9's Visuals a Perfect 10

Film tells of burlap robot battling through frightening world
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 9, 2009 9:59 AM CDT

The creepy tale of 9, which depicts a burlap-bodied robot’s (Elijah Wood) quest for his origins while battling bad guys in a post-apocalyptic world, looks incredible—but its script leaves something to be desired.

  • “Long on imaginative design but less substantial in narrative, this dreary story of fighting the power is more numbing than thought-provoking,” writes Claudia Puig in USA Today.

  • “The script is bland with an amateur political message tacked onto it, but 9 is still something to marvel at,” notes Natasha Vargas-Cooper for E!. “Animator Shane Acker's sinewy creatures, voracious metallic monsters, and scorched planet web together to create stunning visuals and a haunting story.”
  • “Even though it grows a little busy at times and concludes with an unfortunate and unconvincing foray into mystico-spiritual mumbo jumbo, 9 shows remarkable imagination and visual integrity,” writes AO Scott in the New York Times.
(More film stories.)

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