← Back to Reviews
in
Armitage III: Dual-Matrix (2002)
Directed by Hiroyuki Ochi
I bought this movie in a recent re-release package titled Armitage III: The Complete Saga. It also included the original four OVA's and the remastered movie Armitage III: Poly-Matrix (the original OVA's compiled into a movie with some additions). I didn't watch all of Poly-Matrix because the "new additions" at the beginning did not appeal to me. To be fair I'd have to watch it all to make an honest evaluation, but I just wasn't getting a good vibe. My inclination was that the original OVA's were better on their own. Anyway, that's kind of beside the point. I'll move on and talk about Dual-Matrix.
The plot revolved around Armitage, a sentient artificially intelligent cyborg. It took place some years after the events of the original OVA's. Armitage married a human and gave birth to a human daughter (not a cyborg, or half-human/half-cyborg). Little explanation was given as to how this was possible, but even to the characters in the story it was a mystery. Over the course of the film Armitage embarked on a mission of her own initiative to uncover a sinister plot that threatened robot-kind and her family's safety.
Dual-Matrix was not quite as well drawn as the original OVA's, and lacked their gritty texture and atmosphere. The plot and character development were weak. The antagonists were cliche. The plausibility department was at 16-year-old fan-fiction level. Let me give an example: Armitage's daughter (I'm guessing she was around 6 years old) was revealed to be super intelligent later in the film to the shock and awe of her parents who apparently had not even realised their daughter had photographic memory let alone a higher IQ than any other human being on the planet in the entire history of the human race. There was mention that she was a purely normal human, but hints that she was exceptional. It was unfortunately not very reasonable that her parents would not have even noticed until that point. This is one of those films where things happen purely for the sake of tension or dramatic effect, and the characters' actual skills fluctuate inconsistently based solely on desired outcomes. The way a character started loosing a fight and then kicked it up a notch and started winning kind of reminded me of WWE wrestling in terms of how fake the back and forth was. The addition of 3D animation for some scenes may have looked half-decent back in 2002, but they have aged very poorly. They glare out of place next to the drawings.
Overall I didn't really get a lot of enjoyment out of the movie. I got some, but I honestly had to force myself to finish it for the sake of this review. I wanted to turn it off half way through. There were good elements, but overall I found it a bit boring, and my eyes rolled in the back of my head several times.
Rating:
Armitage III: Dual-Matrix (2002)
Directed by Hiroyuki Ochi
I bought this movie in a recent re-release package titled Armitage III: The Complete Saga. It also included the original four OVA's and the remastered movie Armitage III: Poly-Matrix (the original OVA's compiled into a movie with some additions). I didn't watch all of Poly-Matrix because the "new additions" at the beginning did not appeal to me. To be fair I'd have to watch it all to make an honest evaluation, but I just wasn't getting a good vibe. My inclination was that the original OVA's were better on their own. Anyway, that's kind of beside the point. I'll move on and talk about Dual-Matrix.
The plot revolved around Armitage, a sentient artificially intelligent cyborg. It took place some years after the events of the original OVA's. Armitage married a human and gave birth to a human daughter (not a cyborg, or half-human/half-cyborg). Little explanation was given as to how this was possible, but even to the characters in the story it was a mystery. Over the course of the film Armitage embarked on a mission of her own initiative to uncover a sinister plot that threatened robot-kind and her family's safety.
Dual-Matrix was not quite as well drawn as the original OVA's, and lacked their gritty texture and atmosphere. The plot and character development were weak. The antagonists were cliche. The plausibility department was at 16-year-old fan-fiction level. Let me give an example: Armitage's daughter (I'm guessing she was around 6 years old) was revealed to be super intelligent later in the film to the shock and awe of her parents who apparently had not even realised their daughter had photographic memory let alone a higher IQ than any other human being on the planet in the entire history of the human race. There was mention that she was a purely normal human, but hints that she was exceptional. It was unfortunately not very reasonable that her parents would not have even noticed until that point. This is one of those films where things happen purely for the sake of tension or dramatic effect, and the characters' actual skills fluctuate inconsistently based solely on desired outcomes. The way a character started loosing a fight and then kicked it up a notch and started winning kind of reminded me of WWE wrestling in terms of how fake the back and forth was. The addition of 3D animation for some scenes may have looked half-decent back in 2002, but they have aged very poorly. They glare out of place next to the drawings.
Overall I didn't really get a lot of enjoyment out of the movie. I got some, but I honestly had to force myself to finish it for the sake of this review. I wanted to turn it off half way through. There were good elements, but overall I found it a bit boring, and my eyes rolled in the back of my head several times.
Rating: