9 Movie, Review

Plot: 6.75/10
Maybe deserved a little higher, but the fact that this movie was so short (79 minutes) made me feel like I needed to knock down to at least a 6-point-something. All-in-all, the plot pretty much held it's own -- it was a solid, post-apocalyptic Tim Burton adventure tale -- but my biggest gripe with it was that it seemed like the creators tried to fit a 2-hour story into a little over an hour. There were so many scenes I felt needed to be longer, and I always felt like the movie was trying to get to its conclusion as fast as it possibly could. The movie simply doesn't give you enough time to invest any emotions in the characters; there were a lot of scenes I knew I should feel bad, and couldn't merely because I really hadn't had a long enough time with the cast to really feel emotionally attached. Oh, and a major plot point: "magic science." Ha ha, yeah, just a little hard to believe.

Graphics/Cinematography: 8.5/10
Pretty solid -- got no qualms here, really. There were a few action sequences that made me feel a little like I was watching a video game sans being able to control the characters, but all-in-all very visually appealing. There was some pretty disturbing imagery, and it pulled off the whole "post-apocalyptic" element pretty well (think Little Big Planet meets Fallout 3). The action scenes are pretty intense and engaging, and the characters have pretty likable designs. Overall, very good.

Characters: 7/10
Again, the fact this movie is so incredibly short doesn't really help the character development. I would've probably given this an 8 or higher had it not been for the fact I felt the character development was so rushed I hardly had a chance to really "get to know" the characters, if you will. They throw new characters at you right and left, and it's hard to get really emotionally attached to any of them considering how fast they come and go. Don't get me wrong, the characters are really cool and unique, I liked their personalities and their designs and all their little quirks -- I just... wish the movie wasn't only 79 minutes.

Overall: 7.5/10

This post has been edited by Mrs. Aforcer on Sep 13 2009, 12:37 PM

Funny, that's exactly what my brother said.
Anywho, I watched this yesterday with some friends, and we enjoyed it. I, too, didn't understand why it was so short. Maybe they were rushing it in order to finish it by 9/9/09?

But the story's score shouldn't be affected by the length of the movie - they are different things

Or so I think

longer movie == more opportunities to add detail

If the length of the movie can affect the amount of story and character development, and the amount of story and character development can affect the quality of the plot, and the score is determined by said plot, well...

Seems like sound logic to lower the score to me.

This post has been edited by Mrs. Aforcer on Sep 13 2009, 08:27 PM

Except there are many 10 minute shorts, that have AMAZING plots.

Length is only a factor is there is something needed to build a plot that REALLY needs the time. You can have a perfectly good plot, that covers all of its bases in an hour even.

Yes, but they have plots that have been engineered to fit within those ten minutes. My complaint with this movie is that the length of the movie seemed inappropriate considering the length. Many elements needed to be further developed, which couldn't happen unless the movie was significantly lengthened. I'm not saying that a good plot cannot be told in 10 minutes, or 79 minutes, or any duration of time; I am merely saying that this specific movie's plot was not suitable to really be told successfully within less than two hours.

This post has been edited by Mrs. Aforcer on Sep 13 2009, 08:34 PM

So basically the only real problem is that it should've been longer?


Sounds like I need to see it, then.

Honestly, when I go to a movie I expect it to be 90 minutes now.

we never really got to see motivation in the story

why was the bad guy Spoilers:

stealing the "souls" of the nine dolls?

why were the first eight together, and why did the three leave?

assume the original trilogy of star wars was one movie
do you think it would've been as good?

Exactly what I felt. I think the story just needed more time devoted to it.

I also wonder what would happen if
Spoilers:

the evil machine never stole their souls in the first place. Would they have to sacrifice themselves? Why didn't it need all 9?

It also didn't do much with 6.

Furthermore:
Spoilers:

Why couldn't they bring 1, 5, or 6 back? I can understand 8, who got blown up, and 2 who... well, yeah. But they also could have built new bodies for them, couldn't they?

also none of the bodies decompose at all

why was that

and if the war had just ended, you'd think there would be more robots or something

This movie was like SSBB's story mode, too much wondering, not enough explaining.

Haha, I remember posting the trailer to this movie ages ago

I need to go see it.

Molly was gonna see it with 9 people at nine o'clock, but she only got seven people.
She still said it was "epically awesome", though.
And I really wanna see it.

See, these are the kind of gripes I too had with the movie.

And that's why I feel had it been longer, maybe they could have provided some... answers or explanations or something. There were so many things that just happened because... that's how it is -- don't question it.

I don't like when that sort of logic is used to fill in rather gaping plot-holes.

All true goths love Burton flicks.

I think in terms of length the movie missed a perfect opportunity to be exactly 90 minutes long

Fffffffffffff!

A good point, indeed!