9

9   (2009)


Writer: Pamela Pettler
Director: Shane Acker
Starring: Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly

Synopsis
a little being awakes to a post- apocalyptic world. there are 8 other little beings like him. he goes here to rescue a guy, he goes there running from a giant machine.

MOster
In addition to not living up to a very interesting trailer, this movie continually set itself up to disappoint us.  Instead of being a knockoff of Terminator or Matrix or any number of similar ventures (or being even a little original in the plot), it didn't have enough to sustain eighty minutes.  It became clear about a half-hour in that the mysteries were there for the sake of being mysteries, and the three-sentence explanation just couldn't cut it.  The film is episodic in the sense there are segments, but not in the sense that there are stories.  It was "argue with each other, fight the bad guy by choice or necessity, win, repeat."  This is just a non-interactive (bad) video game.

Some of the characters appear to have background which might have impact on the story but since the story is paper-thin we don't get to hear one word of that.  The idea behind the creation itself is a neat starting point, but we don't get nearly enough information on how or why things developed to the point where they are now; and we certainly don't get enough information on how these nine tiny creatures can have any actual impact on what appears to be a planet-wide problem.

At a very high level there is potential in the story; and at a much lower level there is potential in the presentation of that story.  The animation--apparently some combination of CG and stop motion--was immersive and competently prepared.  So was the voice acting competent-to-good.  OK.  Big deal.

At least it wasn't three hours long.


The Woman
this bliggity blew! it's such a shame too because it had a good foundation story. it was only 8o minutes long and it felt incredibly rushed. like little bits of character interaction, and story development were deemed unworthy and left on the cutting room floor. it was almost tangible the stuff they left out. and because they did, it didn't make alot of sense. what was the motivation of these little guys? what was the motivation of the machine to relentlessly pursue these little voodoo dolls come to life. there were only nine. they were only like 2 inches high. very easily ignored by a big destruction machine. it makes me mad because i had such high hopes for it.

i feel like the powers that be were walking this line between this terribly dark movie, and a kids movie with a "war is bad" message. they couldn't choose and therefore it was a muddled nonsensical mess. if they just pushed a little harder they would have really had something, instead they kept making safe choices which destroyed what i think they were going for. this is not a kids movie. if i was a kid i would be terrified to sleep after viewing this. so why not make it more adult? aaarrrrgggh. it's frustrating. why? why i ask. just because it's animated? please somebody tell me that is not the reason.