9: Movie Review

"9" is a decent movie, but I was fairly disappointed. It's not terrible, but it's not great either. Its biggest problems are run time, and general lack of creativity. Also, it suffers from some missed plot opportunities: what it means to be human versus what it means to be machine. Seems pretty obvious right? The surface is hardly scratched, in my opinion.

Given another forty minutes to work with, and a bit more dedication from the filmmakers in order to flesh the story out, "9" could have been incredible. But, with just over an hour of actual story time (excluding credits) it falls way too short for my liking. I'm not sure exactly what I expected to get from this movie, but I'm certain I didn't get it.

As for story and creativity, I just didn't feel it. I got a sense of laziness on the part of the writer Pamela Pettler, and well, the whole team really. It seems as though they wanted to crank out the movie rather than sit down and get it correct...you know, that thing people do when they want to make a really great film?

The actual screenplay is barely seventy pages. The story feels rushed. Not only that, but it feels thought out rather poorly. For the first time I can remember, I was unable to pick up where one act of the story ended and the next began. The pivotal plot points, which are typically noticeable to anyone who knows what a plot point is, just aren't really there; at least not in the traditional sense. To boot, the story is rather boring. As much as I enjoyed the burlap sack people, not enough was done to grab me.

The real reason to see this movie is the visuals. They're quite cool. I really enjoyed the apocalyptic wasteland that was created. It's easy to tell the bulk of the cash went to the appearance of the movie and it was probably a wise move. There are a few neat action scenes that I enjoyed, but in the end it wasn't enough to win me over.