9

If you go over to Youtube and type in Shane Acker's name, you can find and watch the 11 minute Oscar winning short film on which this film is based. It seems like a trend is starting with Oscar winning shorts being turned into feature length movies. District 9 was the same way and it suffered a bit from trying to stretch an 11 minute story into nearly two hours. 9 has the right idea though, it is only 80 minutes long. Movies 80 minutes long are usually bad, but animated movies can typically be a bit shorter. Of course, that is usually reserved for animated movies aimed at kids because kids have short attention spans. 9 is very much not for kids, which was the initial appeal for me. I mean, I like that Tim Burton and the guy who directed Wanted were a part of the producing team, but the darkness of the trailer and creepiness of the characters were what drew me in.

Machines have won in the war between Man Vs. Machine. The world has been destroyed and humanity vanquished. At least, I assume it is the world, it is possible it is merely an unknown country, like Russia, maybe. it is hard to know since the movie does not concern itself with details. Anyway, something wakes up. It is a burlap sack body, with a zipper down the front. The creature has no voice, but he spots another creature moving and soon this voiceless creature has a voice and a friend. The friend is promptly taken away by a dinosaur sounding machine and our original creature is alone, yet again. Our point of view creature is 9. He is voiced by Elijah Woods and he is a curious, brave little thing and when he is found by other creatures just like him, he wants to change the status quo. Altogether there are 9 of these creatures. Each is distinct and has a distinct purpose. 1 is the leader, 2, created things, 3 and 4 do not speak and they catalogue things, 5 does not have many skills, but he is nice. 6 is weird, 7 is the warrior, 8 is the muscle. They are not sure of their purpose or what exactly is going on, but 9 accidentally restarts the big brain machine and the 9 sack creatures may be joining humanity in death.

With a story tacked on that is ripped right from Terminator, 9 dazzles in parts, bores in parts and confuses in parts. The animation is spectacular, first off. The burlap sack creatures pop with life thanks to the animation and the top notch voice work all over. Christopher Plummer is excellent as 1, who may or may not be The Pope. John C. Reilly and Cripin Glover provide solid back up work, Jennifer Connelly soars as the token female and Elijah Wood could not be more perfect to voice a courageous and curious character. They really help bring the characters to life and give them not only voices, but souls which we find out are vitally important.

What is just as impressive as the character animation is the animation of the machines and the entire world. It is really quite breath taking to watch the entire world come to life, even though it is a desolate empty world. However, what really impressed me most were the action sequences. They are paced perfectly, animated to perfection and provide genuine thrills. It is a dark movie, but the action stays very well lit. The use of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" feels forced, too on the nose and out of place, but where that eventually leads is very cool. The characters all move with fluidity that gives the action sequences an added touch of cool.

With all of that though, the story is vague and confusing. We know the machines ruled because a War General or President, or vague leader took the brain machine and wanted to use it for evil. It turned on the humans and destroyed them, or at least the Russians. I can only assume Russians because someone said Comrade in the movie. No one says that but Russians, right? Any way these 9 things were created to keep humanity alive, but not left with any easy instructions on what to do. If the Scientist who created them had the ability to give them life, why did he not implant them with inherent knowledge to destroy the machine. Even better, why did the scientist even chance it by making the key to destroying the machine the exact same thing as it takes to power the machine. Even more, how could the main machine have destroyed all of the world, when the scientist obviously had the key in his possession when he created 9.

At 80 minutes, it is hard to ask a movie to be fully explanatory and I do not mind a bit of vagueness in the story and the vague ending did not bother me one bit, but there were certainly important facts, or holes left unexplained. I recommend the movie because of how wonderfully it looks, sounds and feels, but I do not think the movie is good enough to overcome some of the missing aspects.

Final Grade: C