9
PG-13 for violence and scary images
The dark, original, punk-cuddly, post-apocalypitic animated head-scratcher that is "9" is all about shortness. The title is just one digit. The characters are three-inches tall, max. And the running time clocks in at less than 80 minutes. But the story is big on ideas about tech, worship, and the human soul.
The Story
A collection of living rag dolls -- steam-punked together out of burlap and mechanical eyes and geared hands and mysteriously alive -- exist in a bombed out post-apocalyptic city. They have survived for years hiding, mostly, in an old cathedral while the war between the machines and the humans wound down, leaving no other survivors other than a terrifying mechanical robot cat who hunts them.
When a new doll (Elijah Wood) shows up with a 9 drawn on his back, he is helped by 2 (Martin Landau), an old inventor quickly captured and carried off by the cat. When 9 is found by 5 (John C. Reilly) and brought to 1 (Christopher Plummer), the newcomer suggests they go after the cat and rescue 2. But 1 refuses, saying the only safe option is to give 2 up for dead, along with the others.
Undaunted, 9 convinces 5 to come with him and the pair are soon joined by the presumed-dead 7 (Jennifer Connelly), a doll with major fighting skills. At first successful in their quest, 9 makes a grave tactical error that leads to the loss of one of their own -- and awakens a nightmare.
What follows is a fast-paced series of action scenes during which the little creatures must stop a diabolical machine and figure out the secret to their own existence before all traces of humanity are lost forever.
The Verdict
What we thought of the movie on its own terms
What Works: "9" began as an 11-minute short film by UCLA animation student Shane Acker. It was visually inventive enough to earn him an Oscar nomination, the attention of Tim Burton, and the funding to turn 11 minutes into 79 and feature-length story.
His dark vision is still stunning, filled with rich textures, fluid movement, and the gritty, mechanized atmosphere of a haunted, scarred post-WW II Europe.
The story itself is most satisfying (as are the characters) in the beginning when we really have no idea what's going on. The film promises more than it can deliver, but the questions it asks are intriguing enough to keep you tuned in. And the action scenes, on their own, deliver excitement and surprises. The whole thing is quite an achievement.
What Doesn't Work: For me, the story grows less interesting the more we learn, especially when the key secret is revealed toward the end of the film. After that moment, the characters, too, begin to lose their appeal, from my perspective. And the film ends with a befuddling climax that's less than satisfying. You know you've seen something cool-looking and new but maybe not quite finished enough.
Content: "9" contains no sexual content or harsh language, but it is definitely not a kids' animated film. It is set in a world in which all of humanity is presumed dead (including some corpses still lying around). The violence is not bloody, but it is scary and fatal in a few places, and the story is built on some "dark science" (magic?) that has to do with the transport of unwilling souls.
Worldview
How the film's take on life compares with a biblical perspective
[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT KEY INFO REVEALED BEFORE SEEING THE FILM!]
In "9," Shane Acker and his team play around with the idea of the human soul, the thing that sets us apart from the increasingly advanced machines we keep creating. Without a soul, he seems to be saying, machines are destined to become destructive, even evil.
In one sense, that idea is a welcome break from a materialist/evolutionary worldview which assumes humanity exists without a soul, that we are the sum of our biochemical parts. But while Acker's world may be referencing human religion -- with its cathedrals and legalistic, pope-like leader -- it's hard to say whether he is embracing or rejecting the idea of God.
Is the scientist who puts his own soul into his nine hand-made creatures a version of God? Is our quest as created beings to free ourselves from our soul slavery to our technology? Maybe that's what Acker is up to.
Or maybe he's borrowing from some of the non-Christian mystical religions in which the soul can be manipulated, traded, trapped, and freed by "dark science" and magic spells and symbols. Are the unleashed souls (or soul parts?) at the end of the film released to go to heaven, some other version of the afterlife, or just to be assimilated back into the universe? It's hard to say.
What's clear is that Acker's story is suspicious of technology and our eagerness to embrace it in the name of science and advancement. He is, at the least, cautioning us about where we put our hope and trust as a civilization.
The Bible would agree with that warning. Science and technology are not evil in themselves, but both can easily be made into false gods and idols. Solomon taught repeatedly that wisdom is found first in trusting God most. And Peter urged tech-hungry Christians to set our hope "fully" on the grace of God and our future with Him in eternity. (See 1 Peter 1:13.)
But the Bible presents a different conclusion from that of Acker's scientist about why the machines go bad in the end. The scientist's feeling is that the machines lack a human soul. God's Word tells us that the human soul is the problem. It should not surprise us that our best inventions reflect our own corruption.
You've probably heard Jeremiah's description of the human heart: "deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (17:9) What we need most is not to be saved from our machines, but from ourselves.
And that's exactly why Jesus stitched His only Son into a human body to live our existence and die the death we deserved to save our souls from an eternity apart from Him. It is a gift that requires no tech to access and only faith to receive. (Check out Ephesians 2:1-10 for a better description.)
Questions
- Did you dig the animation in "9"? How does it stack up to some of your other favorite animated films?
- Were you surprised when you found out what was going on with the little creatures? Did you get a little lost -- like I did -- with what was going on at the end of the film?
- Do you tend to think of technology as mostly good or mostly bad? Why?
- Do you think you've ever been guilty of putting too much trust in technology to meet your needs? Do you think you've ever slipped over into making technology a kind of idol? How can we avoid doing that?
- In your own words, how would you briefly describe what the human soul is and what condition it is in with and/or without Christ?
- When the film was over, did you wish it had been a little longer? Why or why not?
- What's the next shortest movie title you can think of after "9"?
