9, the movie, is unfortunately $9 I will never get back. Don't get me wrong, the previews were fantastic. I remember the first time I saw the trailer with the song, "Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria, I was like "this movie will definitely be legit."
Boy, was I wrong.
The movie began abruptly in the middle of a post-apocalyptic Earth where machines have taken over and killed off all the humans, apparently. I say "apparently" because the audience is thrust into the plot having no idea what's going on besides what they saw in the trailer, which again gave all the indications that the movie was going to be good. The "puppet person", 9, played by Elijah Wood, wakes up, and off we go stumbling blindly through the chaos to meet other puppet people.
About 30 minutes into the movie I looked over to a friend sitting next to me and asked them if they had any idea what was happening. I mean, I consider myself skilled in watching movies and figuring out deeper meanings, metaphors and all that kind of stuff. In this case, I was lost.
We eventually were allowed a glimpse at a bit of background and we saw the robots were created by this seemingly Nazi- or Stalin- type military regime looking to use the machines for war. The machines then rebel against the humans and off we went into another man vs. machines movie.
Now I know I have been negative so I will try and be nice for a second. The visual effects were well done. The transitions in the scenes and the animation of the characters and the machines were, as I said before, legit.
It's interesting to note, and I just recently learned, this is a review done by the New Jersey Star- Ledger, but director Shane Acker also has a background in architecture, which I think came out in the machine designs and other building elements.
This is definitely not something I would recommend spending money on in the theaters. We college students have enough on which to throw money away. Wait until this comes out in stores and watch it then. Get yourself some popcorn with the money you save.
-Review by Andrew Sims
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