Armitage III: Poly Matrix (1997)

Voice Cast:

Elizabeth "Showgirls was an epic movie of feminine empowerment" Berkley is Naomi Armitage
Kiefer "Lost Boys 2 may not have been such a bad idea..." Sutherland is Ross Sylibus
Dan Woren is D'Anclaude
Wanda Nowicki is Julian Moore
Mike Reynolds is Lieutenant Randolph

What the box says:

The full-feature version of the popular anime, voiced in English by Elizabeth Berkley and Kiefer Sutherland. When humanoid robots living undetected in a Mars colony are targeted for extinction by wild-eyed human vigilantes, bad-ass robotic girl cop Naomi Armitage leads the robots' fight for survival, with help from her human partner.

Plot:

A ship lands at a Martian spaceport. Detective Ross Sylibus awakens from a recurring nightmare.

There seems to be some sort of trouble in the cargo hold.

Elsewhere, several robots rampage and mow down a number of humans before the hot pants clad Armitage rides to the rescue and recycles the robots.

Back at the spaceport, Ross sees Armitage who tries to arrest a blonde guy in the distance.

Don't call me "MOMMA," AC Slater... D’Anclaude siccs his bodyguards on her. A gunfight breaks out. Armitage is able to wound the escaping D’Anclaude. The suitcase he was carrying has the body of Kelly McGanon, a famous country singer, in it.

D’Anclaude was able to escape. Armitage tries to follow but loses him.

Armitage reveals to Ross that McGanon was actually a robot.

News broadcast reports on the death of McGanon.

At a police briefing, the cops are unsure whether she was robot or not, some sort of organic robot with a highly advanced artificial intelligence. Ross takes the podium the need to find the real McGanon. However, he was unable to recognize the robot McGanon on the ship with has a robot.

Ross arrives at his new apartment. Watching a television broadcast, D’Anclaude has sent a video of the murder of McGanon.

Ross jogs to the station.

Mars has been plagued with anti-robot riots by people who have lost their jobs to robotic labor.

Later, Ross arrives at a robot manufacturing corporation and finds Armitage already there. They can’t find any records of D’Anclaude. They decide to be partners to solve the case.

Ross hates robots for some undisclosed reason. Armitage storms off after learning about his feelings.

Armitage and Ross question McGanon’s manager.

Ross receives a message for Armitage from a Third who claims a number of other Thirds have been killed.

D’Anclaude pirates the television broadcast again. He will get rid of robots posing as humans and outs a writer, Jessica Manning.

Ross rushes to Manning’s house.

Armitage receives a list of the Thirds.

Ross chases after D’Anclaude. Flashback ensues. Apparently, a cyborg killed Ross’s partner and wounded Ross so badly he has a fake leg. When things look the darkest for Ross, Armitage comes to the rescue and layeth the smackdown on D’Anclaude. Armitage isn’t in too good shape with quite a bit of her skin shredded. She’s only a couple seconds away from killing D’Anclaude when Ross convinces her duty is to arrest not to execute.

Armitage is convinced everyone thinks she’s a monster.

Later, the Lieutenant thinks that Armitage is involved with the Thirds somehow.

Ross tries contacting Armitage to no avail.

At a crime scene, more Thirds have been killed. Video footage implicates Armitage, and a warrant is issued for her.

Ross is finally able to find Armitage. They find Pluto who will reveal the purpose of the Thirds. An elevator starts falling Armitage is able to cushion the impact for Ross and Julian AKA Pluto.

A giant mecha appears. Armitage, Ross, and Julian try to escape it. They reach the end of a large drainage pipe. Armitage tries to tear the mecha apart

D’Anclaude is piloting the mecha. Would it be a shock to learn he’s not quite human? Armitage is able to handcuff him to the mecha that falls out of the pipe several stories.

Julian and Armitage leave Ross behind to be taken care of by the paramedics.

At the hospital, it is revealed that Ross will be a cyborg with a new arm, etc…

Ross learns that Kelly McGanon was pregnant. A pregnant robot?

Elsewhere, Armitage learns from Julian that the Thirds can give birth except Julian who is the only male Third.

Lieutenant checks in with Ross. The Third investigation is closed. D’Anclaude is imprisoned and to let it go.

Julian has been backing up his memory. He and Armitage try to break into the memory banks to retrieve his needed memories. Julian interfaces using the patent-pending data jack and sees a photo of Armitage’s father with D’Anclaude. Julian disconnects but is somehow possessed by D’Anclaude who explodes the only male Third.

Armitage calls Ross for help.

The Lieutenant is getting chewed out by the powers that be.

