Good movie, bad DVD transfer
Whilst I loved the movie when it first came out I was hoping the 'Signature Series' would rectify the problems of the VHS tape. Luckily there's 2 upsides, the sound has been upgraded to 5.1 Dolby and the picture has been remastered. Unfortunately the picture suffers from image stabilisation (it moves up & down a little bit during some scenes but that could be because of the original source) and there's still a fair bit of grain but the colours are polished

This DVD claims it has a widescreen presentation but its not enhanced for widescreen TVs - it is in fact a 16:9 ratio inside of a 4:3 so if you have a widescreen tv like myself, you're going to have black borders on all sides and a tiny picture in the middle! Also this movie has been cropped to make it look cinematic (as I discovered when I ordered it along with the OVA DVD) so you're missing literally half of the animation cells.

Negativities aside its still a good movie, its just very unfortunate that its one main problem with the original Poly Matrix DVD has not been fixed and as a result the whole movie suffers. I'd recommend buying the OVA though, the picture displayed is bigger, the english dub may be different but there's also a japanese audio option & an extended 50min of additional footage that was taken out from the movie

Armitage may be a third but shes number one in my book.
I was a teen the first time I saw this movie and it was probably the first anime I ever saw so when I saw it on Amazon I had to buy it. This is a classic anime movie that is well wroth seeing.

The animation is at times a little bit shaky but the fight scenes are top notch. And you can really feel Armitage's struggle, feeling and wanting to be human but not sure if she really is. Not sure if her emotions and feeling are real or if the is just a doll made to think they are.

Cheers, BB

Clip Show
This was the first Anime i consciously watched knowing that the film came from Japan and not America. To say the least, Armitage III: Polymatrix deserves its place in Geneon's(Pioneer) Signature Series. Its beautifully Animated, the voice acting is top notch, and the film has a strong resonance with fans, and serves as a textbook example of the cyberpunk genre. Unfortunately, the film is a cut-down version of the OVA. This generally is not a problem, but Pioneer cut out several crucial scenes that are central to the continuity of the film. Most obvious is a scene of Lt. Randolph expressing concern of the misconduct of Dect. Syllabus. With out the scene of Ross breaking into a penthouse to interrogate a witness, who is the blown up by the villainous D'ne Claude, the whole scene with Randolph makes little sense, nor do several comments about Ross becoming a "bad guy cop" later in the film.

Were it not for these flaws, this film would easily get all 5 stars, but as it stands, the onlything the film holds over the OVA is the supurb english dub. a must for fans, and a great starting point for those interested in anime

The Worst Anime Ever
I am at a loss for words right at this moment. How can anyone sane possibly give this movie anything higher than one star? While watching this...thing... I quickly felt a change take over me. Anger cursed through my body and I started foaming at the mouth. My brain began melting from the sheer stupidity of this film, and then I had a heart attack and died a painful death. Even the thought that anybody could like this moronic trash was enough to make me laugh, but then I go on Amazon and see people calling it "thought provoking" and the "best anime ever." WHAT? I could not believe what I was reading, so now I am here to tell the truth about possibly the WORST anime ever made.

The movie starts out well enough with the murder of the world last country music star but takes a dramatic turn for the worse when the "cop" that tries to arrest the murderer turns out to be a 16 year old girl who looks like she got her uniform from Hot Topic and Victoria Secret. She has a heart belt buckle on her cop uniform, please. The "cop" whips out a bright red gun (I'm surprised there weren't any flower stickers on it) and starts shooting in a crowded airport. As this is going on our main character, a cop from earth who is your stereotypical buff guy with a sensitive spot just sits there and watches. Some cop he is.

From there on the story just gets worse and worse. Turns out that Mars is going through some sort of crises. Robots are taking people jobs away a, and now a bunch of out of work bums are roaming the streets trying to kill robots. turns out though that Armatige, out half naked 16 year old Victoria Secret wearing cop is really (shock shock) A ROBOT. Yeah, I know, I didn't see it coming either.

This film tries to hard to be something its not. It want to be Ghost in a Shell with a deep philosophy hidden underneath its skin but end of being nothing more that a cheap imitation. They try to play off Armatige as a real person, but lets face it people, she IS A MACHINE!!! It's not like in Ghost in a Shell where the Major was born human but given a cyborg body to better fight crime, Armatige never WAS human. She is 100% pure robot. Her emotions are artificial, her brain is an AI, she is nothing more that a very high tech toaster, and yet she is treated as if she were really human.

Therefore, it is EXTREMLY disgusting when the male lead actually slept with her. First off, even if you want to think of her as human, she's still only about 16 years old, and he's what? 30? This makes him a pervert regardless. But the idea of sleeping with a robot is just too stupid to comprehend. It's the equivalent of Sara Conner sleeping with the terminator. Disgusting. I don't care how human she seems, I don't care how much she thinks she's human, she is NOT HUMAN!!!

There are so many great anime out there that you can skip this one and not miss it. If you want a philosophical movie about cyborgs, see Ghost in a Shell. If you want sci fi action that takes place on different worlds, see Venus Wars or Cowboy Bebop. If you want cyber punk, see Serial Experiments Lain. If, however, you want to commit suicide, then this may just be the movie for you. However, be prepared for a painful death. After all, rabies hurts man. If you read this review, please leave a comment.

Naomi is one of my heroes, BUT
Polymatrix is a movie version of the OVA. While it's fun to look at, there is too much taken out of the original series. Yes, it still makes sense for the most part, but the relationship building between Naomi and Ross is not as strong, Jean Claude's motives don't seem to make as much sense, and the true bitterness Ross feels about robots isn't as telling in this film.

My biggest grlpe is the voice actors. Elizabeth Berkeley and Keifer Sutherland give the most deadpan and lifeless performances that it really sucks the magic out of the characters.

The OVA is far superior to this release.