9

Science fiction

WITH THE VOICES OF
Elijah Wood: No. 9
Martin Landau: his first acquaintance, No. 2
Christopher Plummer: the group’s leader, No. 1
John C. Reilly: one-eyed No. 5
Jennifer Connelly: No. 7
and others no doubt

REVIEW
Another movie about the end of civilization with the survivors having to deal with a changed world, this one is too scary for children, too boring for everyone else. Offering up state of the art computer generated animation is not enough: there has to be a story worth watching. And that’s where it fails miserably.

Instead it is simply a series of action scenes while they run and hide from the mechanical monster followed by a brief period of inane dialogue until another crisis comes along which precipitates the next batch of action scenes. It soon becomes predictive and not very interesting. And not a funny line anywhere; not surprising given the grim, gloomy place they find themselves in.

With no opportunity to get to know these rag doll creatures (they have no names, just a number) it is impossible to be emotionally involved in their situation. So you watch them scurry about dispassionately. Seemed pointless so I walked out.

CLASSIFICATION
for violence and scary images.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
No. 9’s zipper is closed when No. 2 shows him the missing part. No. 2 then proceeds to insert it in No. 9 whose zipper has magically unzipped itself.

P.S.
I was not the first to leave the theatre part way through. Two couples had better sense than me and left before I did.