Ross realizes though Julian’s body was destroyed his memories are still safe. He was going to meet with the real D’Anclaude.

A large force of military troops and tanks are guarding the hospital where D’Anclaude is imprisoned. A car bomb explodes which is the distraction for when Armitage, and Ross fight the battalion to techno-beat.

They get inside and get to D’Anclaude. Suddenly, Mecha D’Anclaude appears, too. Armitage and her prisoner are able to avoid Mecha Blonde Fey Man.

We learn that Armitage is Third prototype like robot D’Anclaude. She is able to interface with the human blondie before he explodes?

A news broadcast implicates Ross and Armitage for the hospital attack.

Ross meets with Eddie, another cop, to get some intel about Dr. Asukura, Armitage’s father.

Road trip, Ross and Armitage reach Asukura’s lab. In a greenhouse, they find a quite mellow and polite D’Anclaude who leads them to the good doctor. He shows Ross the pinnacle of his accomplishments, a Fourth. Mad scientist fu techno-babble ensues. D’Anclaude has been upgraded and is no longer violent. Armitage storms out when her “father” doesn’t recognize her.

Later, Ross and Armitage let the lovin’ ensue.

News broadcast, the Mars-Earthy treaty has been signed.

In the morning, the good D’Anclaude takes Ross and Armitage to another prototype. The human D’Anclaude helped to design the Thirds but many developed faulty logic centers. Mars can’t rely on immigration from Earth. It needs to have a native born population. The treaty would be wrecked if the secret of the Thirds was revealed. Earth’s feminist party would be insulted by pregnant Martian robot chicks.

The Lieutenant contacts Ross about the military heading to their location. Ross and Armitage have been officially disavowed.

Earth and Mars are celebrating the unification treaty.

Armitage tries to force Asukura to evacuate. He is able to turn her off and will repair her. Somehow, a creepy guy ranting about “daddy fixing his little girl” seems disturbing…

The troops are still heading to the laboratory dome.

The cops know the attack on the dome will begin in a few minutes.

Ross and Armitage escape the dome minutes before the military bombs it. Armitage wants to return to the city. She also professes her love for Ross who’ll stay with her.

In the city, joyous crowds celebrate the treaty signing. Chairwoman of Earth parades the Martian streets.

Ross is in some sort of combat mecha suit. Armitage now has wings and the ability to fire lasers from her wrists.

Combat ensues between our heroes and the troops and is intercut with video broadcast.

Armitage gets one her wings clipped or shot off and falls to the ground. Massive explosions rock the area.

A large number of Seconds watch Armitage’s battle.

The leaders of Earth and Mars shake hands officially uniting.

That night in the Martian desert, Armitage and Ross watch the sky. He’s happy to be with her. They’ll find a place to live. If there isn’t one, they’ll build it just for the 2 of them. Armitage asks about kids…

What I say:

Rogue Reviewers Roundtable

First off, this is my Rogue Reviewere Roundtable review for this month's topic: robots. Whil the previous sentence wasn't completely bad for alliteration. It still wasn't that good. Robots or their flesh covered cousins androids have shown up in quite a number of movies. The 1950s and 1960s saw a large number of the traditional clunky mechanical contraptions like Robbie the Robot, etc...Fast forward to the 1980s, we got Arnie as the Terminator. Robot that appears to be human until the end of the Terminator. By the way, this review will be changed to fit the new way the roundtable reviews are to be done for Rogue Cinema at the end of the month...Thought it was better to do an article based off something sideorderofninjas-able...So sit back for the usual random sentence association found in all of my writings...

Anime has the reputation of just having blonde chicks in schoolgirl uniforms and tentacle monsters. Well, that is a rather mean-spirited definiton. While I, at sideorderofninjas have seen some really enjoyable anime that doesn't quite fall under the infamous "harem comedy" or fan-service type. Anime does definitely have some genres that seem almost concrete as the American slasher subgenre. Asia seems to love having hot chicks being able to kick ass and look hot doing it and bless them for Michelle Yeoh...

When the early 80s only had Ralphy Bakishi trying to do more adult animation like American Pop and Hey Good Lookin", it was a sad time. OK, I wasn't a big fan of Bakishi's stuff from the early 80s. Japan had been doing things like Star Blazers and the various sereis that would be fused together into Robotech. If you ask anyone to name a graphically violent anime from the early 80s, odds are you'd turn up with Vampire Hunter D. For me who was only able to catch it when it was run in a block with the non-anime Heavy Metal and the most definitely anime Robot Carnival. An editted down Vampire Hunter D was still pretty cool.

