Visually marvelous. Action packed. An interesting story. But then they had to start talking...
Shane Acker has certainly studied Jan Svenkmaier (sp?), with his wonderful little creatures constructed of odds and ends, climbing around a world in ruins. Of course, the great Animator of Prague would have done the whole thing in stop-motion rather than CG, but I don't hold that against "9"; it works. But where "9" falls down is in the dialog. If this same story had been told in pantomime, or in some made-up language (or even Czech?), certain holes in the plot would have slipped by unnoticed. Why DID 9 place the talisman in the Machine? Was it necessary to bring the machine to life just so it would have to be destroyed again? If there were no intelligible dialog trying to make sense of this, we would never realize that in fact it makes little or no sense at all. The action IS told well enough through the images alone, and the visuals are SO evocative, that tone and character and exposition (just enough) would have been conveyed without any language at all.
Besides, John C. Reilly bugs me.
Shane Acker has certainly studied Jan Svenkmaier (sp?), with his wonderful little creatures constructed of odds and ends, climbing around a world in ruins. Of course, the great Animator of Prague would have done the whole thing in stop-motion rather than CG, but I don't hold that against "9"; it works. But where "9" falls down is in the dialog. If this same story had been told in pantomime, or in some made-up language (or even Czech?), certain holes in the plot would have slipped by unnoticed. Why DID 9 place the talisman in the Machine? Was it necessary to bring the machine to life just so it would have to be destroyed again? If there were no intelligible dialog trying to make sense of this, we would never realize that in fact it makes little or no sense at all. The action IS told well enough through the images alone, and the visuals are SO evocative, that tone and character and exposition (just enough) would have been conveyed without any language at all.
Besides, John C. Reilly bugs me.