Salt Lake Tribune Review
Short films are sometimes perfect as they are, and
Shane Acker's "9," an 11-minute computer-animated 2005 masterpiece that got an Oscar nomination (and is now available on YouTube), is one of them.
In the intervening four years, Acker -- backed by famous filmmakers
Tim Burton and
Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted") -- has been expanding the vision of "9" into a feature-length film. The result, also titled "9," though often exciting and eye-popping, is a case of more being just a bit less.
It's after the apocalypse, all humanity is dead, and a little burlap-covered mechanical creature called 9 (for the number drawn on his back) comes to life in a scientist's lab. He discovers there are others of his kind, and follows one of them, 2, who defends him from the scrap-metal robot beast that patrols the wastelands.
Our hero, 9 (voiced by
Elijah Wood), is brought to a cathedral -- the main hiding place for the mechanical people, ruled by the cautious 1 (voiced by
Christopher Plummer), who rules because of the muscle provided by the bulky 8. When 2 (voiced by
Martin Landau) is captured by the beast, 9 convinces the watchful 5 (voiced by
John C. Reilly) to defy 1 and attempt a rescue.
In the course of that rescue, the mechanical people are reunited with the long-missing 7 (voiced by
Jennifer Connelly), and 9 accidentally awakens "The Machine," a horrific robot whose creation -- we learn through newsreel flashbacks, kept in a library curated by Nos. 3 and 4 -- was the root of mankind's destruction. But, according to the prophetic drawings of 6 (voiced by
Crispin Glover), a device 9 once possessed holds the key to the Machine's destruction and the mechanical beings' survival.
Acker and screenwriter
Pamela Pettler (who collaborated on "Monster House" and Burton's "Corpse Bride") have maintained the general outlines of Acker's short -- just bigger and more spectacular, from the inventive fight scenes to the size and ferocity of the Machine. But the movie's action-filled climax (not counting the gently moving coda) is abrupt and unsatisfying. Acker delivers some spectacular visions in "9," but they do leave you wanting just a bit more.
-- Sean P. Means
The rundown: Little mechanical creatures try to make a future in a post-apocalyptic world in this eye-popping animated tale.
Synopsis: The time is the too-near future. Powered and enabled by the invention known as the Great Machine, the world's machines have turned on mankind and sparked social unrest, decimating the human population before being largely shut down. But as our world fell to pieces, a mission began to salvage the legacy of civilization; a group of small creations was given the spark of life by a scientist in the final days of humanity, and they continue to exist post-apocalypse. With their group so few, these stitchpunk creations must summon individual strengths well beyond their own proportions in order to outwit and fight against still-functioning machines, one of which is a marauding mechanized beast.
This movie looks like it's going to be REALLY good! [ Report Abuse ]