1) The plot is threadbare.
By no means does a movie need a complex plot to succeed. Just last week I saw and enjoyed immensely the Japanese film Still Walking, the plot of which involved a family hanging out on the anniversary of a loved one’s death. 9’s plot is at once completely arbitrary and urgent, a lame combination in most circumstances, but especially here, given the high-concept setting.
2) The characters are brilliantly designed.
Shane Acker and team do an amazing job giving the numbered sack people designs that are both diverse and rich in character. There are wonderful details, such as first model 1’s lower-tech shutter eyes making him squinty, or 6’s dirty fingertips, or the little vestigial wings on 3 and 4. It’s a shame these visuals aren’t enough to make up for the fact that…
3) In all other ways characters are poorly-stitched.
Of the nine characters in 9, 4 have quirks, 4 are one-note and flat, and only one (1, appropriately enough), has any meaningful growth over the course of 80 minutes. There are a few great little moments, such as with 8 playing with his magnet, or the cute report of 3 and 4, but overall, these characters are woefully underdeveloped, which is a shame because the movie ultimately hinges on us caring about a world in which this is all that’s left of life.
4) The machines are wonderfully macabre.
The machine monsters, that combine mechanical parts with bits of bone and cloth and plaster, are super spooky as stills, and even scarier in motion. I especially liked the cobra-stitch creature.
5) The action scenes shine!
The action in 9 is as exciting as anything put forward in the summer blockbusters. The scenes are incredibly well choreographed, which is critical considering how bizarre the mechanical foes involved are.
6) The voices are unremarkable.
Christopher Plumber, who voices 1, is always a joy to listen to; he alone elevates his character through performance. The other voices are very perfunctory. Not that it’s the actors’ faults – they just don’t have any great material to work with. Elijah Wood’s 9 is the most problematic for me, as the performance is very generic and kiddy and doesn’t quite gel with the overall look and feel of the film.
7) The more serious sci-fi bits are confusing/frustrating.
Okay, this is spoiler territory, so skip this is you want to see the movie before discussing its themes. The nine sack-people of 9 are brought to life by bits of their creator’s soul. Early in the film, 2 comments on how sophisticated 9’s design is, suggesting that the sack people are getting more sophisticated with each iteration. The actual designs and personalities, however, don’t suggest any progression, but are rather manifestations of different parts of the personality (reason, ingenuity, curiousity x2, caution, intuition, bravery, brawn, compassion?). Perhaps 9 is supposed to be the culmination of a line in that he is a fully “human” soul, whereas the first eight are just fragments, which is why creating 9 kills the scientist. I’m sure there was some serious thought put into what these little guys represent, but how it’s conveyed is messy at best. Also, if the machine is evil because it is intellect without a soul, than why doesn’t it start to develop a conscience as it steals 5 pieces of soul? If I was writing this scenario, that’s something I’d want to explore. Finally, much of the film’s finale hinges on 9 discovering how to use the device that sucks out souls. He uses it to undo the damage he did by giving soul-sucking power to the machine, but it’s emphasized that the scientist wanted to impart the knowledge of how to remove souls to 9. What’s the implication here? Is it just really lazy writing so that 9 can undo the arbitrary disaster he sets in motion, or was he intended to release the souls of his comrades to unleash “green soul energy” back into the world to make it rain and bring back life? (Yeah, this makes no more sense in the movie…)
8 ) When will mankind learn that you should never make artificially-intelligent weapons of mass destruction?!
Seriously!
9) There are no talking animals!
With every animation studio out there churning out largely generic talking animal cartoons , it’s a nice change of pace to have studio support for an independent animated genre flick. 9’s not going to break any records, but the 16 million that it earned so far is pretty impressive for a movie that is ultimately very niche and nerdy. Even though I didn’t really like 9, I do admire it, and I’m glad I saw it.
