Mark's Talk

9

The first caveat: If i liked the steampunk style, this would definitely be a 3.5 star and potentially 4.

Now some training for cinen00bs:
Repeat to yourself in mantra style until you have properly remembered it: "Shane Acker wrote and directed this, not Tim Burton. Tim Burton produced." OR shortened, "Shane Acker's 9". Got it? Okay now say aloud Timur Bekmambetov's name until you got it down (Tee-mur Beck-mum-beh-toff) because if you didn't know about him already, he's one of the top directors in the world, specializing in flawless action and monumental visual flair; for this film, he also produced. Okay we go that out the way, and you know this isn't a "Tim Burton's _____" film and that Bekmambetov is quite entrenched in Hollywood now.

Onto actual review:
The story of 9 is a simple and interesting take on the post-human landscape where robots rose to destroy society. The focus of the film is on a handful of sentient puppets who seem to be among the few creatures left alive in a desolate landscape. The detailed design of these puppet characters is amazing and beautiful. They have simple character traits and are one-dimensional cutout characters (and the story tries to justify this with its ultimate revelation about these creatures' sentience). The animation is amazing and presents equally over-the-top action with gargantuan mechanical creations and emotional exchange between the tiny characters.

It's great if you like action, but I found the action segments to be numbing to my senses. Some of the interpersonal exchanges are quite convincing, but sometimes the cutout nature of these characters intervenes and makes a give-and-take too predictable. Still, the simple animations of the numbers' eyes and mouths was enough to keep my mind engaged.

The end was not satisfying for me, but the moments of questing for that truth were quite cool. The thought that went into these designs (and the fictional origin of these designs) is immense and unbelievably executed. When I couldn't care about the simple plot or immense action scenes, there were always novel design details to absorb.

I don't understand the PG-13 rating, except that I know that rating has grown immensely in the past few years as PG becomes far more tame. To me, this is a very PG movie, and actually the people (age-wise) who will gain the most from this are in the 6-12 range. There are too many scary images for small children, but any child who has acquired any sophistication re:"real vs. fake" and the magic of cinema will be utterly enthralled by this story. For me, it didn't have enough emotional resonance because I have been exposed to far too many stories in my short lifespan. To a green mind, this is an intriguing and possibly standout parable with a sharp message of 'The human spirit can and will overcome the "inevitable" robot apocalypse.'

Ultimately, visuals over storytelling (who didn't expect that), but a veritable heaven for lovers of the steampunk aesthetic.

Chemical Wedding

The Deadly Spawn

Fantastic Sci-fi horror shocker is one of the best and overlooked cult classics ever! this has always been a favorite of mine for years, the special effects despite the budget were good and the violence is gory, the music score is funky and this is great fun for any sci-fi and horror fan around.

Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street

It's not hard for this film to be brilliant. The camera just has to be running on these people, and then it is up to the makers to dig through the three years of footage to compile a coherent story.

All of them are young, introspective, resourceful, friendly, and full of potential. But they are also all very filled with sadness, in great despair, in ill health, in dangerous situations, and rarely happy because they are all addicted to heroin. It would not be surprising if a followup done today would reveal all the participants, or at least a majority, to now be dead of a drug-related cause. At the conclusion, two main subjects have AIDS and are not receiving treatment, and one of them is still prostituting despite a looming charge of attempted murder if charged again with prostitution.

Of course when dealing with this topic, the content will be saddening, but the factor that determines whether or not the film is good is if it is revealing. And this film does reveal in horrific detail the reality of junkie living. We see their battered bodies, bruises and burst blood vessels spotting their skin from frequent injection and dramatic weight losses from neglecting eating for fixing. We see them in the throes of withdrawal and, more rarely, doped to the point of complete loss of awareness with their only spoken sentiments being about their specific despairs and missing loved ones. We see them lurking on street corners to advertise for dates, visiting public restrooms to shoot up, using pay phones to contact dealers, and running small dealing operations out of temporary and deteriorating living spaces. We see them attempting relationships with other addicts, but it seems that what draws these people together is their addiction and mutual need for supporting their addiction. We see them attempting to regain their lives when jail or death looms, but we also witness them inevitably falling back into the deadly grip of addiction.

Great documentaries reveal stark reality, and this film certainly accomplishes that.