By Evan Riddell
Western Herald
As the summer movie season comes to a close, more of the long-shot films show up in theaters. Two sci-fi shorts were remade as feature films with big-name producers bank-rolling the pictures: earlier this month, Peter Jackson presented “District 9,” and now Tim Burton and “Wanted” director Timur Bekmambetov bring audiences “9,” directed by newcomer Shane Acker. Despite similar names and a heavy reliance on CG, “9” brings something new to the table.
Elijah Wood (“The Lord of the Rings,” “Everything is Illuminated”) voices 9, a sentient ragdoll who awakes alone in a bombed-out building after a war against machines wiped humanity from the earth. 9 soon finds other numbered ragdolls who live in fear of mechanical predators that roam the wasteland. John C. Reilly (“Talladega Nights,” “Walk Hard”), Jennifer Connelly (“Labyrinth”, “Hulk”), and Crispin Glover (“Back to the Future,” “Willard”) lend their voices to the ragdolls.
Each character is fun to get acquainted with, but by the last third of the film they start to blur together. The film’s pace dwells too much on the aftermath of the war, and skimps on the reasons for the whole war starting. There are vague references to a Nazi-like dictatorship, but how that leads to giant, walking machines launching poison-gas bombs is never shown. The plot is as transparent as a Saturday morning cartoon, and the big reveal at the end goes by without much detail before the film transitions into the next scene.
Where most animated films are bright and comfortable, “9” is dirty and disturbing. The machine creatures shudder with every clockwork movement and unsettling twitch. Producer Tim Burton’s touch is heavy on the look of the film; 9’s burlap sack skin echoes Oogie Boogie’s, harkening back to his early work in “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” and a few of the beasts had scissor-like appendages. Each of the monsters was fantastically designed, and I spent most of the action scenes picking different household items out of the jumble of jury-rigged skeletons. The cobra/baby beast was particularly revolting. Needless to say, don’t bring children to this PG-13 film.
Computer-generated characters usually lack the weight of real people on screen, but the animators simulated it convincingly enough. The attention to detail in the animation was nice to see, but the action scenes played out more like a video game cut scene than a feature film. The fights were epic looking, but formulaic, and all too soon does the Jennifer Connelly-voiced ragdoll jump in to save the less capable characters.
For all the clichéd aspects of the film, those at opening night gave their undivided attention; this movie, for all its flaws, is mesmerizing. The theory of the 11-minute short was stretched thin for the feature presentation, and it suffered for it. The film features cool visuals, and the occasional scare, but it runs out of steam quickly. The first 30 to 45 minutes are tense with the lurking presence of the cat beast that preys upon the hapless ragdolls. Once the beast is felled, the film gets boring, and by the end I was itching to leave my seat, even though its running time is only a paltry 81 minutes. It was enjoyable, but the flaws were apparent as soon as I left the theater.
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