"9"

If by some rare chance the Mayans were correct in predicting that human civilization will end in the year 2012, I at least hope that our post apocalyptic world looks as cool as the one director Shane Acker created for his new movie, "9." One of the most visually stunning and creative animated movies I have ever seen, "9" follows, believe it or not, NINE, not eight, bald headed rag dolls as they attempt to bring humanity back to a world ruled by machines.

The number, from which the movie takes it's name, nine, stands for both the name of our hero, and the number of companions in his crew of potato sack, machine killing, life infused action figures. As the story goes after the machines annihilated practically all of the humans, in a last ditch effort to save humanity, the scientist responsible for creating the machines infuses bits of his soul into homemade G.I. Joe's. He hopes that through them, mankind will be saved and the machine empire will fall. In creating these little homemade heroes, different parts of the scientist's soul is infused into each of the characters, providing them all with very distinct and different personalities. 1, fittingly, is believed to possess great leadership traits, however is often bunkered down by cowardice and stubbornness, while 8 is endowed with a brawn over brains persona. 9 in a way, is the perfected model, born with a more rounded character, compassionate, brave and intelligent.

Unfortunately my problems with this movie greatly outweigh my love for the amazing art direction, and the unique character personalities. To begin with I really have to stop and wonder why the most brilliant scientist in the world would waste his soul on one-foot tall dolls made of burlap and scraps of metal. Wouldn't he think to make a more formidable opponent to resist the tyranny of the machines? Also, a more general qualm I have with the movie is that Acker never gives it a chance to breathe. From the second our hero 9 is created he seems to be in a constant state of peril, danger and running (he does lots of it throughout the movie). Within the 79 minutes our hero somehow manages to get five of the nine characters killed, meaning either this hero sucks or the movie is just simply moving too quickly. The personalities of the characters never have a chance to really play off each other in any situation other than peril, leaving me wanting more from the character interaction. When we do get scenes where the characters are not endangered and are free to act themselves, it is quickly and loudly interrupted by a menacing machine back to destroy our favorite burlap brigadiers. As a result of this the story is thin and almost non-existent. A two-minute flash back is used to explain what happened between the machines and the humans that led the world to its current state, and the existence of the nine themselves comes off as trivial.

As I said before the animation is great. Acker has some of the most disturbing character designs I have ever seen brought to the screen. The robots are frightening and resemble something Sid from Toy Story may have created if he had been older and had limitless amounts of resources, while images such as the dead mother and child holding each other in the car help to create a darker mood than any I can remember seeing in an animated film. Unfortunately the movie is just too fast paced, and the story too thin.


LINK TO THE SHORT FILM WHICH "9" WAS BASED ON:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1jl41_9-nine-shane-acker-short-animation_creation


4 out of "9"