Shane Acker's 9

REVIEW: 9 IMDB

INTRO STUFF

9-9-9

• What was the greatest video game system ever 10 years ago…Dreamcast!
  • Microsoft stole the controller format for the X-Box, but helped with the programming language
  • Loved Shenmue, Soul Caliber, NFL 2K, PowerStone, toy commander, Crazy Taxi, House of Dead 2, and Rush 2012
  • Poor Sega's last console
• In Mandarin Chinese, the number "9" is pronounced the same as the word "jiu" which means "forever, perpetual or eternal." (triple 9 day)
• Not very many good movies coming out apparently – bad previews Can't wait for new TV season...lol
• Strange theater experience; the pause right before the previews play – felt like a cold shower. They begin to pull you into the movie experience and then STOP!

OPENING SCENE

• Got me excited to see Bioshock with all of the art deco décor, the 40’s characters, and some of the music. I was thinking more of a 20's era (maybe just the machine guns of the bad robots), but that might just be me...
• Probably scare some kids with the dark nature of the creatures; the snake with the doll face, skull cap of some rodent for the head of the first creature. Yeah, who is this movie really for? Adults or kids??? I am not sure if the movie even knows...
• It was well done, but it took me awhile to get into the story
  • They try to introduce a character (#2) very quickly to get a few answers and then the conflict with the cat beast

The terminator plot was revitalized with the Matrix and he felt the need to try again with “the rise of the machines”
That was really tired, I agree...

CHARACTERS (Posters)

• #1 - Christopher Plummer - great voice for the part
• #2 - Martin Landau
• #3 and #4 - the Twins
• reminded me of a Star Trek episode. The little blue guys from episode 11001001 (16 of season 1). They took over the ship so they could save their people, but they communicated in a manner that was similar in nature to the twins in 9.
• #5 - John Reilly - recognized from his horrible vampire role in the previews and of course from Anger Management
• #6 - Crispin Glover - wish he had been creepier to give him more validity
• #7 - Jennifer Connely - Always makes me think of Labyrinth with David Bowe
• #8 - Fred Tatasciore - Not too much verbiage
• Funny when he had the magnet on his head. Was that supposed to be drugs of some sort, what a funny twist to the characters
• #9 - Elijah Wood
• The Professor
• He was apparently the last person left alive - what a survivor
• The child and mom in the car (beginning sequence) looked pretty fresh, but they probably didn't want to show a skeleton

They follow some interesting mysticism by placing the coin on number 2’s eyes as they float him down the river.
The typical doll face used to make things just as spooky as usual, Toy Story, Chucky

1. Strange connections in their symbolism and characters
   1. #1 had a ‘pope’ looking hat and they lived in a church and he just so happened to be a coward and hateful...
   2. The factory that housed the robot looked like Notre Dame
   3. Doubt everything - never question the ruler, rules, rules, rules…
   4. They are saved by a woman, which is typical of today’s hero. A man must never be the strong one or the movie must be subjecting us to the evil patriarchal society of years past. But the heroine is never strong, just agile...which is, in itself, kind of a throw-back

QUESTIONS

1. What did #1 really know?
2. What gave away the combination to the three symbols? (I may have missed it when I was writing notes)
3. So apparently the soul and the mind of man are like a cat’s 9 lives?
4. What was the point of the MacGuffin? Were the nine supposed to merge with the machine to give it the professor's soul? Might have resulted in a better endi

THE MACGUFFIN

• The device that gave the lifeless sack creatures life from their creator

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Chuck MacGuffin: Rating 2

• The ending was anti-climactic for me because I saw his thesis film.
• It felt like the scene from Return of the Jedi at the end where Yoda and Ben Kanobi were with the ewoks in their spirit form.
• Sadly I wanted to answer number 7’s question in the end, “where do we go from here.” "No where, kill this ride so we do not have to subject ourselves to another pseudo post apocalyptic world."

Mike MacGuffin: Rating 3

• I probably would have enjoyed it if he had followed a Halloween theme so he could continue to change the series with the seasons, or at least have a possibility of change (the typical Tim Burton movies). As it is, their world sucks.
• The rain will just rust their metal parts and end the series. Were the green bits in the rain their souls??? That is a little strange...
• Great for a beginning film student, but nothing I will ever follow