More Like A Six

Shane Acker’s “9” starts off abruptly, as you are quickly thrown into a world where humanity has seemingly been  destroyed by machines.

Now it’s not another “Terminator-” it’s animated.

No, it’s nothing like “Wall-E” either.

Gritty and dark, yet visually stunning, this film had the potential to be just as memorable as the aforementioned classics. However, thanks to characters that are emotionless and an extremely short running time, “9” fails to live up to expectations.

With voices provided by Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, Jennifer Connelly, Fred Tatasciore and Elijah Wood, “9” has the star power to thrive, but thanks to a flat script, you end up not falling for any of these characters. Sure, Connelly’s character is cool and can fight, making for several cool battle scenes, but her motives aren’t fleshed out nearly as much as you would like. The same thing goes for Wood’s character that seems to want to save the world as soon as he’s created.

Pretty lofty goals for something that has no idea where it is and what its place in the world is.

More backstory to flesh out these characters, especially 9 himself, could have made this movie something truly special. The way it stands, “9” just bounces around from battle to battle that we don’t know that much about, making it aggravating to sit through if you’re an adult and like a king-size “Hershey” bar if you’re a kid.

Some will say that there are meanings behind all of this mystique, possibly biblical and philosophical and while that can easily be the case, the film’s 79-minute length robs the viewer of any chance to truly put the pieces together in one sitting. Feeling more like an amazing pilot for a new animated sitcom, “9” delivers, but not in a way to induce any real thrills on the big screen.

After watching the film, you’ll want to know so much more about the characters and the world they live in, but it’s all for naught.

One reason why you’ll still find “9” enjoyable however is the animation. Action-packed, full of detail and intrigue, this is a beautiful film that draws you into its world- hook, line and sinker. Seeing how smart the characters are and how they are able to create weapons and other machines to aid them in their battles is an interesting twist and something that shows the film isn’t a rip off of anything else out there.

This is even more evident during the scene with Judy Garland playing while our heroes are enjoying a victory, which is a treasure to behold, giving the film a feel similar to the video game, “Fallout 3.”

Sure, the world has been destroyed and is in rubble, but show-tunes always find a way to live on.

Unfortunately, in spite of the amazing animation and unique premise, there is no rainbow present here and after the film, you may want to wonder why you couldn’t be somewhere where there was one.