Escape to the Movies: 9

[Raregolddragon]

No one will read this but I will say it.

I saw 9 and District 9 on the same day and to be frank I liked 9 more. Why, because it did not have then first 45 min of boring background.

9 never loss my attention it had it the whole way though. But yes they could have done more with the doctor and background in to when he made the brain.

Also movie bob I am with you with you about the fucking anima boys at a book store I have to run the fuckers out everyday it seems, If you want to read the fucking book buy the fucking book!

 

[Raregolddragon]

I was actually looking forward to 9 and wanted to see if it fell flat or not, so it annoyed me when you decided to review weeaboos instead for the first half there. I'm pretty sure everyone hates these guys; it doesn't bear restating.

In any case, I can't say I was surprised. The original short was just visual excellence, and it seemed a stretch that they could pull out good plot and characters for it. Regardless, it gives my inner graphic designer a great big stiffy and I'll probably watch it just to sink in the visuals anyway.

I wonder why Titan AE was considered mature... I've watched it and it didnt have any mature stuff in it...

Mature doesn't mean tits and gore.

okay, so what makes it mature then?

Someone dies in it. I mean think of it when is the last time you seen a movie where nearly everyone dies in it.

Hell I actually though 9 was going to bite it never saw 1 jumping in, I figed 3 4 or 7 would do what he did.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I agree with Bob 100% on this review. (Not the whole weaboos thing, because I really don't care about that one way or another.) The animation was superb, the voice acting was excellent, the action was extremely well-done, and the story... well... the story was sort of like a drunken prairie dog: It popped up here and there and didn't make much sense when I saw it. Character exposition was almost nil (9 only knew 2 for, what, four minutes? Then spent the rest of the first half of the movie dead-set on rescuing him), and all the Numbers (I can't think of a better name for the group) are basically flat archetypes- the Distrustful Leader, the Dumb Muscle, the Wild Roamer, etc. I could pick out ten minutes of film spent on panning shots of dust-covered devastation that could instead have been used to give these characters more filling-out.

Though, like Bob said, it's not a BAD film. If you have any sort of interest in computer animation, it's worth seeing 9 just to experience how far CGI has come. If you like action movies, there's a fair amount of action here. If you want to become attached to complex characters, though... you're not going to get much of a chance here.

 

[Seamus8]

I wonder why Titan AE was considered mature... I've watched it and it didnt have any mature stuff in it...

You do realize someone gets their neck snapped?

 

[Reosoul]

I wonder why Titan AE was considered mature... I've watched it and it didnt have any mature stuff in it...

You do realize someone gets their neck snapped?

I can think of many things that are much more graphic and disturbing than a neck snap. Then again, I'm fairly desensitized.

 

[13lackfriday]

FUCKING THANK YOU!!! for giving Titan A.E. an honorable mention in the criminally unappreciated, adult animated feature list.
I grew up watching that movie, and I was dumbfounded on why no one else was spellbound by the amazing interstellar visuals, fantastic voice cast, and genuinely gripping plot (replete in betrayals as it was).

I was definitely impressed when I first saw the trailer and my thoughts were immediately reflected in the advertising for it a few weeks later (something along the lines of: "Definitely not your little brother's animated movie").
I thought it was badass how they could take something so innocent and insignificant as a ragdoll and throw it into a menacing, steampunk beast-filled postapocalyptic world.
I must admit I couldn't wait to see the little guys go to town on some terminator mecha-ass.

Not overly surprised by your review...I was only really interested in seeing it for the visuals anyways...seeing it all come to life would be fulfilling enough for me.

Edit:

Comments on anime blowhards' elitism and "base camps" hilariously true...

 

[jefequeso]

Let's see...
"Great visuals but boring and predictible story"

That pretty much describes Pixar movies, too. Yet they keep getting 9s and 10s across the board.

 

[RootbeerJello]

Now, you can't criticize the ending because it was supposed to bear some resemblance to the ending of the original animation, which it does surprisingly well given the changes to the story. So unless Acker's actually a stuck up bag of ass who knew all along that 9 would be expanded into a movie but couldn't be shitted to make it work, the ending's pretty good in a WTF kind of way. The problem with 9 was that it was a bland plot in a beautiful world that's exceedingly equatable to Crysis. I overall liked it because it stimulated the "Look! Stuff on fire!" portion of my brain. Final notes; the twins kicked ass, loved the anime tirade.

 

[Woem]

As far as adult-oriented animation movies goes, I would definitely advise The Secret of NIMH [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084649/]. The Walt Disney Company originally rejected this project because it was perceived to be "too dark" and complicated to be a financial hit.

 

[mykalwane]

Nice job, thank you for hitting all the points I thought when I saw the trailer. I personally wish you did a little bit more since it kind of sounds like that is what you did. This is simply from the point of view that the review is point on point what I thought of when seeing the trailers is all. That is why I personally wish you did a bit more is all.

Those that have anything to say about NMHs being used keep in mind NMH is satirical game. It is making fun of those things, much in this usage is doing exactly what the game does. If there is any question to that still I suggest you cheek out http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/2008/04/episode-one-matter-of-character.html for his thoughts on NMH.

 

[KingKamor]

Why all the hate for anime fans? I'm sorry that you seem to have had bad experiences with us, but just know that we aren't all like that.

