Director Shane Acker is a visually dynamic director with big ideas and the directorial skills to back up... most of... never mind 9 is actually pretty sub-par. 9's major problems are things that other candy-ass critics would say is made up for by the animation but guess what awesome visual effectsare no excuse to forego basic levels of story and foregoing the development part of characterization.
One major problem with 9 is it's story, a story which is driven by the main character's complete idiocy and incompetence isn't a story i would expect from a major motion picture, perhaps from a fifth graders 3-page epic novella then it wouldn't matter as much but this was written by people who are PAID to write and yet they come up with something only the writers of the Micheal Bay Transformers movies could call "Epic interesting storytelling". The story's midsection could Possibly have been forgiven for their mediocrity if not for the complete idiocy that comes from 9 in the opening act which is what drives the story along in the first place, Kids if some evil dog like thing is trying to place a magical doodad in a wierd shaped hole which it fits in you Do Not Want To Put It There, it's going to be bad, Trust Me. But the other portion that doesn't make a lick of sense is the ending. The ending makes no snese which hurts the film bad, first a sucky intro then a mediocre mid then a sucktasmal end, not cool guys.
The characters are another problem or precisely the main character is the problem. The main character operates on some kind of OCD logic where everything must go in it's proper place else the world will end. Or at least that's the explanation i choose to explain 9's idiocy and possibly why he never participates much in the fights is because the backdrop of the dystopian future is distracting him from the monsters ahead. "AHHHHH, 9 help us it's trying to eat us" "but this plank is lopsided". Now in a lot of other movies this would be considered to be a small problem certainly not worth the loss of 7 whole points but that is the problem here, every OTHER movie, meaning movies that are less original looking than 9. 9's animation isn't just top-notch stuff it's top-notch Original stuff which makes all these other problems take the center stage because suddenly you are thinking "Wowza these effects are Fuckin' A but God am i supposed to root for this idiot they've thrown in our face".
So All In All it's one good idea surrounded by useless filler.
One major problem with 9 is it's story, a story which is driven by the main character's complete idiocy and incompetence isn't a story i would expect from a major motion picture, perhaps from a fifth graders 3-page epic novella then it wouldn't matter as much but this was written by people who are PAID to write and yet they come up with something only the writers of the Micheal Bay Transformers movies could call "Epic interesting storytelling". The story's midsection could Possibly have been forgiven for their mediocrity if not for the complete idiocy that comes from 9 in the opening act which is what drives the story along in the first place, Kids if some evil dog like thing is trying to place a magical doodad in a wierd shaped hole which it fits in you Do Not Want To Put It There, it's going to be bad, Trust Me. But the other portion that doesn't make a lick of sense is the ending. The ending makes no snese which hurts the film bad, first a sucky intro then a mediocre mid then a sucktasmal end, not cool guys.
The characters are another problem or precisely the main character is the problem. The main character operates on some kind of OCD logic where everything must go in it's proper place else the world will end. Or at least that's the explanation i choose to explain 9's idiocy and possibly why he never participates much in the fights is because the backdrop of the dystopian future is distracting him from the monsters ahead. "AHHHHH, 9 help us it's trying to eat us" "but this plank is lopsided". Now in a lot of other movies this would be considered to be a small problem certainly not worth the loss of 7 whole points but that is the problem here, every OTHER movie, meaning movies that are less original looking than 9. 9's animation isn't just top-notch stuff it's top-notch Original stuff which makes all these other problems take the center stage because suddenly you are thinking "Wowza these effects are Fuckin' A but God am i supposed to root for this idiot they've thrown in our face".
So All In All it's one good idea surrounded by useless filler.
