Shane Acker’s takes the audience on an extremely fast-paced thrill ride that maintains its momentum from the opening credits to the very end.
The film is backed by the legendary producer Tim Burton and an all-star cast of voice actors that includes Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly and many others.
The story of originated from a short film by the same title. The director, Acker, received an Oscar nomination for this short film, giving him the chance to turn his eleven-minute short film into a feature-length movie.
While may not be a truly Oscar-worthy film, it still entertains the audience from start to finish, which is one of the most important things movies should do. At only an hour and 19 minutes, the movie has no time to slow down, and the movie’s intensity never dies down as a result.
The film begins in an old, abandoned house where a doll wakes up in a world where life seems to be completely wiped out. This doll has been given the spark of life by an old scientist and is given the name “9” because he is the ninth doll that the scientist has brought to life.
This doll, voiced by Elijah Wood, quickly discovers that he is one of the few remaining life forms in a dark, post-apocalyptic world. Though he manages to find others like him, he also discovers that they are not completely alone.
The dystopian world of is set devoid of human life because machines have replaced men. These machines have eliminated all life on Earth, and the nine dolls are their next target.
As the movie progresses, the machines become more and more frightening. They certainly fit in with the dark and somewhat scary setting of the film, and they quickly turn potentially boring moments in the movie into intense action scenes. The anticipation of these scenes only adds to the intensity of the movie.
At first, it seemed like the ending of the movie left something to be desired, but that quickly changes. The ending ultimately fits in with the rest of the movie, so expect to be pretty satisfied with the movie as a whole. The fast-paced action is really one of the best parts of the movie, but many other things come together to form one of the best movies of the year.
For example, the director constructs a very believable world where men create machines and where the machines eventually take over the world. Granted, this isn’t the most original plot. It is actually repeated over and over in books and movies, but the plot still manages to capture the imagination of the post-apocalyptic genre fans.
The animation is also one of the key parts of the movie, and it clearly has Tim Burton’s stamp all over it. It’s nothing short of superb, and the fire and explosions in the movie are particularly phenomenal.
The movie definitely would not have the same effect if the animation wasn’t so attractive, and the visuals are really the most important part of the movie.
Acker’s short film didn’t even use dialogue because he believed that the visuals were able to tell the whole story.
In an effort to make the feature-length movie more commercial, much dialogue was added. Fortunately, it does not detract from the movie. In fact, the voice acting is really good, and it gives each doll a more defined personality.
is one of those rare movies where the film actually lives up to the promises that are made in the trailer. The trailer manages to capture the excitement and intensity of the movie and doesn’t make any empty promises.
Especially for a short-film turned feature-length, takes all of the promises from the trailer and delivers an explosive and fast-paced thriller that ranks as one of Tim Burton’s best movies.