Beautifully designed but short on depth or novelty, 9 posits a post-doomsday world in which
the preceding war between man and machines resulted in the almost complete
annihilation of both, leaving behind only a band of animated cloth-like dolls
to pick up the apocalyptic pieces. Expanded from his Academy Award-winning
short, Shane Acker’s directorial debut concerns 9 (Elijah Wood), who awakens to
a frightening junkyard landscape in which compatriots – each bestowed with a
number on their backs, and resembling slighter skinnier versions of Little Big Planet’s sackboys – struggle
to survive while being hunted by a ferocious robot dog with an animal skull for
a head. What follows is a visually arresting sci-fi Adam and Eve saga in which
9 accidentally rouses the Machine responsible for mankind’s extinction and then
endeavors (at great cost to his friends) to thwart its plans for domination, a
narrative that affords many hectic chase and fight sequences but scant
emotional or thematic complexity. Pamela Pettler’s screenplay fails to provide
imaginative context for her diminutive, magically alive protagonists, thereby
frustrating investment in their bizarre reality, undercutting any serious
attempts to imagine 9 as a vessel for civilization’s redemption and rebirth,
and creating an inescapable sense that one has been down this Terminator/WALL-E path countless times before. Acker’s steampunk aesthetic is
impeccably crafted, and his centerpiece clashes are orchestrated with vigorous
flair. Too bad, then, that 9’s ideas never
live up to its style.
I cannot wait to see this.....
Posted by: Moonbeam | September 07, 2009 at 01:56 PM
I was hoping this would be good...but I'll reserve judgment until I see it...although positive word is scarce.
Posted by: Encore Entertainment | September 12, 2009 at 11:25 PM