Jason King9 ($12-) - short film included
December 9th 2009 19:32
:
Amazing Post Apocolyptic Future WW11 Movie :)
Category: No Category
9 ($12-)
I attended a screening of this amazing film a few weeks ago now and went through 10 cough lollies throughout the short 74min film, I also went through a bottle of water, a box of chocolates
and timed my cough explosions for the loud action scenes - no complaints.
When 9 first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world where all humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they'll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.
The original 9 short film is a marvelous work of genius - it was made by Shane Acker with no dialogue so to be universally appealing and was nominated for an Academy Award - I have placed the entire short film below - it's the first movie file. It then gets picked up for production by visual master Tim Burton and director of Wanted and Nightwatch, Timur Bekmambetov, to be made into a feature film keeping Acker as director. They came up with a feature length story to match the visual style and vision of Acker and it went to work. Everyone wants ot work with Burton so they scored the voice talents of Frodo, oops I mean Elijah (Love You) Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer and Crispin Glover and musical maestro or movies and Burton's biggest collaborator Danny Elfman jumped on board.
If you are a Burton fan or an emo teenager then you may LOVE this film as I did. It is a visual masterpiece and a piece of visionary work. Acker has created an entire world that is part Orson Welles, War of the Worlds, part WWII movie with the instigators of this nightmare world clearly being the Nazis, part Terminator, it is part WallE, Lord of the Rings and very similar but darker to Arthur and The Invisibles.
This is an adult animation and I fear it won't make much money as it is hard to attract an adult animation crowd, it is way too dark for little kids. I also think the character development could have been more, this is a tale of heart and we needed to see more of the character's hearts. At only 79min in total this film could have gone for another 15min and provided a more in depth development. But the story is a beautiful tale and while formulaic to some aspect it is original and thought provoking in its execution.
I was also disappointed with the end, although the journey was worth it. It felt too spiritual with no clear explanation of the outcome. I loved where it got to but the spiritual scene came out of nowhere. These are inanimate charaters with heart and soul, is there anything wrong with that? Is there a need for them to be more? While this raises the warning of over technology reliance in a industrialised world it faulters by going spiritual and not providing an answer.
The actors provide the minimal voice talents admirably, I love Wood and the rest of the cast is great. Plummer is notable as the grumpy, scared leader, 1. The emotions are more carried on the faces of these soulful ragdolls, I have read a few reviews of this complaining as to why the characters would look like ragdolls. My belief in this matter is that it was a WWII industrialised time for the setting, most struggled with basic necessities and the success of 1 through 9 is that they are made from what was available and one of the themes of the movie is that these "ragdolls" carry the remaining soul of humanity within them, the be all and end all in bits of scrap.
This is well worth the watch and released in the US on the 9th of the 9th of the 9th - very cool. For some odd reason we are not receiving it in Oz until 21st January next year. I will repost the article closer to release date. Worth ($12-) and while it lacks character development is worth it for the stunning vision and cool action sequences.
I attended a screening of this amazing film a few weeks ago now and went through 10 cough lollies throughout the short 74min film, I also went through a bottle of water, a box of chocolates
and timed my cough explosions for the loud action scenes - no complaints.
When 9 first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world where all humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they'll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.
The original 9 short film is a marvelous work of genius - it was made by Shane Acker with no dialogue so to be universally appealing and was nominated for an Academy Award - I have placed the entire short film below - it's the first movie file. It then gets picked up for production by visual master Tim Burton and director of Wanted and Nightwatch, Timur Bekmambetov, to be made into a feature film keeping Acker as director. They came up with a feature length story to match the visual style and vision of Acker and it went to work. Everyone wants ot work with Burton so they scored the voice talents of Frodo, oops I mean Elijah (Love You) Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer and Crispin Glover and musical maestro or movies and Burton's biggest collaborator Danny Elfman jumped on board.
If you are a Burton fan or an emo teenager then you may LOVE this film as I did. It is a visual masterpiece and a piece of visionary work. Acker has created an entire world that is part Orson Welles, War of the Worlds, part WWII movie with the instigators of this nightmare world clearly being the Nazis, part Terminator, it is part WallE, Lord of the Rings and very similar but darker to Arthur and The Invisibles.
This is an adult animation and I fear it won't make much money as it is hard to attract an adult animation crowd, it is way too dark for little kids. I also think the character development could have been more, this is a tale of heart and we needed to see more of the character's hearts. At only 79min in total this film could have gone for another 15min and provided a more in depth development. But the story is a beautiful tale and while formulaic to some aspect it is original and thought provoking in its execution.
I was also disappointed with the end, although the journey was worth it. It felt too spiritual with no clear explanation of the outcome. I loved where it got to but the spiritual scene came out of nowhere. These are inanimate charaters with heart and soul, is there anything wrong with that? Is there a need for them to be more? While this raises the warning of over technology reliance in a industrialised world it faulters by going spiritual and not providing an answer.
The actors provide the minimal voice talents admirably, I love Wood and the rest of the cast is great. Plummer is notable as the grumpy, scared leader, 1. The emotions are more carried on the faces of these soulful ragdolls, I have read a few reviews of this complaining as to why the characters would look like ragdolls. My belief in this matter is that it was a WWII industrialised time for the setting, most struggled with basic necessities and the success of 1 through 9 is that they are made from what was available and one of the themes of the movie is that these "ragdolls" carry the remaining soul of humanity within them, the be all and end all in bits of scrap.
This is well worth the watch and released in the US on the 9th of the 9th of the 9th - very cool. For some odd reason we are not receiving it in Oz until 21st January next year. I will repost the article closer to release date. Worth ($12-) and while it lacks character development is worth it for the stunning vision and cool action sequences.
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Comment by Linh
Celluloid Fun
Very good review on '9'. I saw it and thought if I took my young cousins (aged 7 and 9) to see this, they wouldn't understand some of the concepts or themes.
I liked it though.
Also I noticed you wrote:
"For some odd reason we are not receiving it in Oz until 21st January next year. "
Actually, '9' is screening now - in Adelaide anyway.
Not sure if it's showing now interstate.
Maybe you've got '9' mixed up with the musical film by Rob Marshall called 'Nine' starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench, Sophia Loren and Marion Cotillard.
Cheers!
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Thanks for the comment.
When I saw 9 a few months back we were told it was not getting a release until 21st Jan - but I reposted the article this week as it is coming out on Thursday in Sydney.
We have been having so many issues at work playing trailers for 9 and Nine. Been driving me and the staff nuts.
Did you watch the short film attached - Tim Burton saw it and wanted it as a feature so got it sorted for the director. Very cool.
Have a great day!