9

Welcome to another episode of The "D" List.

Today's review is 9. Directed by Shane Acker. Written by Pamela Pettler based on a story by Shane Acker.

With the popularity and quality of CG animated films growing by leaps and bounds every year, it gets harder to top the latest hit. With Pixar dominating the genre, everyone else is either trying to take their crown (which is an ill advised move in my opinion) play catch up or get out of their way. There is however, a film that comes along that doesn't try to challenge Pixar. Instead they strike out on their own and make a film that is the exact opposite of what the folks at Disney crank out.

9 is one of those films.

This film was the creation of director Shane Acker in the form of an 11 minute silent short that he made in college. It became so popular it caught the eye of tinseltown and in the blink of an eye, 9 was optioned into a feature film.

The story takes us into a world where technology becomes so advanced that it eventually turns against it's human control. Sounds familiar right? Does Terminator or the Matrix come to mind? Here's however, where 9 avoids the been there done that feel. Humanity is completely eradicated. The only signs of life are a series of numbered rag dolls that were brought to life by the same scientist that created the robotic technology. The film follows the journey of the 9th doll created as he wakes up and tries to figure out where he came from and if there are any others like him that exist. He meets up with more of his kind which sets off the rest of the story.

I won't get into what happens next. Not because of spoilers but because it will just magnify my disappointment. This film had the potential to be great but it misses the mark by a small margin because of an underdeveloped plot.

That's what confused me the most about this film. The story, characters and soul of 9 was created by Acker but someone else wrote the screenplay. Why? That to me doesn't make any sense. You have the 1 element at your disposal that can give you the clearest, tightest and most important aspect, a coherent story line and they go to someone else to flesh out the details and expand on Acker's short film.

This is a complaint I have with studios and the movie business in general. You have all read me write about this before and I will once again write about it. I keep scratching my head over the notion that studios continue to bring in someone to write a screenplay based on someone else's material/idea when said person is not only at your disposal but involved in other aspects of the making of the film.

There is NO WAY you can convince me otherwise that another writer is more capable to write a screenplay based on an idea than the original creator/writer. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean to say that the writers that are brought in aren't good. I just don't see how they can be better than the creator of the material they are trying to adapt.

This is where 9 falls short. The story is very fast and could have used some beats of pause to establish character depth or origin stories. It's sprinkled throughout but it's not enough to give you a clear view of the overall purpose of these characters.

On the plus side, the animation is stellar and there are several action scenes that are top notch. Very exciting stuff to look at. I just wanted more education on the world we were in. It would have made the experience so much more enjoyable. One more note. This film may be animated but it might be too intense for kids. The dolls are not cute to look at and the "creatures" they fight are scary enough to keep the little ones up at night so proceed with caution.

I liked this film a lot. The problem is that it had the potential for me to love it and it just fell short.

On the 5 star scale. 9 gets 2.5 stars with a split "Give It A Shot/Netflix It" recommendation.

That's all for today.

Up next....

The Informant
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
The Invention of Lying

On the maybe list....

Zombieland
Capitalism: A Love Story

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"