Toby
09-15-2009, 12:53 AM
WARNING: Keep in mind, I've posted this on IMDb to the fans of 9 from the short film where it came from, so if you want to see the short film and get the hype from what this film has to offer with its greatness, go here: To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ...otherwise, enjoy my review))
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
9 (2009)
Starring: Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Martin Landau, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Alan Oppenheimer.
Directed by: Shane Acker
Written by: Pamela Pettler (screenplay) and Shane Acker (story)
It was just a fun little Wednesday at work, telling everyone about all the 3 years I've been waiting for 9 to hit the screen. It was really funny, because it was like this as I was telling them...
-I'm going to see a movie called "9".
-That's a story about "9" characters.
-On September "9th", 200"9", at "9":20pm.
-Excited as I get to the theatre and pay "9" bucks each for my two brothers, my dad, and myself to see the movie.
-And plus we saw a large poster for 2012, and it was funny, because in 2012, my 6-year-old brother would be "9" in three years, hence 2012.
Okay, okay, enough with the "9" conspiracies here, let's just get to the review.
Sitting there in the theatre, eating some Reese's Pieces, Popcorn, and drinking up Pepsi, I watched the screen with my fullest of my heart and attention to the magnificant one-of-a-kind masterpiece from the mind of Shane Acker that we've all followed upon ever since the amazing animated short by the same man, known as "9".
It opens up with the Scientist creating and finishing his latest and would soon to be his final creation to continue life, 9. Then it immediately cuts to 9, as he wakes up, unsure what he is or where he is, or what had happened, though after he picks up an interesting looking device with strange markings on it (the device the Scientist used to create all of his stitchpunk creations), 9 opens the window and sees that everything that was once a thriving world full of possibilities were incredibly dead and gone.
In the beginning, I loved how Shane Acker made 9 a mute character at first, where he didn't have a voice, just to give us all a fond memory of how we could understand the characters in his short without voices than having actors voice anything at all. Shane, of course like all of us movie-goers, understood H-wood was going to ride up his ass for that, because as we all know the film world is very sh!tty and the mute quality to the main character and all characters has to go...and unfortunately 9 had to have Frodo's voice.
Now, before you start pinning some hate on me, I have nothing against Elijah Wood, he's very talented as a physical actor, though when he uses his voice to do animated movies I have to say it really isn't all that spectacular. I never liked the LOTR movies, but I did enjoy him in Sin City...odd...but still, Elijah playing as 9 I thought was...eh...you know what? I'll cut him a break and say this would be one of his finest voice acting performances ever, though still it does have it's ups and downs.
As 9 walks out of his home, he meets 2, both of them developing a brief-yet-warm relationship before 2 is taken my the Cat Beast (the scary-as-hell junk robot with a cat's skull) along with 9's device being stolen by the creature, 9 trying to run after him to save 2, but is injured while staggering around in the emptiness, before he wonders into the direction of others like him and 2; 5, 8, 6, and 1.
1-Is the head-hansho of the group, a stubborn old bast@rd who had provided shelter for the others who had survived during the war. (What war? We'll get to that in a minute) But he surely can be proven to be a bitter coward.
8-Is 1's right-hand man, a big brute who can fight, tough but not very bright, as it would seem he could get high off of putting a magnet on his head when taking a break. (Which I thought was pretty funny)
6-Is the envisionist and artist, he seems like a nut at first, but he draws and paints the design of the device that 9 had found and saying it's "the source", which could be a number of things in the movie that we'd piece together and understand, but I'm not going to tell...
5-Is a loyal friend of 2 and his finest assistant, he takes quite kindly to 9 and instantly becomes his friend. Also, 5 has only one eye, where his left had been blown off during the battle.
Eventhough 1 wishes to keep 9 in the building where they're held, 9 and 5 are strictly determined to go out and look for 2. When they've reached their destination out in the wastelands, and into a dark tunnel that leads them into a giant factory were there seemed to have been a large power house of some things being made inside, they find 2 inside still alive, but with the cat beast still inside, the cat beast comes to attack them, when they looked like they were finished, a strange fast-moving character wearing a bird skull for a battle helmet shows up and defeats the creature, and we are then introduced to 7.
