does one other important thing to Film 2. It gives us actor Lachy Hulme playing Sparks - the operator on board the Logos - who provides a sense of comic relief that film 2 is otherwise sorely lacking (the Merovingian being a bit too sinister to really fill that role as Sparks does). Once added to film 2, Sparks becomes my favourite character in that whole heavily populated 2.75-hour epic. He's a bit like Matthew Perry's Chandler Bing from Friends, while being just serious enough to belong on a Zion crew. Without "Enter the Matrix", Sparks really only gets one scene in all of Films 2 & 3... charming, but just not enough to satisfy.

"The Path of the One is Made by the Many"

Then there is the monkey-wrench thrown into the theory that Agent Smith is Neo, and/or his equal and opposite. Add "Enter the Matrix", and it seems that Agent Smith is now also Niobe and Ghost's opposite, the Alpha to their Omega, etc. Coming up with a convenient way to label and analyze Smith just got a lot more complicated and confusing. I never did like or get convinced by Ken Wilber's interpretation of Smith as Neo's opposite... it seems too simplistic and born of the enemy-centered paradigm that the film should be helping us to grow beyond if it's worth its salt. If these clues from "Enter the Matrix" promote a new theory, good. Bring it on.

But perhaps it's now time to put the extra scenes aside, and tackle the main theatrical portions of Film 2 itself....

Animatrix Rankings:

1. Beyond
2. Matriculated
3. A Detective Story
4. World Record
5. (Enter the Matrix)
6. Final Flight of the Osiris
7. Kid's Story
8. Program
9. The Second Renaissance