I just finished watching what might be the next big thing on the internet, a fan film called The Fanimatrix: Run Program. Fan films have been around for years, and most of them fall into two separate categories, humorous and serious. The humorous ones are often riffs on traditional media, usually sci-fi. My personal favorites are Red vs Blue and Star Wars Janitor. Typically, these are the better movies on the internet. Serious fan films seem to be much harder to make. Most of the Star Wars themed movies I've seen fall into this category and feature amateur thespians trying their hardest to be serious and solemn Jedi, and often come across as rigid and boring, not to mention goofy. Often the scripts are void of any real plot or characterization and all lead to the same kung-fu charged lightsaber duel at the end, and the viewer is left with little more than a special effects exercise.

With the bar set so low for serious amateur films on the internet, it's nice to see someone come along and make something like Fanimatrix. It's not perfect, but considering that the cast and crew were volunteers and the total production cost was about 1000 New Zealand dollars, the resulting movie is phenomenal. $1000 wouldn't get anything done in Hollywood, not even a sixteen minute movie such as this one. With that thought in mind Fanimatrix is enjoyable in the same way as Sam Raimi's Within the Woods, the low budget precursor to Evil Dead.

The plot centers on two characters, Dante and Medusa, as they enter in to the matrix and the operator who oversees their mission. I'm not sure what the mission is, but it's established that wherever they have to go is packed to the rafters with security and unpleasant people in general. Dante's mission is to start a bar fight in the goth bar below the office that medusa is breaking into, probably as some kind of diversion. Soon enough Dante is confronted by bar patrons dressed as Nine Inch Nails roadies. Now, obviously, there will be some trouble here. There isn't any doubt that these mimes from hell will get their asses handed to them, and this is where the movie actually picks up quite a bit.

The action and fight sequences are all top notch. Not just compared to other amateur fare on the internet, either. Every move is carefully planned and filmed in a way that elevates this movie above the backyard wrestling quality of other fan films.

It would have been nice to have some more exposition in the beginning of the film, even just a voiceover. Also, some of the editing could have been tighter, especially in the opening sequence. Two more nights of editing and the movie could've looked smoother in some parts. This is a pithy complaint, though, because they managed to get the movie done by the promised release date of September 28. Usually, a project this size would never make it's release date, so serious congratulations are in order to the cast and crew of Fanimatrix.