Review of 9 (2009) by Chads. — 10 Sep 2009
Give them pants; give them genitalia, these nine dog chew toys who were specially created to save the world. Via an electronic transmission from the pre-recorded dead, 9(voiced by Elijah Wood) learns from the agnate that he and his predecessors are "the future", but a future hinges on their ability to multiply.
Similar to the Smurfs, a lone female walks among the dog chew toys; she's the instrument by which the scientist can carry out his plan for posterity. Without giving these otherworldly creations the means to reproduce, however, throws a monkey wrench into the moviegoer's conjecture, and makes the visionary scientist seems less visionary.
(Or rather, the rationale of the screenplay is seriously flawed.) Peyo gave the Smurfs pants; they were packin', which made Smurfette's gender, of consequence. Clocking in under eighty minutes, the filmmaker didn't have enough time to properly address the division of sexes, only doing so briefly in a scene where 9 brushes 7's hand off her cloth "skin".
If the dog chew toys were given pants, the scientist's plan for future generations could be hinted at, without mucking up its PG-13 rating. His soliloquy about the future seems nonsensical if the numbers are finite.
Because they're depicted as asexual beings, the moviegoer may overlook 7's decision to fight "the beast" as being a reckless one. It's of paramount importance that she stays alive.
The absence of man, or anything organic within the torched landscapes, suggest she's the planet's last hope for renewal. Comparisons to "The Terminator" movies are obvious, but less obvious is the film's similarity to the dead world of "Cars", where artificial intelligence runs rampant without human interference.
This review of 9 (2009) was written by Chads. on 10 Sep 2009.
9 has generally received positive reviews.
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