Now, I think I was a little let down because of the cat beast's death being it left in the hands of 7 than in 9 like in the short film, but remember it IS a full length feature adaption of Shane's short, and there are always bound to be changes with what he did, because in a way wouldn't you get a little tired of predicting it being 9 the one who takes it on and not be excited to see what's next? Well, okay that didn't mean much, it just seems with this movie's amazing visuals, you'd think the way 9 could kick some @ss would look awesome, just not in this part.
5 and 2 are excited to see 7, whereas 9 is new to her and they are instant friends. Though as 5 and 2 talk with 7 about how she'd survived without 1's protection, 9 finds his device again, and examines something on a giant debres of some kind, he saw this while the Cat Beast was attacking them trying to put the device into some slot that looked like where it could be installed on the debres. As 9 does this it activates the giant debres, but in doing so tradgically sucked out 2's soul, unveiling itself as the Fabrication Machine, a large machine with numerous arms and can create other deadly machines out of anything with it, and it goes super-powered with each soul it devours with the device.
9, 5, and 7 escape with their lives, as 7 then takes 9 and 5 back to her hutch where she and two others live; 3 and 4, two mute beings who can project memories from their eyes, literally, they project it onto a wall or anything like a film projecter showing 9 about what had happened. Okay, now this is the part where it's about the great war where humans are battling against the machiens for whatever survival they have left. We learn that the FM had made deadly machines that were destroying the humans, though the stitchpunks (2, 5, 3, 4, 1, 8, and 7) only able to seek shelter and survive however they could.
I've told you half of the movie already, and that's just as far as I go with explaining it, because it's just a film that artificially too good to be spoiled with 24/7, and just when you think you can predict everything that could happen in the film you'd be surprised at every corner.
Now for my thoughts on it.
As a fan of the short film with Shane Acker's work and as an ordinary movie-goer, I very much enjoyed this film overall for how he had adapted from his original work. Of course there were a lot of changes, but I was expecting that since there had to be a way to make it more lengthy. The time from what I heard from others fearing it would be too short, my fears were rested when the ending came, and I have to agree with others who liked it that it was "just right".
The content I also enjoyed, especially when I wanted to go into the theatre and hope 9 would be a success to be a modern day marvel for creative and dark-themed storytelling in today's society. Sure you can say Beowulf proved how animation could be much frightening and serious with its content, but that was an unoriginal adaption of a poem that some one wrote years ago and everyone could understand with it being taken into any medium in filmmaking the content wouldn't matter. But with this story of 9 which is on the other hand an original idea, and is actually taking up on some themes that are more in contact with our time in human reality, or 1920s in which the film took place, the themes become more stronger and you start to take the film a lot seriously with what it tries to give the viewer, and it's not every day that there turns up an animated movie that has dark themes that tend to limit the minds of some people in America to ever take in the idea where animation could be used for this type of medium, all we've gotten was mediocre stories of talking animals trying to save their forests from neighboring humans, animals turning people into creative chefs, and a big green orge going on louzy adventures to solve his problems that deal with his marriage or family life.
Character development I heard wasen't strong in the movie, but when I saw it I completely disagreed, there were plenty of spots in the film that had me feeling sad, suspenced, or more heart to the characters, it's like the acting, I'll just say it's spot on, of course Wood isn't my favorite but he then started to make me realize it's the realism with what you take into these stitchpunk characters, where they wouldn't talk in unique dialouge that would become very memorable one-liners and have them each stand out from each other. Remember the stitchpunks were each created by pieces of the soul from the Scientist who had created them, each of their feelings are based and more thought into human emotion and not so much as a great advance of sophistication, it's like cutting up your emotions and putting them into different forms love, anger, fear, happiness, sadness, courage, constructive, confusion, and others. Best example would be with 5, the way when he was so devastated about the loss of his good friend 2, he begs 9 to tell him why he did it, and that made me feel closer to him as much as the other characters and I didn't treat then as 2-Dimensional robot-sack puppets that just run around doing cool moves to wow me and just to be listed up with dialouge and personality you could get from a milk carton.
