Armitage III: Dual-Matrix

Armitage III Dual Matrix

With a futuristic theme and a lot of sci-fi Armitage III Dual Matrix is a must for those who like science fiction and robots. You'll get the classic Matrix style action, high tech battles and a very interesting environment.

Though a few details are left shrouded in mystery, a lot of character development does go on, making it a worth-while movie.

It does have the classic and often overused theme of a robot becoming very much like a human, but it's not sappy about it in the least. While some search for the logic that explains an event proving that humanity, which is not ... the common "I have feelings too" claim but a different kind of event, others can't help it but to be amazed by the mystery. To say anything else would spoil it, so just watch it for yourself and enjoy a great sci-fi movie.

Takes place several years after the OVAS (not the Poly-Matrix movie), Naomi and Ross are living together in St.Lowell with their daughter Yoki. However, Naomi discovers that someone is trying to resurrect the "Thirds" project and Naomi travels to Earth to find out why. On Earth, she discovers that a man named Demetrio wants Armitage to revive the Thirds and to use them as their servants for mankind. she refuses and obviously, all hell breaks lose again. Now Naomi must save Ross and Yoki from the organization, destroy the "Thirds" project and get back to their home by all means necessary.

The story in this ... movie focuses more on the heroine Naomi. It focuses on the 2 sides of her; One that she is a Third type fighting machine and the second is that she is a loving mother who will risk her life to save her child from any danger she faces. The relationship with Naomi and Yoki is very hearfelt and you can clearly see that she cares for her own daughter, even if Naomi is a robot. Ross is still good but he has little to do in this movie and he's only useful in the last hours of the movie where he is protecting Yoki from a bunch of Thirds prototype robots that love to kill and for some reason, they can't stop laughing. The villain in this movie was boring as shit here and he's there to be an evil stereotype guy with no purpose whatsoever. Even the side-characters are as boring as ever in this movie and have barely to do in the story, minus that clown looking guy that helps Armitage (forgot the name).

The animation is improved in this movie for the better or worst. For the good about this animation is that it looks more slick and stylish than the first and the colors are greatly improved. For the bad part is that the animation company AIC had a low budget for this project and they used incredibly cheap CG animation that looks terrible and doesn't even fit with the 2D art style but I can't blame them. The English voice-acting is improved tremendously and Juliette Lewis performance as Naomi Armitage is badass, cool and most of all, heartwarming and she did a bang job at her role. Hank Wilspank's performance as Ross is a greater improvement over Sutherland's and while it isn't perfect, at least he gives more energy to his role than what Sutherland did in the first movie.

While not as good as the original, Dual Matrix offers enough depth and charm that it hardly matters if the sequel is better or not. If you're a fan of the OVAS or the movie, then I recommend this to you but don't expect this to be the perfect sequel that makes the original look bad cause it's not. It's only a solid and fun movie.

What Happens when a sequel loses the thread of the original story? To answer that question, you only have to look at this movie. The movie is an example of when they decide to make a sequel to a cyberpunk movie, influenced by the mainstream (IE GITS or the Matrix) and completely lose the 'punk' aspects.

Story

The story itself is a complete reversal of the original/Polymatrix. Now, Earth (or at least a part of it) wants the Third reproduction capabilities, when the original the Earth wanted all Thirds destroyed BECAUSE of those abilities. Add in the go-nowhere/excuse subplot of the Robot Rights bill simply to get ... Ross and Yoko on Earth, and you get a clunky, non-cohesive story. Not to mention Yoko's eidetic memory.

Art

The art, to be fair, is decent, but lacks the punch of the original as well. This version loses on the shading, favoring instead somewhat brighter colors. So decent, but not the best.

Sound

Going full cyber instead of cyberpunk, the music reflects the nature of the film; muted, letting the action and interaction speak for itself. The voices are well done, for the most part fitting the characters perfectly.

Character

To be honest, the only reason this scores so high is because they didn't completely lose the elements of Ross and Naomi from the first film; they managed to retain their fighting skills, even if there are some asspulls.

In the end, i didn't enjoy this film; while okay or average, as a followup to the original it falls completely flat. This movie does not harmonize with the first at all, ignoring the tightly done story of the first and rewriting the world.