Review: ‘9’

Writer/director Shane Acker’s expansion on his ‘9’ idea is highly original, inventively dark, and a grand, stylistic achievement in computer animated cinema.  The film oozes atmosphere and its story cries out in gritty ingenuity, aspects that surely caught the attention of producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov.  In terms of style and the creativity Acker injects into every frame, ‘9’ succeeds triumphantly.  However, at 79 minutes in length, the film suffers one flaw.  While one flaw doesn’t ruin a film, one this noticeable and one that serves as this much of a constant throughout a film cannot be ignored.

Set in a world that has seen humans come to an end, ‘9’ follows the adventure of nine rag dolls who have, through some dark art of science, been brought to life.  Each one has his or her own skills that aid in survival in the world.  Each one has his or her own personality.  The latest to be born unto this world, 9, has a sense of wonderment, an idea to question the established rules of the world, and a reluctance to become the hero his path puts him on.  Faced with the strange, mechanical creatures of this world, the group of nine attempts to survive while fulfilling a quest they were put on long before they were even brought to life.

Visually, ‘9’ is flawless.  The look of the world is very detailed, and you cannot help but notice the care put into creating it both conceptually and in the execution of the computer effects.  The world of ‘9’ is filled with broken rabble, abandoned factories, and a dusty cloud that permeates the air in every scene.

The look of the stitchpunks, as Acker has referred to the nine characters at the center of the film, is given just as much care.  Each character is given their own individuality, both physically and characteristically.  There is never a moment where you get any of them mixed up one from another, a pit the film could have easily fallen into from the very beginning.  Much of this is due in large part to the voice actors chosen for each character, as well.  Elijah Wood plays the reluctant hero, 9.  Jennifer Connelly voices 7, the lone female and all-around badass of the group.  John C. Reilly voices 5, the curious yet naive sidekick.  Crispin Glover plays 6, the, you guessed it, weird one of the group.  It’s at this point that I have to express much love for Glover, even as a voice actor.  He has only a handful of lines in ‘9,’ and each one is probably a word or two long, but he delivers those single-word lines of dialogue with every fiber in his Crispin Glover being.  Christopher Plummer plays 1, the self-proclaimed leader of the stitchpunks who believes his way is always the correct way.  These actors are so obviously chosen for their respective role, you can’t help but wonder how interesting it would have been to switch them up a bit.  Put Glover’s voice in the reluctant hero.  Have Reilly play the self-appointed leader.  Something, anything, a bit different would have done wonders for the voice casting in this film.  It’s a minor issue with the film, really, and one that is easily overlooked.  Despite this idea for a more interesting cast of voices, each voice actor helps in creating differentiation between the nine, stitchpunk characters.  Each one is its own character, and there is never an issue mixing them up.  Unlike some visual effects-heavy films featuring groups of beings, each character in ‘9’ is his own, and audience members are given the freedom to follow them individually if so desired.

The mechanical incarnations that hunt the stitchpunks are, likewise, given much individuality between one another.  A combination of mechanical parts and left-over bones from an earlier era, each creature is more terrifying than the last, and each one is given much detail.  These creatures are where ‘9’ garners much of its PG-13 rating.  While the sight of a snake-like creature with a doll’s head may frighten younger children, there really isn’t much found in ‘9’ that hasn’t been seen in PG-rated films before.  The film really doesn’t deserve its PG-13 rating, even if it gives the aura of the film a bit of seasoning.  There are brief flashbacks to the events leading up to the disappearance of the humans, but much of the more violent moments are off-camera.

These flashbacks are part of how Acker expanded his 11-minute short.  His original film featured only one stitchpunk, 9, and his single battle with the Cat Beast.  This scene, though altered to fit more with the overall narrative, is still in the film, and it serves as a catalyst scene for a much larger storyline.  Acker expanded his film by 68 minutes, and, in doing so, ‘9’ runs into its biggest problem.  There is simply too much packed into too short a run time.  The story moves through plot points like a downhill racer passing by marker flags.  There simply is very little time given to allow the story to breath.  Even when there is no action occurring, there is some form of plot progression going on whether its expository segments or the stitchpunks planning their next move.  These expository segments, by the way, are not handled as best as they could have been.  In these scenes, much of them flashbacks to the human era, the film feels like it is hand feeding clarification for the benefit of those who can’t keep up with its pace.  While this is ‘9’s only, real flaw, it is not a minor one that can simply be looked over.  Every scene rushes to its end.  Every action sequence seems a minute or two shorter than it should have been.  There are only a handful of moments where the stitchpunks are given a moment of reflection, and these scenes, while welcome, only serve to point out the rest of the film’s unnecessarily frantic progression.  Fortunately, noticeable as it may be, the pace of the film never grinds the film down too much for enjoyment.

‘9’ is a magnificent accomplishment in terms of visual style, conceptual design and computer graphic artistry.  The look of the film is undeniably breathtaking, and, even in the moment or two where the story gets slightly bogged down in exposition or obvious plot coursing, you can rest assured knowing you can always gaze at the wonderful imagery Acker and his crew have pieced together.  While the story moves too briskly for its own good, it still succeeds in being head and shoulders more inventive than many other offerings given via animated film.  What Acker has put together is a solid effort for sci-fi and animation alike, and no, single flaw, significant as it may be, can bring that level of achievement down.