I was unabashadly excited for this film. In fact, I was so intrigued by the film's asthetics that in the couple of months leading up to the film's release, my desktop background feautred the movie's poster (left) and my Twitter icon was a small snapshot of the main character 9's stitched face. Unfortunately, as a busy student, the film went through theatres without me having the chance to see it. I was finally able to watch the film with Zach last night, and I have to admit--I'm glad I didn't pay to see it in theatres.
Despite the fact that 9 was less than 80 minutes long, I still found myself checking my watch. This film jumped into the plot almost immediately without giving much of an explanation for how the palm-sized sock puppet "9" was given life or how the world around him had faded to apocalyptic ash and ruin. Normally, I would commend the screenwriter for letting the audience figure things out on their own; however, in the case of 9, this rushed treatment prevented me from ever forming an attachment to the characters. I felt sympathy and curiousity for the numbered handmade inventions, yes, but never did I feel like they were in any real danger. The Beast, a mechanical villain that was so terrifying to the little inventions that they retreated into hiding, was killed early in the movie after a short skirmish that almost looked easy, begging the questions, "Why hadn't they just done that earlier?" Also, the questions raised throughout the film were either interesting queries that were never even addressed or were obvious questions that were answered with redundant spoon-fed narration.
By the end of this movie, the only emotion I felt was sadness about the opportunities that this visually intriguing film squandered. I didn't really believe in or care about the problems of the characters, and it felt like the filmmakers didn't either.
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