Anyway, back on topic.

I found the movie incredibly disappointing. The original short was good, the trailers for the full-length movie were even better, but all they really did was pile all their hopes on the animation and tacked on what felt like a pre-made, insert-your-characters-here Hollywood adventure movie plot. Throughout the whole movie, I kept saying to myself "Okay, that dialogue/scene/whatever was kinda bad, but I'll bet that the rest of the movie's gonna kick ass!" But it never really did.

The twins were cool, though. Probably because they had more personality than any of the other characters... and they couldn't even speak.

 

[kommunizt kat]

I wonder why Titan AE was considered mature... I've watched it and it didnt have any mature stuff in it...

You do realize someone gets their neck snapped?

so? seen a lot of that in anime, besides it was an alien...

 

[mykalwane]

Why all the hate for anime fans? I'm sorry that you seem to have had bad experiences with us, but just know that we aren't all like that.

Not a hate, more of just pointing out the bad apples is what it looked like to me.

 

[Sylocat]

Let's see...
"Great visuals but boring and predictible story"

That pretty much describes Pixar movies, too. Yet they keep getting 9s and 10s across the board.

Uh, no, actually, that doesn't describe Pixar movies.

 

[stagedlink]

I saw nine last night and woul dhave to agree with him. I was just underwhelmed. Maybe becasue I heard the name Tim Burton I was expecting something a bit creepier with a more original plot, but other than the visuals and good action parts, I was just kinda...eh. But My major concern about this review is BEOWULF? Really? Underrated? I think its possibly one of the worst movies I've see. Sure, it looked pretty (amazing actually sometimes I though I was watching a live action) but the storyline was aweful. Perhaps if I hadn't read the epic in highschool I wouldn't have minded as much, but it deviated so much from the source material (and not in a positive way) that I just couldn't enjoy it.

 

[Falseprophet]

I used to be one of those extremist otaku, until I read this book in grad school called The Anime Encyclopedia [http://www.amazon.com/Anime-Encyclopedia-Japanese-Animation-Expanded/dp/1933330104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252959899&sr=8-1] and learned most of the "totally original" plot ideas from anime actually came from 1950s British and American science fiction. I don't hate anime as a format, and I still consider Neon Genesis Evangelion one of the greatest series of all time, anime or no, but I'm a lot more selective these days. Sturgeon's Law applies to anime as much as anything else, and for every ground-breaking series or film you get a load of derivative and unoriginal crap.

FUCKING THANK YOU!!! for giving Titan A.E. an honorable mention in the criminally unappreciated, adult animated feature list.
I grew up watching that movie, and I was dumbfounded on why no one else was spellbound by the amazing interstellar visuals, fantastic voice cast, and genuinely gripping plot (replete in betrayals as it was).

I agree that Titan's visuals (especially the ice field sequence at the climax) and voice acting were fantastic. I just didn't like the plot at all. I hate energy beings in science fiction (though points to Titan AE for making them villains instead of cosmic messiahs), I don't usually find one-dimensional antagonists to be interesting--much less mature--unless they're extremely charismatic or fun to watch (Kurgan or Joker? Win. Drej? Fail), the montages set to 80s hair metal seemed archaic and cheesy (like I was watching the Transformers animated movie again), and, well, at the time I'd had it up to here with plots about the main character's daddy issues.

I wonder why Titan AE was considered mature... I've watched it and it didnt have any mature stuff in it...

I understood "mature" meant that it was aimed at 15-year-olds instead of 8-year-olds. Like Exosquad, Batman: the Animated Series, or Clone High. It's extremely rare that fiction with an adolescent protagonist can truly be considered adult fare, and Titan AE was no Catcher in the Rye.

 

[sorry user name taken.]

i agree with the anime bit...but i'm surprised there not open minded about it o.o

but on with 9...i still want to see it because i think it deserves the $9...((that's cheap i think since I'm from the uk)) and i think movies are kicking ass this year shame games aren't but at least we have the movies such as...avatar to look forward to as well (and alice in wonder but that's next year T__T )

 

[Jonatron]

-LOUD UNCONTOLLABLE COUGH- Excuse me! I pretty much forgot about that game. All it was was a dude carring a lightsaber and decapitating people whihc intern trigger very graphic bloodly messes, it was medicore at best.

You miss the emphisis on characters and nostalgia completely.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Spore was last year, 9 was this year. I was really looking forward to this film, and it sucks that it just wasn't that good.

Let's see...
"Great visuals but boring and predictible story"

That pretty much describes Pixar movies, too. Yet they keep getting 9s and 10s across the board.

So what part about an old man tying balloons to his house to fly to another country with a little kid and a talking dog and a giant bird is boring and predictable?

 

[jefequeso]

Spore was last year, 9 was this year. I was really looking forward to this film, and it sucks that it just wasn't that good.

Let's see...
"Great visuals but boring and predictible story"

That pretty much describes Pixar movies, too. Yet they keep getting 9s and 10s across the board.

So what part about an old man tying balloons to his house to fly to another country with a little kid and a talking dog and a giant bird is boring and predictable?

Actually, 'Up' was the best Pixar movie in awhile.

What I mean is that while the basic idea for their movies may be clever, the actual plots are formulaic and cliched. I'd rather have an un-original setting and a creative, interesting plot than vise-versa.