"9" Talkback (Spoilers)

D

dpanych

New member
When the world ends, their journey begins.

9posterfinal.jpg

"9, you shall protect the future."​

Title: 9
Release: 9/9/09
Director: Shane Acker
Writers: Pamela Pettler (screenplay) and Shane Acker (story)
Producers: Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau
Studio: Focus Features/Universal
Rating: PG-13 due to violence and scary images

Plot: When 9 first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world where all humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they'll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them. (Focus Features via IMDB)

Tim Burton and the man who directed Wanted and the Russian film Night Watch takes us to what happens after the end of the world with the already visually stunning 9. It's scoring middling reviews on Rotten Tomatoes as of this post, though. Is it good? Discuss.
 
So it's true, that it's ridiculously short.

That hurts it a bit, because I was expecting the film to be more than 2 hours.

I mean, seriously, it's THAT short, wow.
 
I went to the 3pm screening. The movie started at 3:15pm, after the previews. It was over at 4:30pm. In other words, 1hr and 15mins.
 
o______o Wow.

This disappoints me a bit, but at the same time, I'll still go see it. I feel obligated to, as a Crispin Glover fan. Plus the animation looks visually stunning.

It does sadden me to hear the characters lack depth, as I find character development to be very important. Still, it sounds fascinating, but almost hyped up for so little...

I have a feeling though, that I'll prefer Crispin's role as Willard to him as 6. D; Oh well.

... To be fair, this was based off a short film. With that in mind, it's probably better off not being stretched out needlessly.
 
saw it today. Thought it was a decent flick. It's not like I want a refund or had my hope too high or anything.

I think the length was okay. It's a million times better for a movie to be too short and leave you wanting more than for a movie to be too long.
 
I just looked at Fandango and it shows 79 minutes. I don't mind, though. I tend to prefer animated movies on the 90-minute or less side anyway. Most that I've seen that ran over 90 minutes to almost two hours start to feel sluggish to me for some reason.

I've gotten jazzed to see this lately, but with Whiteout opening this weekend, it might be a challenge for me to check out both. I would like to have seen 9 tonight, but it didn't work out. We'll see.
 
Some will like it. Some won't.

The story is simple enough and touches on familiar territory, but Shane Acker's visual style and attention to detail is enough to make this film feel unique enough without alienating audiences.

The characters themselves aren't very engaging due to very little backstory. However, seeing as how the origins of these characters is part of the mystery of the movie I can overlook that to a degree.

The dialouge is very basic and kind of disappointing, which causes me to question the point of hiring an ensemble of name actors. Ironically, my favorite characters were the mute twins, 3 and 4, which makes me more curious to see how the film would turn out had Acker decided to go without dialouge like his original short film.

My other let down is that I felt the ending went a little long. I can see what Acker was going for, and had he condensed the last couple scenes a little, it might have felt more powerful and a little less anticlimatic.

Otherwise, as an animation fan, it's a pleasure to see an American release that's a litte darker, a little more grown up, and a little different.

I look forward to seeing what else Shane Acker brings us in the future.

7.5/10
 
I saw this last night. It was short but the visuals and art direction were fantastic. However I have to agree with who ever said earlier that the characters were flat. That was the major flaw for me. Overall, it was a little disappointing.

That said, I would love to see more dark, serious animation like this. No more of that Dreamworks-esque stuff.
 
Saw the movie hours ago. I must say, while it was a fun way to kill 90 minutes, it's not really something I'm going to reminisce a lot.

But before I begin, I didn't have a problem with the length of the film, for really, the plot of the film didn't scream for a 2 hr movie. And even if it did, it would of felt padded, and no wants to watch a padded film.

But really, the main weakness of the film is that story wise, it's nothing really special. For instance, the characters didn't had a chemistry that could of made the film a lot more powerful than what it was. And I agree that they should of tried to do this film without dialogue.

Despite the problems, there were a few things I like. I liked on how the animation was fluid, the moody atmosphere that definitively helped the film, and the acting from some of the ragdoll was pretty good. So yeah, all in all, not something that'll get awards, but at the same time, it something we not going to make jokes about in the future days.

Here's hope we get more mature animated films like these. We need it.
 
I'm one of the few people who actually came out satisfied. I don't have any really big complaints about it, I actually found the length to be quite refreshing. (I'm not good with full length movies.)

I liked the fact that the movie left itself so open-ended, and I liked how it left so many suggestions and ideas open. Personally, I think it gives the option for fans to speculate and create their own ideas about the characters and such.

I thought the ending was very interesting, actually. It's basically the EXACT, SAME ending from the short film, but extended. To be honest, I actually liked how it ended like that. What it was building up to, seemed more like the idea of life going on.

I already had myself attached to 6, so I did already find myself liking a majority of the characters, which I could already identify key parts of their personality by just behaviors, movement, reactions and speech. To be honest, I really didn't need a whole autobiography from each of them. Not saying that I cried over 2's death, but it's not like if I knew his whole life story, I would have anyway. (It takes a LOT to make me cry during a movie.)

But I wasn't setting myself up to be pumped and blown away, so I came out satisfied. Yes, that's the key to enjoying a movie, not setting your standards up immensely high.

I didn't treat it like an 'epic movie adventure' I treated it like just something to enjoy and have fun. I didn't need to be blown away, and I actually felt pumped right afterwards.

For those of you who thought 9 wouldn't get an audience, the theater I was in was PACKED. That's the first time in a long while I've went into a movie showing that I had trouble finding any open seats.

At the end of the film, the crowd applauded. Yes, there was applause.

Now don't get me wrong, I won't deny that it had flaws. But I wasn't being overly critical of it, and I look back and realize it's hard for me to be critical of it, without seeming picky.

My rating? 8/10 sounds about right. I would go see it again.

The reason it's not a full 10 is because of Elijah hogging up all the lines and not giving any lines for anyone else. Crispin was amazing at his role, but got little lines or even recognition for it. (For those who are slow, the striped one in my icon.)

EDIT:


To be fair, Spill hasn't always been very spot-on with their reviews... Cyrus seemed the most reasonable, since he seemed to get the point of the film.

Besides, they said that Don't Mess With the Zohan was a Matinee. I still regret not walking out of that film. :c
 
I thought the action was excellent.

The animation was great (but not pixar-great).

The dialoge sucked; the entire movie consisted of 2 telling 9 "ITS TOO DANGEROUS!" and 9 saying "YOU COWARD!"

The ending was also dumb.

Overall, i give it a 3/5 (I dont give half stars)
 
The ending reminded me too much of Back to the Future.

"The future is whatever we make of it." Sure, whatever.

I couldn't get over the fact that "1" looked like Dr. Finklestein from Nightmare Before Christmas.
 
Back
Top