It does a great job setting up its world, but then does very little with it. Indeed, the film seems to get worse as it goes along, finally petering out (after a stretched-out 80 minutes) with a ridiculously awful finale involving the passage of souls to heaven, or some such nonsense. It's jaw-droppingly terrible, and I would say it ruins the film if the script wasn't beset with similar kinds of awfulness throughout, including some rather lame dialogue and convoluted terminology. And every time Elijah Wood's character opens his mouth, I wanted to die, though that's more the fault of Elijah Wood than the script.

Still, the film itself is beautiful to behold, the action sequences are thrilling and easy to follow, and the whole thing unfolds with great attention to detail and a general sense of awe. If it was silent, I probably would've loved it. As it stands, it's merely good.

^ I agree with you on most points, but the downer for me is that it really does not explain anything at the end of the film. I wanted to know why he made them.

Very cool to look at tho

B-

Maybe it should've STAYED a short film...

The post-apocalyptic landscape is enthralling and majestic. The characters and plot, not so much. The action is ferocious and plentiful, but never particularly involving, perhaps because the characters are so bland and interchangeable, despite solid vocal performances from an ensemble cast including Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, and Jennifer Connelly. A plot driven by spiritual mumbo jumbo and Terminator leftovers doesn't help matters.

I expected more from this Tim Burton/Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) co-production.

C

A 70-minute chase scene that never for a moment makes a lick of fucking sense. Ugh.

At least it was short!

I loved it.

The story felt rushed, and if they had slowed it down a little it would've made more sense and been better developed. However, this is a minor fault. The images are as beautiful as they are dark, the action scenes are probably the best directed and performed of the year. The characters are all underveloped stereotypes, however they really don't need to be more. The stereotypes all make sense and are interesting. It felt cliched sure, but it's done in a way that is rarely if ever seen, and the visual style more than makes up for any faults in the plot or characterization. Besides, it's not the maltese falcon, not every character needs to be a deep and fully constructed reality, it's okay, maybe even better the way it is.

8/10.

Tim Burton brings out another wonderful piece of animation here with 9 though it doesn't quite reach the heights of some of his previous works. 9 starts out with the birth of 9 and him beginning to see all the pieces of a post-apoctalyptic world. During his journey he meets another like him 2 who is on the hunt for "The Beast". As 2 is taken from "The Beast" the film truly begins in the hunt to destroy all the machines that had destroyed the Earth. The story is rich along with the animation and action. However it would of been nice to have some more backstory with the other members of the clan throughout the story. Overall its a nice little animated flick that deserves its PG-13 rating. **1/2

I saw this film yesterday afternoon and the details are already slipping rapidly out of my mind. I remember 9 rousing in the scientist's room, going out into the ruined city, finding 2, etc., but the rest of the plot, including the purpose of the device which both starts and destroys the biggest machine, is already vanishing into a haze.

Ugh, I am almost a bit sad this film, which seemed very promising and, well, badass, ended up being so slight. Disappointment!

It's a mess from start to finish basically, but overall still decent.


C+

I loved 9!

I loved it's dark, melancholy vibe. I loved it's marvellously expressive burlap doll character animation. I loved it's mysterious apocalyptic storyline and how it was slowly revealed, and I especially loved it's hopeful, yet realistic ending.

Plus, the unusual selection and mix of voice actors brought 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, & 9 to life. This was the rare movie that surprised me with it's abundance of creativity and vision. It's a true pleasure to see a great science fiction movie such as 9!

I can't believe that they dumped it's release in the first week back to school dead zone - - it's director must have become obsessed with the 9/9/9 date - - this fine film should have been given a premiere release date. Though, on second thought, perhaps the poetic and philosophical tone of the film would have flown over the heads of Transformer-sucking teens anyways, so perhaps it was best to hide it from the humans...

out of

uh oh,
the only other person that really likes this is bradley?

Even worse - - I really liked one point you made in your review:


As divided into nine separate aspects of the scientist's soul, I thought the nine characters were indeed better that way...

yep,
I'm scurred.

Huge disappointment for me... I really thought it was a poorly made movie, mainly due to Acker's lack of experience in filmmaking. D+ As always though, here is my review and podcast...

Review:
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2009/09 ... pointment/

Podcast:
To come soon....

One only has to go back to Brünviper's review of Knowing earlier this year, to realize that he has no taste for thoughtful sci-fi films like 9:

Like I say in my review, when done right, Sc-Fi films can be the best, aka The Matrix (my favorite movie of all time). This one just didn't have enough going for it on so many different levels...

I can see hating knowing, but the only way I can see loathing this is if you just take it way too seriously. It's a 70 minute animated chase scene about 9 pieces of some weird scientists soul. In other words, it's not really meant to be that serious, it's just fun, and beautiful.

That wasn't the best description to give this movie when trying to say that no one should be able to loathe it.

Perhaps not, but it certainly helps to define the nature of one who is able to...

That's the definition of awesome.
Do you need awesome lessons?
I can fill you in somewhere between snack and yoshue.

Nothing gets between snack and yoshue, you fool.

Oh so here is the podcast I never posted...

http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2009/09 ... e-briss-9/

Thanks to some seriously lowered expectations and two magical brownies, I enjoyed it. The dialogue was very silly - the character of 1 was almost as laughable as the big evil machine getting mad and shooting off sparks - but there is a very fully realized world here with some pretty sweet action. I could forgive the sub-par dialogue because, as Bradley astutely pointed out, these aren't real people but pieces of one guy. But as trixster pointed out, them all being silent wouldn't have hurt either.

It's funny how this felt totally new and completely conventional at the same time. It was very clear that this was Shane Acker's directional debut. I'm eager to see what he comes up with next.

I liked this movie. The animation was great, and it had a nice pace.