9 is produced by two highly imaginative directors, Timur Bekmambetov and the creative goth genius Tim Burton. They have both delivered visual ecstasy to the screen before and now they’ve helped bring Shane Acker’s visually exciting feature debut to life. This is a nonstop action film, in the animated form. It features tremendously imaginative designs, splendid voice acting, and perfectly timed tension. Unfortunately, the story is formulaic and the narrative has issues, but it still succeeds due to an array of impressive aspects.
When 9 (Elijah Wood) first wakes up, he discovers he’s living in a tarnished post-apocalyptic world. All the humans are extinct due to an unholy war with machines. Luckily, #9 (Martin Landau) finds a small group of others just like him. After meeting up with a friendly old timer named #2, he discoverers the savage nature of the machines. #2 ends up becoming captured and soon 9 convinces the others that they must stop hiding and rescue #2. With most of them ready to fight back, they decide to join #9. They soon find themselves on a long and dangerous journey to rescue one of their good friends. Along the way they discover their origins and how the machines came to rule the earth.
The story is a by-the-number adventure film, a very loose narrative strung together by action sequences. This is in retrospect an action movie without anything profound or original to say. The whole “machines took over the world” element is beyond cliche. Its still mind boggling in all these films what these machines intentions are. The film say’s they are bad and that’s about it all we get. There never seems to be a real motivation besides world domination. With that enormous nitpick out of the way, the slightly sloppy story works due to the characters. Unlike most adventure films, its almost irresistible not to become involved in all these characters. Some will surely label this style over substance and that may be true, but the film’s redeeming qualities makes it easy forget about some the murky story elements.
Read the rest of this review below > ” />
#9 is a fantastic lead hero. Elijah Wood lends his voice and charisma to this charming character. His leadership among the others may feel a little rushed, but it works since he is such a likable character. His intentions are only pure and all he wants is to save his first friend. Jennifer Connolly distinguishes her character #7 as the action heroine of the group. At first, her character seems purely set up as the love interest and the film actually doesn’t divulge in this contrived plot point. There is a slight attraction introduced, but she’s more than just the typical love interest. She’s the strongest of the group and features a distinguishable onscreen presence. The two other main highlights include John C. Reily and Martin Landau. Landau has this distinct voice that causes genuine likability and warmth, making it understandable why the group would want to save him. Reily play’s #9’s sidekick, except he doesn’t spout annoying one-liners and is involved in the action. On a low note, Crispin Glover is mildly distracting as the kind hearted #6. His character has very little to do which leads to Glover being somewhat wasted.
Shane Acker ends up making a more than impressive debut with his wildly imaginative vision. The main reason why this film works is because of the striking imagery, the grungy look, and terrifically shot action sequences. The action scenes rank amongst the best seen this year, including District 9. They are all distinct, comprehensible, and all the characters are actually involved in some sort of act of heroics. Acker also knows how to build tension perfectly. Each scene filled with danger has an eerie and timely build up, its in many ways unsettling. At times, he does allow the film to become a continuous action sequence. This does ultimately add onto to the story’s problems, but the film runs briskly enough that its not too bothersome during the short running time.
9 is a fast paced action adventure filled with visual wonder. The storytelling issues are what truly holds this film back from its fullest potential, but it is still highly enjoyable. If the story took more time to develop and breathe than this could have been a much better film. Despite these problems, this still remains a very exciting and impressive film. The excellent voice casting, terrific imagery, and perfectly shot action is what makes 9 so entertaining.