Movie Review Corner: 9

[Amicitia]

Title: 9
Genre: Animated Adventure
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Synopsis: There's been a war between humans and machines, and the humans have lost. The only "living" things left are nine puppet-people with a mysterious purpose.

Wow. This movie may be short (only 80 minutes), but the word to describe it is dense. It jumps right into the action, and from there on in it's seventy miles an hour for pretty much the whole ride.

You may think the characters have solved all their problems after only the first twenty minutes, but then they inadvertently bring about a Bigger Bad, which unleashes an Army Of Bads, which keeps the characters busy and imperiled for the rest of the film.

I was uncertain about this method of escalating the danger, but it all makes sense at the end.

The acting is excellent, and it's clear that a lot of thought has gone into the design of the world and its inhabitants. There are ten main characters, which is kind of a lot, but there are absolutely no side characters, which gives the cast a close-knit, concentrated feeling.

Serious spoilers behind the cut.

Besides starting with a small cast, the film has an astounding mortality rate. The scientist is dead before the story even begins, and five of the nine puppet-people die during the course of the movie. Also, you occasionally see dead bodies lying around.

The deaths are not graphic, but there's a really creepy snake-monster that terrorizes the characters for a fairly extended sequence. Think twice before bringing your small children.

This movie has some weird "humans are evil" themes, which I'm sure some people will not like. I also don't know what to make of that part at the end, where the spirits of the dead characters rise up into the sky.

And what about the Machine? Is it evil? Lonely? Or just without any concept of right and wrong?

Ultimately, the end of the movie feels more like a beginning. The beginning of what, I don't know. I'm really curious to see the fanfic, though.

  = Loved it!

[Michaelangelo]

I've now seen this movie twice! 

Great story, great action, great art, great animation, and wonderfully put together.  They did a lot of hard work on this movie, and kept it a roller coaster all the way through.  I enjoyed so many things about this movie.  Miki and I went to see it Wednesday morning the first showing in the area, than again yesterday morning to show Fae.  Deff a movie I want to own.

If anything it lacked at times was character growth... there was no time for it, most of the characters already knew each other so they didn't need to use it to much.  But I've always loved a bit of character growth.  We didn't get too much time for that in this movie.

I was really disappointed that Five died, he was one of the few we got to see grow and change in the movie.  His plans helped save the day when 9 and 7 was getting away from the machine.  I really wish we got to see more of 2, I liked him from the moment he was on the screen.   I also think it's a bummer that both 1 & 8 were taken, one or the other would of been a bit better to give some dept to the remaining characters... cause they were standing on a different side from the rest.  8 without 1 would of been a good impact to have been standing there with the alive group to say good bye... realizing the one he followed all this time was no longer going to be with him. 

Another thing that fits into spoiler area, is I wonder if all the souls were collected into the machine would of gave it the intelligence it needed to be the Scientist again?  All it was missing was the soul, right?  So that could of been what it's real goal was... to be alive.  That would explain why the machine was so badly after these little guys.

To reply to Amicitia about making humans look bad, I don't feel that's what this was about at all.  I see the Scientist as the main human in the movie and he wasn't a bad guy at all.  It was just one bad human, the one who wanted the machines used for the wars instead.  Which a lot of movies have one bad human at least   I don't think the bodies in the car were suppose to be bad people either... you could see it was a mother and child hugging...  there was still love shown in the humans... and the painting of what the world use to be.   I didn't really feel there was a real villain in this movie... it was just a bunch of things doing what they thought was right.

= LOVED IT!

[Amicitia]

Reply to Mike...

To reply to Amicitia about making humans look bad, I don't feel that's what this was about at all.  I see the Scientist as the main human in the movie and he wasn't a bad guy at all.  It was just one bad human, the one who wanted the machines used for the wars instead.  [...]  I don't think the bodies in the car were suppose to be bad people either...

You know, I think there was some place in the movie where I really got the "humans are evil" vibe, but now I can't remember where it was. And I didn't mean that any of the dead people were bad; that was just part of my warning about the high death toll.

[Phoenix]

Well, I certainly wouldn't say I loved the film and nor that it's the best thing out this year. For animated movies in the last few years, it's certainly low on my list.

Visually, it's stunning and perhaps the best I have seen this year. Story wise... *shrug* just didn't really hold my attention. That possibly could be from the lack of character development.

Don't see myself picking this up on DVD or even seeing it again.

  = It's an OK movie