9 (2009) review

(7/10)

This post-apocalyptic animated film from the likes of Tim Burton and Shane Acker is a visual treat that sucks you into a whole other world, but it may seem a little too bleak with trouble deciding its target audience.

PLOT:The future is bleak. Due to the creation of machines with great minds, mankind has become extinct. The robots have taken over. The only living thing left in the area is a group of little beings made out of cloth and spare parts with ordered numbers painted on their backs. One in particular, number 9 (Elijah Wood), wakes up in a lab next to a dead scientist with no clue what's going on. The only thing he finds interesting is a talisman with strange markings on it. 9 goes out scavenging and meets another being like himself numbered 2 (Martin Landau). After a big fight with one of the fierce machines, 9 meets the rest of the group, including the mean-spirited leader, number 1 (Christopher Plummer). Against 1's orders, 9 sneaks out and attempts to save 2, who got kidnapped in the fight. However, 9 only awakens an even more evil monster. It's a good plot executed almost greatly.



VOICES:The voice acting in this film was very good. Elijah Wood played a great part as the brave and adventurous 9, as did Christopher Plummer as uptight 1. The cast is nearly all-star aside from these, including the shining stars of John C. Reilly as 5, Crispin Glover as 6, Jennifer Connelly as 7, and Alan Oppenheimer as the Scientist.

SCORE:The score was very well done and intense by the team efforts of Danny Elfman and Deborah Lurie. It matched the intense and thoughtful themes of the film.

ANIMATION:The animation in this film is beautiful and detailed. Some of the aspects of the animation (fire, the cloth, dead bodies) seemed almost real and the rest was just purely beautiful and well done.



OTHER CONTENT:This film gave me something to think about. I liked the apocalyptic aspect of it involving the humans and the robots, though it was fairly familiar. This film had a way of trapping you in its story and keeping you involved in its world and how things are in it. However, this post-apocalyptic film might seem too bleak for some audiences to handle. All humans are gone, and the only beings left are artificial ragdolls bent on saving what's left of the world; not to mention, (SPOILER) they kill off over half of the cast. Also, I believe this film had a tough time finding out its target audience when it was released. The trailers advertised it as being for pre-teens and the animation suggested it was for some younger audiences, but this film has way more thought and frightening situations. This film enhances the feelings of despair, desolation, horror violence, death, and lack of hope, so it at least involves an audience that can fully comprehend it. Aside from the targeting errors and bleak outcome, the film was very involving.

OVERALL,a good animated film with a good plot, very good voice acting, intense score, beautiful animation, a good post-apocalyptic aspect, and an involving story, but it's a little familiar, the outcome may be a little too bleak for some, and the film has trouble deciding its target audience.