‘9′ movie doesn’t get a 10 … or a 9
Image from roberthood.net.
Sometimes timing just isn’t enough to make a movie into an event. The makers of “9″ the movie planned from the beginning to have the film released on 09-09-09, and I would bet my payday check that they came up with that idea before they came up with the movie idea.
I’m not saying “9″ movie reviews are terrible — they’re not. On a scale of 1 to 10, “9″ got a 6.2 from critics. I don’t think that a 62 percent is what the film’s many producers, including Tim Burton, director Shane Acker and Focus Features were aiming for. That’s the score the film received from the collection of critics on Rotten Tomatoes. It got the same score on Metacritic, another site that features a collection of “9″ movie reviews. That’s a D-minus in high school terms, which is not great news for a $33 million film.
Stay tuned for ‘9′ movie trailer
The CleverTV anchor who introduces the “9″ movie trailer at the end of this posts correctly states: “This might be one of the best-pedigreed animated films in a long time.” The movie’s cast includes Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer, Marting Landau and Crispin Glover.
Is glass 62 percent full?
Of course, 62 percent also means that more than half the critics who wrote “9″ movie reviews liked it, so the majority of the reviews were good. To use Metacritic’s terminology, it got “generally favorable reviews.” I am sure the filmmakers would have liked better reviews for a movie released on 09-09-09 that is described as “a post-apocalyptic nightmare in which all of humanity is threatened.”
The good news is, a movie’s reception by critics often is not reflected in box office earnings, and sometimes not even in popular opinion. I am sure “9″ movie will make its $33 million back, and I predict it’ll make another $50 million or $60 million on top of that. If it weren’t for the fact that critics have made it clear this PG-13 film is too intense for young kids, it’d probably crack $100 million easily. Without further ado, here are a few highlights from “9″ movie reviews.
The good
Lou Lumenik from the New York Post compares the movie “9″ to another recent sci-fi release “District 9.” The major difference between these flicks is that “District 9″ is live-action, while “9″ the movie is all CGI, with characters that resemble crocheted dolls.
Luminek says he prefers “9″ the movie to “District 9.” However, like most “9″ movie reviews, his is a little mixed. He writes:
Where the two films differ are Acker’s intoxicatingly rich visuals for the devastated world of “9,” which draw extensively on the steampunk style. “9″ may not be an instant classic like “Wall-E,” but it signals the arrival of Shane Acker as an audacious new talent to watch.
The rich visuals Luminek speaks of include the characters, which are 8-inch tall robots that look like dolls. The film’s main character is No. 9. The movies “9″ and “District 9″ are both feature-length films based on previously made shorts.
The bad
David Edelstein of New York Magazine says this about “9″: “The movie is dreary and monotonous, the vision junky in more ways than one.”
Edelstein says of the “9″ movie: “It’s hard to get worked up about yet another post apocalyptic fantasy in which it’s the machines that have exterminated mankind.” However, Edelstein, along with all the other “9″ movie reviews I have read, does admit that the visuals have a definite “wow” factor.
Watch the ‘9′ movie trailer
Tim Burton is at it again with his dark, somewhat evil creations. He always comes out with the strangest things, which is one of the reasons why I admire him as a movie director. I was surprised to find out that Tim Burton actually worked for Disney back in the day. He worked on one of my favorite childhood Disney movies, “The Fox and the Hound.” And because of his unique sense of style, Disney allowed him the freedom to work on his own personal projects, which led to the supernatural comedy “Beetle Juice”. He also worked on the 1989 “Batman”, another fact I was not aware of. That film pulled in more than $250 million worldwide, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time. Although it was his least personal film, it sure gave Tim Burton a lot of love and recognition.
I think the movie was absoluteley fabulous and stunning to watch. I am a BIG fan of Burton and I like this new movie. Go 9!
Well you just lost your paycheck (only joking). The movie 9 was an animated short by Shane Acker before it became a feature film. It had been running on the indie film circuit for a couple years before FOCUS picked it up and reached out to Mr. Burton for direction. The film had been in the can for nearly 5 months prior to its debut. The idea to release “9″ on 09/09/09 was a logical decision, one that would also allow the movie to be marketed at COMIC CON before it’s release. This proved to be a very effective marketing strategy and created a lot of buzz because of the QR Code strategies our client Warbasse Design provided for the film and the “digital one-sheets” that became the by-product of the work.
amazing animation and lydias right it was crazy good!!!! i loved every minuet of it! highly recommend it!!!! best movie made in years!