9 Reviews
December 22, 2020
9 is a challenge to remember our roots... to not get caught in our beliefs or our politics or - most especially - become chained to the powers of our intellect alone.
October 20, 2014
The new version stays so true to the original you could describe it as a feature-length short-which is not the most staggering accomplishment.
December 9, 2009
Gorgeously animated, beautifully executed and incredibly imaginative, Shane Acker's 9 manages to nonetheless feel a little bit like something you've seen before.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
December 9, 2009
Looking like a rag-doll version of Terminator Salvation, the film boasts an arresting visual style.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
October 30, 2009
The apocalyptic 9 offers innovative images of a broken Earth inhabited by woven warriors battling machines. But it's more style than substance - this mechanical tale needs a human touch.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
October 30, 2009
This film will surely be remembered as an intriguing failure: a triumph of ambition over ability, of ideas over emotional resonance - just another grim fairy tale for these troubled times.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
October 30, 2009
It looks great, but sadly the screenplay - in particular the stultifying dialogue - simply can't match the visual inventiveness.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
October 30, 2009
It allegedly lasts 79 minutes. I think it lasted 79 hours, or 79 years, or perhaps 79 times the space of time between the extinction of allosaurus and the rise of Cro-Magnon.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
October 30, 2009
Where it needs emotive magic, it lays on a vague and maudlin religiosity -- we're never quite sure what Acker thinks he's preaching. 9? I'd give it a 6.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
October 30, 2009
The story drifts towards the mawkish without answering any of the big questions it tentatively raises.
October 30, 2009
A Disneyfied cliché, disfigured by incoherent mysticism and trite warnings about the dangers of technology.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
October 30, 2009
Too dark for littl'uns, too hectic and cutesy for adults, it's pretty much guaranteed to please no one.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
September 12, 2009
Acker does himself no favors with rote anti-dogmatism and vapid characterizations. Despite that, though, his little creations remain oddly compelling.
Full Review
| Original Score: C
September 11, 2009
Tim Burton protege Shane Acker has proven a better student of the letter of his mentor's work than the spirit.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
September 11, 2009
Be all that as it may, the lack of character development and cohesive storytelling does hurt Acker's debut quite a bit. This is a movie I find myself wanting to love and embrace, but thanks to these regrettable slipups I just can't do it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
September 11, 2009
There's no denying that Acker has a knack for bleak landscapes and an inventive salvage-yard approach to character design, but his narrative skills are less developed.
September 11, 2009
In movies, our technology is so often the ruin of us. We got that message from Stanley Kubrick way back when, and we get it now. But couldn't filmmakers let something else ruin us for a change? Even the apocalypse needs variety.
September 11, 2009
The worst thing you can say about 9 is that it's the look, not the script, that keeps your interest.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
September 10, 2009
It's easy to see why Acker's gifts caught the attention of these directors; he's a visual craftsman of no little promise. Now if he can just stitch together a story with the same loving care that went into creating those digital burlap dolls...
September 10, 2009
It's hard to tell what the moral message is, other than "it's good to work together to achieve your goals" or "don't press random buttons unless you know what they might do."
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5