Movie: 9

I had low expectations for this brought about by mediocre reviews and lack of popular appeal. I remember seeing the trailer for it about a year ago maybe and i liked what i saw but after hearing how it was criticized i placed it low on the list of priorities.
After watching it i understand why it wasn't well received. The production value of CG movies has become astounding. With funding giants like pixar and disney there's no lack of money to put top designers and hardware to task and create something remarkable visually. 9 didn't seem to have the same level of production value. It was a more modest offering in the world of CG as far as pure visuals are concerned. Specifically, the world in which the story took place seemed small and for a post apocalyptic setting, there could have been more going on that wasn't integral to the storyline. The visuals and architecture presented themselves only when they had an active role in the plot either as walking surfaces or minor physical challenges. I did like the darkness of the atmosphere and the recurrence of impending doom. It felt like a quirky video game i'd find myself enjoying thoroughly.
The story was relatively better than the production value, although not without flaw. The characters all seemed very simple and created for a specific purpose to advance the plot toward its conclusion. This means obvious protagonists and antagonists and fairly predictable decisions and actions from both. However, the characters conveyed human emotion surprisingly well. I felt sympathetic and wanted them to be safe and eventually end up the victors of the ultimate conflict which i'd rather not explain here.
There was one central theme that irked me at first, but was essential to the plot: The idea of the human spirit and the ability of the spirit to ascend somewhere. This story took a detour by way of an invention that projected parts of a human's spirit into rag dolls, which i thought was creative. This theme gave the characters a way to die without actually dying, so like i said, irksome because of my personal convictions but for the story, essential to create tension then relieve it with a nice happy ending SPOILED. The actual script wasn't terribly ambitious, but sharp and to the point, very little wasted time, which i appreciated for this type of movie.
So, overall, a modest, creative, quirky experience. One I enjoyed.

3/5