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Did you see the DVD called "The Animatrix"? It is a series of animated shorts meant act as a segway between the 1st and 2nd Matrix movies.

In particular, the two animated shorts called "The second renaissance" parts one and two, touch a bit on the subject you mentioned above If you haven't seen them I highly reccommend it. You can download these two complete animated shorts here for free: http://www.intothematrix.com/

The real villian wasn't the machines who enslaved the human race? It was, instead, a program created by the machines and operating inside them?

Some of this is reported directly within the three films, the entire story is unambiguously explained in peripheral films such as the Animatrix. So while you might initially think that the film is about machines who enslave the human race, you're starting with a premise that isn't the whole story.

Specifically, the machines want peace. By the end of the third film, that is obvious.

Come on. Agent Smith was not the "greater evil" here. He was a threat to the machines (and thus the humans reliant on them), but that doesn't nullify the original problem of humanity's slavery.

In essense, you believe the series is dumb essentially because you didn't understand it. That's fine, people don't, the deeper (or is it pseudo-) theological and philosophical aspects of it are, for the most part, beyond me too. However, you're making a mistake in what you criticise about the film - a master story teller would have told the same story better, not told a better story.

What you probably need to do is view the following anime films that tell the rest of the story, if you're actually interested. Neither of them were made by the Wachowskis (though the story, obviously, was written and approved by them), so, as you might expect, they're actually quite a bit better:

• Second Renaissance Part 1
• Second Renaissance Part 2

The real villian wasn't the machines who enslaved the human race? It was, instead, a program created by the machines and operating inside them?

Some of this is reported directly within the three films, the entire story is unambiguously explained in peripheral films such as the Animatrix. So while you might initially think that the film is about machines who enslave the human race, you're starting with a premise that isn't the whole story.

Specifically, the machines want peace. By the end of the third film, that is obvious.

Come on. Agent Smith was not the "greater evil" here. He was a threat to the machines (and thus the humans reliant on them), but that doesn't nullify the original problem of humanity's slavery.

In essense, you believe the series is dumb essentially because you didn't understand it. That's fine, people don't, the deeper (or is it pseudo-) theological and philosophical aspects of it are, for the most part, beyond me too. However, you're making a mistake in what you criticise about the film - a master story teller would have told the same story better, not told a better story.

What you probably need to do is view the following anime films that tell the rest of the story, if you're actually interested. Neither of them were made by the Wachowskis (though the story, obviously, was written and approved by them), so, as you might expect, they're actually quite a bit better:

• Second Renaissance Part 1
• Second Renaissance Part 2

I gotta disagree with you on the "only one worth watching" bit. The Second Renaissance and Detective Story were really well done, and seemed to be far more loyal to the story than the second or third movie were.

OB MATRIX REFERENCE

If you've seen The Animatrix, this is really how the war versus man and AI began.

The Second Renaissance, Part I & Part II

Quite possibly some of the most intense cartoonage I've ever seen.

OB MATRIX REFERENCE

If you've seen The Animatrix, this is really how the war versus man and AI began.

The Second Renaissance, Part I & Part II

Quite possibly some of the most intense cartoonage I've ever seen.

Yeah, that's what I thought when I saw the preview.

What bothered me is I didn't notice one single piece of dialogue in either Reloaded or Revolutions that eluded that the Animatrix and all the history behind it even existed.

Okay, I thought it neccesary, after hearing this to point out to everyone that if for some reason, you didn't feel like all of your questions were answered, or that the movie was convoluted, that there's MORE content that's external to the movies than there is in the movies.

If you want to fully understand the story, I would suggest the following for starters:

The Animatrix
There are 9 total episodes, 4 of them can be downloaded for FREE off of their web-site.

Comics
There are 24 graphic novel shorts, that have a lot of information, and are FREE.

Enter The Matrix Game
Okay, the game sucked, but it had a lot of back story. It explains what happens after the episode "Osiris" in the animatrix. The letter is dropped at the drop point, and then what? The plot of this game explains that.

Not to be too offtopic, but I think "The Second Renaissance" (Parts 1 & 2) from the Animatrix are the best parts of the whole friggin 'Matrix Universe'

These two mini-movies contain more truth and brutal reality than all other Matrix movies combined.

Just my 2cents...

Have you watched the Animatrix? There's quite a few blatant Alice references in Detective Story.

This is a clone of the animatrix idea.

In a great galaxy, many years ago
The desire for more money took over the universe...

Okay, the question is why get a $2 million+ robot to do something a person will do for minimum wage? Robotics(the physical bodies made for work) are nowhere near as interesting (or potentially earth-shattering) as true artificail intelligence would be.

Robots simply will not replace human workers in most jobs for quite some time, and when they do so, it will be in a gradual process, not the catastrophic "10 million left jobless" situation the author describes. They're way too expensive for normal labor right now, and the price is not likely to drop too steeply. What's more, look at how cheap human labor is - most of the things we buy are made for minimum wage or less, some of it a lot less. How the hell is some robot going to compete with that?