Ghost in the Shell does have a few similarities to Armitage. Major Motoko Kusangi doesn't come across as an emotionally disturbed person as Armitage seems to continually fall apart as more and more of her life collapses. I also have a feeling that Armitage seems to be an amalgamation of Gally from Battle Angel and the aftorementioned Motoko.

You get the feeling that this should be sort of like the typical buddy cop show. Well, most versions of the buddy cop movie have already been done before. He's a gruff police officer. She's a sexy robot programmed to be the perfect law enforcement officer. Together they're Mann and Machine. Wait, NBC did that 15 years ago. He's a cop who is emotionally dead after a cyborg killed his partner. She's a cop that somehow makes Christina Aquilera look like a prude and also happens to be a robot. Together they fight crime!!!

This movie is a bit disjointed. It was cut down from a 140 minute OAV to a 90 minute movie. That should give you an idea that characterization was dropped for a few well timed action scenes. The very beginning has Armitage take care of a bank robbery and appear at the spaceport to try to arrest D'Anclaude immediately afterwards which leads to the spaceport shooting. There never was much explanation on how Pluto AKA Julian found Armitage. Several parts throughout make some of the characters seem very unnecessary or hard to keep track of at the very least.. I get the impression that the ending was much different than intended.

Elizabeth Berkley tries her best as the voice of Armitage. The Showgirls jokes are easy to make. The Saved By the Bell jokes are old enough to be retired well except the one I used for the caption...Unfortunately, I can believe Armitage as a bad-azz cop as easily as Whoopi Goldberg in Fatal Beauty. Back to Armitage. Well when the character has 3 moods: perky, more depressed than a goth listening to the Cure for 5 hours, or super action heroine. The perky moments are the most believable. The depressed moments with "why did humanity create me only to hate" get old fast enough to break the sound barrier. Super action heroine moments, give me a break...I've seen movies with far more annoying one-liners.

To tell the truth, without previous knowledge of Keifer Sutherlund was the voice of Ross I wouldn't have recognized his voice. Just sort of gravelly and monotoned. I'm not sure whether or not it was intentional to show Ross as more robot like than most of the robots in the movie or not. Lets give him the benefit of the doubt...

Speaking of fan service AKA graTITious shots, for the most part, Armitage III: Polymatrix doesn't fall into that same old gag except when refering to Armitage herself. Most of the nudity is incidental. The leering seems to be more directed to Armitage which is awfully weasy to do. When the dubbing refers to her as a "terror in hot pants," it is sort of hard to take things seriously.

Look how Ross goes from an average cop to a cannon wielding supersoldier that would impress Arnie's Terminator. For half the movie, Ross seems to get waxed more than '65 Corvette and must rely on Armitage to come to the rescue. After he get his bionic upgrade, he is able to attack military battalions with ease. Though, it never said whether he had previous experience with combat mecha. It is a given he did. I can't believe he would have the Max Sterling innate mecha skills.

I'm not sure if Ross is that tall or Armitage is that short. Most of the time she appears to be half as tall as he is. Which sort of makes the romance angle near the end creepy. The anime Lolita angle is included in quite a number of anime movies. Frankly, Armitage's costume seems to really flat out scream it. Hot pants, with garters, and a bikini top. My, talk about dressing casual.

If D'Anclaude doesn't have the infamous 80s slasher teleporting ability, I like a better reason for his popping up with absolutely no reason. Yes, the number of robot versions besides his actual human body are awfully hard to keep track of. In fact, at first, it seems more like he just appears magically before actually explaining the robot doppelgangers. We never really get a good reason for him other than the human version created a robotic model and that was to hunt down the female Thirds. If that last sentence was confusing it was like watching the movie for the reason.

If thought provoking anime is what you're looking for, somehow the voice talents of Elizabeth Berkley doesn't seem to a be good choice. There are better action anime movies than this one. However, there are quite a number that are far worse, too. I recommend Ghost in the Shell for a good action anime. Probably the most famous anime for Hollywood actors in a dub would be Princess Monoke with Gillian Anderson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Minnie Driver. Armitage III:Polymatrix is more a kick back and enjoy the mindless entertainment kind of movie...

Quotable Dialogue
"Don't try and bill me for the bike."
"She was the only country singer in the universe."
"She's gone, detective. The badge toting terror in hot pants."
"Surely, the ironic humor of this hasn't escaped you."
"Country Western singer was pregnant."
"Ultimate woman who can kick ass and get pregnant."
"Daddy will fix his little girl."
Morals of the Story
Mars is a planet full of country music lovers.
Martian cops love to wear hot pants and dress like streetwalkers.
Mars has the Statue of Liberty.
Hot naked chicks are less important that violent television.
Cops carry hot pink guns.