Film Review - Nine

9 is an animated film set in a post-apocolyptic world, and has all the potential to be great, yet falls at each hurdle.

The film was directed by Shane Acker, and produced by Tim Burton. His influence is very clear in the designs of the landscape and of the characters. The characters are small rag-dolls that have been brought to life by a scientist, the designs of the rag dolls are definitely Burton-esque and very 'Nightmare before Christmas'.

My first problem with this film is it's storyline. The character '9' wakes up in an empty house and walks out into the world, meets '2'. Meets a cat beast. Cat beast eats '2'. I could go on...

The plot kicks in immediately, and we see the backstory - which is far more interesting than the film itself. I wanted to see the big robots attacking the people, not the rag dolls running away and hiding beneath a helmet.

Basically, I found the story to be dull, dull, dull. The characters weren't likeable (9 was really annoying... and that's not because of Elijah Wood), and I kept on forgetting who was who. The backstory would have made a much better film, but we've seen that done millions of times. It was like the Matrix crossed with War of the Worlds - with annoying rag dolls.

So. I was rather indifferent to this film, I wouldn't watch it again and I'm glad I didn't see it at the cinema. It was visually great on Blu-Ray but even that couldn't make up for the plot.

Fans of Tim Burton will most likely enjoy this, because it does have gothic elements and that signature style of his. But if you're looking for an exciting sci-fi flick, Star Trek or District Nine do it so much better.

2/5