The visuals we can't kid ourselves, they were F&#King awesome! And it's incredibly unbelievable, along side with the anime full-length film Akira, 9 is the very first over CGI animated movie to ever create stunning visuals left and right that could be as mind-blowing as (okay, get ready for this) the Dark Knight and Transformers combined. I tell you, it's THAT artificially amazing, and with it being done by an underground animation studio is just as fantastic, everyone really put their hearts and minds to Shane's world and creations, giving them remarkable and memorable feeling detail as Shane did in his short. Shane wanted to show us more of his world of 9 (just like Jim Henson tried to express to us with his fantastic creation, along with Brian Froud's, The Dark Crystal) and he's given us a great landscape that co-exsists with the story's level very nicely and you completely believe it.
The story for 9, I would say again is original to what you can take up with the post-apocalypse genre, though to some they would say it was too brief to keep it in mind. I sort of think the same way, but I think it's that you understand the plot completely enough to realize what's going on and you try to make it seem it wasen't worth keeping in your head because it was just Shane Acker's way of saying "the story evolves as you watch it, it's not going to be a spoon-fed story to make you seem like a great predicter of stories, you WILL need to think, you idiot." But if the plot really is too brief for you to take in, it's basically the Scientist creating a powerful contraption called the B.R.A.I.N. which wasen't properly tested before the German chancellor confiscated it and placed it into the Fabrication Machine and causing it to create many deadly machines for the military to increase their power, wealth in science. But it had a mind of its own and caused mankind's destruction.
The score was excellent, it's just always a pleasure to see Danny Elfman go to work within Shane's side and he really has that gentle sense with touching each character's emotions in a film, which some people seem to over look and think his music is overrated, but everytime I hear it it's just all the more fantastic.
9 is a great movie for all those who seek a deep story, with marvelous characters, and an adventure that's only for those couragious enough to unmask what truely lies ahead for what life we can prevail in the future.
9/10
Good movie.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
9 (2009)
Starring: Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Martin Landau, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Alan Oppenheimer.
Directed by: Shane Acker
Written by: Pamela Pettler (screenplay) and Shane Acker (story)
It was just a fun little Wednesday at work, telling everyone about all the 3 years I've been waiting for 9 to hit the screen. It was really funny, because it was like this as I was telling them...
-I'm going to see a movie called "9".
-That's a story about "9" characters.
-On September "9th", 200"9", at "9":20pm.
-Excited as I get to the theatre and pay "9" bucks each for my two brothers, my dad, and myself to see the movie.
-And plus we saw a large poster for 2012, and it was funny, because in 2012, my 6-year-old brother would be "9" in three years, hence 2012.
Okay, okay, enough with the "9" conspiracies here, let's just get to the review.
Sitting there in the theatre, eating some Reese's Pieces, Popcorn, and drinking up Pepsi, I watched the screen with my fullest of my heart and attention to the magnificant one-of-a-kind masterpiece from the mind of Shane Acker that we've all followed upon ever since the amazing animated short by the same man, known as "9".
It opens up with the Scientist creating and finishing his latest and would soon to be his final creation to continue life, 9. Then it immediately cuts to 9, as he wakes up, unsure what he is or where he is, or what had happened, though after he picks up an interesting looking device with strange markings on it (the device the Scientist used to create all of his stitchpunk creations), 9 opens the window and sees that everything that was once a thriving world full of possibilities were incredibly dead and gone.
In the beginning, I loved how Shane Acker made 9 a mute character at first, where he didn't have a voice, just to give us all a fond memory of how we could understand the characters in his short without voices than having actors voice anything at all. Shane, of course like all of us movie-goers, understood H-wood was going to ride up his ass for that, because as we all know the film world is very sh!tty and the mute quality to the main character and all characters has to go...and unfortunately 9 had to have Frodo's voice.
