Escape to the Movies: 9

[Grampy_bone]

I got free tickets to this movie and I still felt ripped off by it.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

So ZP and MB both did reviews of middling mediocre pieces this week: ZP wins for limerick style. It's ok bob, how could you have seen it coming?

Somehow I had a notion that this was going to happen, even though I wasn't paying all that much attention to this flick. I agree with the other posters here saying they'll wait to rent/ppv it.

On the other hand, I owe you many thanks for recommending District 9 last month, and for opening my ears to Paul Gilbert - that son of a ***** is a fine guitarist!

 

[Dr.Doctor]

Great review, but I thought Wanted was pretty good.

 

[DND Judgement]

i'm might have to give it a look see... i love being able to turn my brain off if neccessary for a film that any 9 year old could figure out...

 

[mptothedc]

AGAIN... I agree.

 

[awsome117]

nice of him to list a few mature animated films, gotta catch up on those, and I like that he showed Titan too, that film is alright.

I was honestly let down by Titan A.E. I mean, it was directed by Don-Fucking-Bluth, had beautiful artistic design, almost seamless integration of cel- and computer-animation. Yet, once you watch the movie a second time, the story makes you go "Bwuh?"

I mean, Scientist creates genetic database of all loving things on earth, "evil" alien energy-beings attack and destroy earth for no clear reason, boy finds genetic database and discovers that the only way to power it is to consume the entire species of energy-beings.

Bwuh?

There has to be something that happened before the Cale was born where there was some sort of animosity between the humans and the Drej because Cale's father had to have planned to power the Titan with the Drej while building it. It would make sense, then that the Drej would want to destroy Earth, home to the species that is actively trying to wipe them out. But this is never developed, nor understood by the audience until after the Titan is activated, creating Planet Bob (which, by the way, is the best part of the movie)

The creation of the Titan was what set the Drej off. The Drej wipe out any species that they find a threat to them(Just their home planet basically, but you get the point).

Now, we don't know when the titan was created, or cale if was born before or after the titan, so it's possible that either the father had implanted the location map in himself, and was passed down was Cale was born, or that he placed it in Cale via some other way.

That's how I saw it. Anyway, I still say it as a cool movie.

 

[RTR]

This is exactly what I'm hearing other people say about the movie. Bummer.
By the way Bob, I just discovered your Game Overthinker blog on ScrewAttack and Blogspot. I gotta say you just upgraded to my favorite blogger. I think you really bring up some very interesting points here and there. Now I wish I could actually meet you and just chat it up a bit,

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Why would people want to forget Wanted? It was a brilliant piece of simple action that was supported by good special effects and brilliant cast and credible enough story that was coated over with the afformentioned good stuff, you know, kind of like Jason Statham movies.

Anyway, it sounds 9 is somewhat like Avatar, relying on the beauty and technology rather than any actual substance. I'll probably give it a watch.

I'm going to go ahead and slate that film simply because it was based on a lie. If it was an original project, then cool, but just like Resident Evil, I don't forgive that which claims to be an adaptation but is instead resembles the source material from name only and by that name garners profit by suckering fans of the original work. Plus, I didn't like it a great deal, but perhaps I'm bitter.

And while you have good reason to compare 9 to Avatar based on what we've seen and heard (that it looks amazing, not much else), it's not out just yet.

 

[Random Argument Man]

I haven't seen the movie yet. I'll might check it out. I'll wonder when you'll do one of those movies. You know ? The ones that tries to be Oscars movies. Instead of that franchises movies or popular movies...

 

[smileyboybob]

That Coheed and Cambria song they put in the trailers makes me want to watch. Just to see sackboys killing robots to an awesome song.

 

[GODoftheRIGOVERSE]

I though it was great, i wish i could bad mouth you without getting banned

 

[ZforZissou]

Why would people want to forget Wanted? It was a brilliant piece of simple action that was supported by good special effects and brilliant cast and credible enough story that was coated over with the afformentioned good stuff, you know, kind of like Jason Statham movies.

Anyway, it sounds 9 is somewhat like Avatar, relying on the beauty and technology rather than any actual substance. I'll probably give it a watch.

Wait, you've seen Avatar?? How can I get in on that??

Seriously, though, I will definitely see 9, if I can, and there's little-to-no way you could know that Avatar doesn't have a good story, unless you are currently working on it.

By the way, are you? And if you are, can I get an early screening?

 

[raxer92]

I wanted to watch a video review, not you spouting your strange views on japanese manga readers. Instead of blabbering on about non-movie related crap maybe you should have written a more thorough review of the actual film. I haven't seen 9 yet and this review barely said anything useful. Most of your other reviews are decent but this one was just plain annoying the whole time.

Go read any other review of "9", you'll see that they ALL say there is not much to talk about. The movie is a beautiful set piece, but there is almost no story to talk about. The characters are derivative and stereotypical, which oddly is something that Timmur Bekmambetov <a href=http://io9.com/5354084/timur-bekmambetov-9-is-about-your-coworkers>touted as a good thing about the movie.

I think that his aside against otaku, and in particular that special subset that believes no animation created anywhere else in the world can ever be as adult and mature as the "adult and mature" animation that comes out of Japan, to be extremely topical and on-point. Just because you took offense, perhaps because you ARE one of that special subset, or at least like to think that their idiot argument holds water, doesn't mean that MovieBob didn't thoroughly review "9" in this video.

