No doubt about it, Matrix mastergeeks Larry and Andy Wachowski - - and their chosen writers/directors - - have certainly put the effort in here. Their achievement is infuriatingly (if inevitably) mixed: two or three of these Japanimation-flavoured mini-movies live up to the `pioneering' tag, a couple are outright dismal, and the majority fall somewhere in-between.

Most impressive is Final Flight Of The Osiris (why'd you think they cherry-picked it to trailer in cinemas?), a visually immaculate CG accompaniment to Reloaded - - even if the plot is a tad simplistic. Second Renaissance (Part I & Part II) isn't far behind, proving a stylish record of the machines' rise to dominance, and the noir-flavoured A Detective Story makes for fun viewing.

In the middle of the road sit the likes of Beyond (bug-in-Matrix-manifests-as-spook tale), Kid's Story (skateboarding teenager tries to escape the Agents) and World Record (sprinter breaks out of the Matrix). But it's the lesser entries, especially the wants-to-be-trippy Matriculated, in which a sentient robot is reprogrammed, which drag the whole thing down. Shame.

DVD Extras:

From Scrolls To Screen traces the history and development of manga and is an engrossing, thorough documentary. The short Execution Making Ofs are also worthwhile, with various crew members outlining the development process of each film (see right).Unfortunately, though, the four audio commentaries (Voices) are less effective, the moments of incisive info getting obscured by some yawn-worthy scene descriptions. Maybe it's a translation thing - - the majority of the commentaries are in Japanese, transferred into what the menu calls `Binary Code' (er, subtitles) - - but, either way, it makes for uneasy listening.