Now, before you start pinning some hate on me, I have nothing against Elijah Wood, he's very talented as a physical actor, though when he uses his voice to do animated movies I have to say it really isn't all that spectacular. I never liked the LOTR movies, but I did enjoy him in Sin City...odd...but still, Elijah playing as 9 I thought was...eh...you know what? I'll cut him a break and say this would be one of his finest voice acting performances ever, though still it does have it's ups and downs.
As 9 walks out of his home, he meets 2, both of them developing a brief-yet-warm relationship before 2 is taken my the Cat Beast (the scary-as-hell junk robot with a cat's skull) along with 9's device being stolen by the creature, 9 trying to run after him to save 2, but is injured while staggering around in the emptiness, before he wonders into the direction of others like him and 2; 5, 8, 6, and 1.
1-Is the head-hansho of the group, a stubborn old bast@rd who had provided shelter for the others who had survived during the war. (What war? We'll get to that in a minute) But he surely can be proven to be a bitter coward.
8-Is 1's right-hand man, a big brute who can fight, tough but not very bright, as it would seem he could get high off of putting a magnet on his head when taking a break. (Which I thought was pretty funny)
6-Is the envisionist and artist, he seems like a nut at first, but he draws and paints the design of the device that 9 had found and saying it's "the source", which could be a number of things in the movie that we'd piece together and understand, but I'm not going to tell...
5-Is a loyal friend of 2 and his finest assistant, he takes quite kindly to 9 and instantly becomes his friend. Also, 5 has only one eye, where his left had been blown off during the battle.
Eventhough 1 wishes to keep 9 in the building where they're held, 9 and 5 are strictly determined to go out and look for 2. When they've reached their destination out in the wastelands, and into a dark tunnel that leads them into a giant factory were there seemed to have been a large power house of some things being made inside, they find 2 inside still alive, but with the cat beast still inside, the cat beast comes to attack them, when they looked like they were finished, a strange fast-moving character wearing a bird skull for a battle helmet shows up and defeats the creature, and we are then introduced to 7.
Now, I think I was a little let down because of the cat beast's death being it left in the hands of 7 than in 9 like in the short film, but remember it IS a full length feature adaption of Shane's short, and there are always bound to be changes with what he did, because in a way wouldn't you get a little tired of predicting it being 9 the one who takes it on and not be excited to see what's next? Well, okay that didn't mean much, it just seems with this movie's amazing visuals, you'd think the way 9 could kick some @ss would look awesome, just not in this part.
5 and 2 are excited to see 7, whereas 9 is new to her and they are instant friends. Though as 5 and 2 talk with 7 about how she'd survived without 1's protection, 9 finds his device again, and examines something on a giant debres of some kind, he saw this while the Cat Beast was attacking them trying to put the device into some slot that looked like where it could be installed on the debres. As 9 does this it activates the giant debres, but in doing so tradgically sucked out 2's soul, unveiling itself as the Fabrication Machine, a large machine with numerous arms and can create other deadly machines out of anything with it, and it goes super-powered with each soul it devours with the device.
9, 5, and 7 escape with their lives, as 7 then takes 9 and 5 back to her hutch where she and two others live; 3 and 4, two mute beings who can project memories from their eyes, literally, they project it onto a wall or anything like a film projecter showing 9 about what had happened. Okay, now this is the part where it's about the great war where humans are battling against the machiens for whatever survival they have left. We learn that the FM had made deadly machines that were destroying the humans, though the stitchpunks (2, 5, 3, 4, 1, 8, and 7) only able to seek shelter and survive however they could.
I've told you half of the movie already, and that's just as far as I go with explaining it, because it's just a film that artificially too good to be spoiled with 24/7, and just when you think you can predict everything that could happen in the film you'd be surprised at every corner.
Now for my thoughts on it.
As a fan of the short film with Shane Acker's work and as an ordinary movie-goer, I very much enjoyed this film overall for how he had adapted from his original work. Of course there were a lot of changes, but I was expecting that since there had to be a way to make it more lengthy. The time from what I heard from others fearing it would be too short, my fears were rested when the ending came, and I have to agree with others who liked it that it was "just right".