In my opinion their is no "true" representative on who makes the best overall cartoons for all genres, though i do believe that "japan" has a better Classical Mature show to crap ratio,

Evidence here: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=518968

Then America does, i mean dont get me wrong, i myself believe in all that pixar does and the batman animated series are probably the most mature thing to come out of america but let's compare that for a moment to say persopolis (An awesome adult cartoon movie) from france or the psychological drama Neon Genesis Evangelion from Japan, and maybe, just MAYBE, it could be that America is just a small step behind from various other countries and the way they do "cartoons." Cause ive seen cartoons from different countries that deal with many things like economics, mythology from various cultures, culture benders (you know theirs a show that combines tim burton's madness with Harry Potter and a bit of grim reaper mythology o.o?)

Hell maybe were just not good with cartoons anymore like the old days, i mean hell, take this for an example,

"When it comes to drama tv shows, in my opinion, Mexico tends to have a better classic to crap ratio compared to other countries making their drama tv shows, but that doesn't mean i recognize it as a representative sample of worldwide drama tv shows, it just seems that Mexico tends to have more series output each year based on very kinky drama compared to other countries"

Edward

P.S. I feel a bit peeved that he'd insult us right off the bat like that just because the "extremists" believed that this wouldnt have a chance against Japan, I myself was hoping that this would start a much needed revolution in order for america to pick up the pace in the cartoon department, sadly no.

 

[herio]

it look awssome but its never someing were i am as far as i know

 

[MightyMouse]

Good review but I'm going to have to disagree about Beowulf, which missed the point of the text and replaced it with an incredibly generic and predictable storyline. Most reviewers seem to have marked it highly based on the animation style, but in terms of plot and dialogue it's infinitely inferior to Beowulf and Grendel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_&_Grendel].

 

[MarsProbe]

Well, I never was entirely sure if I was going to see this one or not but now maybe I'll just give it a miss until rental.

The aside about "otakus" was interesting as I admittedly used to be one of those people and at times did go on about when something I see in a movie or tv series had already done much better by some Japanase anime (or "those damn Chinese cartoons" as we know call them). Makes me cringe just to think about it.

Also, I agree, they really need to put that stitchpunk thing to rest. It makes me wonder what []punk genre they will come up with next. If "atompunk" (bleh)/retro-futurism (yay!) encompasses the 50s, maybe the next era they will look to will be the 70s, in which case we will likely end up with "Punkpunk". But I digress.

 

[Wolcik]

I like the emo kids rant part XD So 9 is avrage movie that uses most of current visual technology, that means it will be soon forgotten as the technology itself will be overcome by something better soon. It might be a good movie to show my mom so she can enjoy some relaxing child entertaiment XD

 

[Denmarkian]

I wanted to watch a video review, not you spouting your strange views on japanese manga readers. Instead of blabbering on about non-movie related crap maybe you should have written a more thorough review of the actual film. I haven't seen 9 yet and this review barely said anything useful. Most of your other reviews are decent but this one was just plain annoying the whole time.

Go read any other review of "9", you'll see that they ALL say there is not much to talk about. The movie is a beautiful set piece, but there is almost no story to talk about. The characters are derivative and stereotypical, which oddly is something that Timmur Bekmambetov <a href=http://io9.com/5354084/timur-bekmambetov-9-is-about-your-coworkers>touted as a good thing about the movie.

I think that his aside against otaku, and in particular that special subset that believes no animation created anywhere else in the world can ever be as adult and mature as the "adult and mature" animation that comes out of Japan, to be extremely topical and on-point. Just because you took offense, perhaps because you ARE one of that special subset, or at least like to think that their idiot argument holds water, doesn't mean that MovieBob didn't thoroughly review "9" in this video.

In my opinion their is no "true" representative on who makes the best overall cartoons for all genres, though i do believe that "japan" has a better Classical Mature show to crap ratio,

[snip]

P.S. I feel a bit peeved that he'd insult us right off the bat like that just because the "extremists" believed that this wouldnt have a chance against Japan, I myself was hoping that this would start a much needed revolution in order for america to pick up the pace in the cartoon department, sadly no.

The problem with the extremist otaku is that they're accomplishing the exact same thing as the regular people who think that "cartoons are for children only", they are not giving any animation that comes from America, or anywhere else in the world, the chance to show that they can handle mature stories. The only thing the otaku do differently is that they worship anime as the penultimate animation instead of writing all of it off.

This is a problem, because in order for animation in general to be accepted as a worthwhile medium for storytelling, it has to be accepted as a whole, and the extremist otaku are shooting themselves in the foot on that matter because they are doing absolutely nothing to convince the "cartoons are for kids" folk because they are saying almost the same thing.

These extremist otaku will say that movies like Persepolis and Pixar's Up, will never succeed at having the same depth of characters as say, Ghost in the Shell or Spirited Away by virtue of the fact that Persepolis and Up were not produced in Japan. This is a load of bullshit, and those otaku need to wake up to that fact.

And by the way, there is little difference in the Good vs. Crap ratio of anything anywhere. There are just as many crap movies compared to good movies that come out of Japan as there are crap movies compared to good movies that come out of the US or Europe, same with Books, TV, Music, and other forms of digestable entertainment. The only difference is that the US has a much larger budget to make stuff, so we see a lot more crap come out of the US; and we don't see as much of the crap that Japan produces because they don't release it overseas like they do their good stuff.

I mean, if you want a good look at some of the crap anime that Japan produces, scour the lists of anime titles licensed by American publishers, especially in the past 10 years. There are only so many good animes to license; once you license them all, and you think as a publishing company you can make more money the more anime licenses you have because anime is selling like hotcakes in the US, you have to begin licensing the crap anime as well. I mean, do you remember Fighting Foodons? It was on Fox on Saturday mornings about 12 years ago, it was a battle show like Pokemon, or Byakugan, or fucking Yu-Gi-Oh, except the fighters were chefs, and their combatants were the food they made. Seriously, and the more skilled you were as a chef, the stronger your food would be in combat.

Load of crap.