However, there are some interesting issues regarding AIs and the economy that aren't addressed in the article. If you've seen the Animatrix shorts "The Second Renaissance" Paart 1 & 2, there was an interesting story about how AIs rose to power by having superior prductivity and financial skills, and created their own nation with their wealth. The most important thing about that was the concept of AIs being allowed to own property, and make financial desicisons - we tend to think of even advanced AI as simple property, with no need to own other things or have money. However, I think it's likely that AIs will be used by financial institutions to handle stocks and investing and so forth in the near future - the data they have to interpret will be much more limited than even a turing test, being just numbers and statistics, and their decision-making speed will be an advantage against human brokers. It will be interesting to see if they go on to become legal owners of property from there - if non-person entities like a corporation can own things, why not an AI?

Ha! I knew I'd seen this before!

Blockwars: multiplayer and it's free!

Watch the Animatrix: The Second Renaissance part 1 and 2.

Just wait! Soon they'll organize and create a city called 01 and enslave the world!

And then some guy named Keanu will save us! And think he can act too!

They might even call it a Second Renaissance!

This goes to every who has replied to this thread. Some of your theories are very interesting, however they can be proven false by watching The Second Renaissance Parts I and II from the Animatrix. It explains how the Matrix was created and that there is a war between Man and Machine. Unless the Animatrix is designed to totally throw people off, it is a valid representation of prequels to the Matrix.

I suggest you watch the two movies (The Second Renaissance Parts I and II) at Into the Matrix.com before coming to your theories.

I thought there were only 4 out so far? (http://www.intothematrix.com/) Am I missing something?

Lasers don't work very well in standard atmospheric conditions, they aren't like in the movies (I'll use my laser blaster!). HERF weapons use EM Pulses, and thus are vastly more cool. Especially if the need arises to fight a Robot Army. See: Animatrix

I think those links are wrong, I only tried the large one. Here's some new links -

Large 640x272 - 138 MB
Medium 480x204 - 87 MB
Small 320x136 - 31 MB

Or you can go here.

The entire series of 9 short CG-Animatrion/Japanese Anime films will soon be available on DVD. Depending on your MPAA stance (and what day of the week it is) follow the white rabbit via one of the links below to pre-order your copy.

Official web site
Amazon US: available 3 June
Amazon UK: available 2 June

According to the website , there are 9 episodes to be released on the dvd on june 3rd. The site lists "The Second Renaissance Part 1" as "First of four episodes completely free". It also lists "Program" as "Second of four episodes completely free". The other two episodes, "Detective Story" and "The Second Renaissance Part 2" are slated to come out in april and may, respectively.

From these descriptions, I take it that these are the real episodes, not just trailers. Also, unless there's been an early release of the third episode, this announcement is repeat of an announcement from 2 weeks ago.

Of course, I could be missing something.

You can find two complete works at www.intothematrix.com
They are The Second Renaissance Part 1 and Program (Both QuickTime)

You can also see Final Flight of The Osiris at the theaters with Dreamcatcher or with your favorite P2P software.

You can find two complete works at www.intothematrix.com
They are The Second Renaissance Part 1 and Program (Both QuickTime)

You can also see Final Flight of The Osiris at the theaters with Dreamcatcher or with your favorite P2P software.

You can find two complete works at www.intothematrix.com
They are The Second Renaissance Part 1 and Program (Both QuickTime)

You can also see Final Flight of The Osiris at the theaters with Dreamcatcher or with your favorite P2P software.

It's the second installment of the animated Matrix movies. Four of which are going to be released free on the Internet and then all nine episodes will be released on Junk 3rd on DVD. The first episode was released in February, the second today, the next in April and the final episode in May. The first and last episodes are Part 1 and Part 2 of the same story. They deal with various stories taking place in the Matrix, or in the case of the first episode before the matrix.

Check out all the info here.

From the site:

Springing forth from the world of THE MATRIX, THE ANIMATRIX DVD presents nine original short animated stories directed by preeminent anime directors.

The directors are: Andy Jones (Final Flight of The Osiris), Mahiro Maeda (The Second Renaissance: Parts 1 and 2), Shinichiro Watanabe (Kid's Story, Detective Story), Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Program), Takeshi Koike (World Record), Koji Morimoto (Beyond), Peter Chung (Matriculated).

Four of the nine episodes were written by Larry and Andy Wachowski, and all of the episodes are grounded in the world of the THE MATRIX.

DVD Special Features:

* "Scrolls to Screen: The History and Culture of Anime" documentary
* 7 featurettes with director profiles, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of each of the films
* 4 audio commentaries
* "Enter the Matrix" videogame trailer
* Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio
* Widescreen Format [16x9 2.35:1]
* Languages: English, Japanese
* Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

The second episode of Animatrix is now available. Slashdot it here.

The Animatrix isn't quite as random as you'd think, by the way. The Wachowskis are former comic book artists. Geoff Darrow (Big Guy, Rusty the Boy Robot) is drawing their concept art and storyboards. Matrix 2 and 3 are stylistically closer to live-action anime than anything else, so the Anime tie-in works. For me anyway.