The content I also enjoyed, especially when I wanted to go into the theatre and hope 9 would be a success to be a modern day marvel for creative and dark-themed storytelling in today's society. Sure you can say Beowulf proved how animation could be much frightening and serious with its content, but that was an unoriginal adaption of a poem that some one wrote years ago and everyone could understand with it being taken into any medium in filmmaking the content wouldn't matter. But with this story of 9 which is on the other hand an original idea, and is actually taking up on some themes that are more in contact with our time in human reality, or 1920s in which the film took place, the themes become more stronger and you start to take the film a lot seriously with what it tries to give the viewer, and it's not every day that there turns up an animated movie that has dark themes that tend to limit the minds of some people in America to ever take in the idea where animation could be used for this type of medium, all we've gotten was mediocre stories of talking animals trying to save their forests from neighboring humans, animals turning people into creative chefs, and a big green orge going on louzy adventures to solve his problems that deal with his marriage or family life.
Character development I heard wasen't strong in the movie, but when I saw it I completely disagreed, there were plenty of spots in the film that had me feeling sad, suspenced, or more heart to the characters, it's like the acting, I'll just say it's spot on, of course Wood isn't my favorite but he then started to make me realize it's the realism with what you take into these stitchpunk characters, where they wouldn't talk in unique dialouge that would become very memorable one-liners and have them each stand out from each other. Remember the stitchpunks were each created by pieces of the soul from the Scientist who had created them, each of their feelings are based and more thought into human emotion and not so much as a great advance of sophistication, it's like cutting up your emotions and putting them into different forms love, anger, fear, happiness, sadness, courage, constructive, confusion, and others. Best example would be with 5, the way when he was so devastated about the loss of his good friend 2, he begs 9 to tell him why he did it, and that made me feel closer to him as much as the other characters and I didn't treat then as 2-Dimensional robot-sack puppets that just run around doing cool moves to wow me and just to be listed up with dialouge and personality you could get from a milk carton.
The visuals we can't kid ourselves, they were F&#King awesome! And it's incredibly unbelievable, along side with the anime full-length film Akira, 9 is the very first over CGI animated movie to ever create stunning visuals left and right that could be as mind-blowing as (okay, get ready for this) the Dark Knight and Transformers combined. I tell you, it's THAT artificially amazing, and with it being done by an underground animation studio is just as fantastic, everyone really put their hearts and minds to Shane's world and creations, giving them remarkable and memorable feeling detail as Shane did in his short. Shane wanted to show us more of his world of 9 (just like Jim Henson tried to express to us with his fantastic creation, along with Brian Froud's, The Dark Crystal) and he's given us a great landscape that co-exsists with the story's level very nicely and you completely believe it.
The story for 9, I would say again is original to what you can take up with the post-apocalypse genre, though to some they would say it was too brief to keep it in mind. I sort of think the same way, but I think it's that you understand the plot completely enough to realize what's going on and you try to make it seem it wasen't worth keeping in your head because it was just Shane Acker's way of saying "the story evolves as you watch it, it's not going to be a spoon-fed story to make you seem like a great predicter of stories, you WILL need to think, you idiot." But if the plot really is too brief for you to take in, it's basically the Scientist creating a powerful contraption called the B.R.A.I.N. which wasen't properly tested before the German chancellor confiscated it and placed it into the Fabrication Machine and causing it to create many deadly machines for the military to increase their power, wealth in science. But it had a mind of its own and caused mankind's destruction.
The score was excellent, it's just always a pleasure to see Danny Elfman go to work within Shane's side and he really has that gentle sense with touching each character's emotions in a film, which some people seem to over look and think his music is overrated, but everytime I hear it it's just all the more fantastic.
9 is a great movie for all those who seek a deep story, with marvelous characters, and an adventure that's only for those couragious enough to unmask what truely lies ahead for what life we can prevail in the future.
9/10
Good movie.