I give it 4-5. Only because I wish it were a tad longer to flesh out the characters better (3, 4, and 6 didn't get much air time).
Now, just to let people know who have seen previews of it, no, it has nothing to do with Little Big Planet. The movie is based on a short made YEARS before the game. The ending has a decent nod to it as well ^^
Non spoiler ahoy:
The movie is basically about a small roughly 6" tall burlap clad robot waking to a world of a distant future where something horrible has happened, scorching the world and humanity and animals nowhere to be in sight. His only clue is a small, half-sphere thing with three markings on it.
As the little toy being makes his way outside, he finds others like him and has a connection to them as they are all named by number (the main character obviously being named 9). However, they aren't alone... Something sinister, something more savage and cruel hides in the dark and stalks them... The choice of running and hiding or fighting the unknown enemy must be made.
highlight for spoiler details-
Okay, let's break down just who is who:
- 1: Elder figure, a kind of tactual warlord and possibly the first made due to age and worn look. Personality is rather miserable and stubborn.
2: An inventor, also rather aged. Is able to build rather impressive things with scraps of the old world and has a cheerful personality and an open mind.
3 and 4: mute, child-like twins who were designed to snapshot their surroundings, objects, articles, and everything around themselves to document. These two are walking libraries, always learning and willing to share their knowledge to those who need it.
5: 2's mechanical apprentice. He's more meek and modest compared to 2, but respects him and regards him as a great teacher as well as a great friend, inspiring him to pursue his own goals in building things. Something to note is he is the only doll to have one eye, due to a past event where he was in danger and 2 had saved his life when 1 felt it was necessary to leave him behind so the group can save themselves.
6: He's the basket case. He often draws a symbol of some sort, speaking of strange things like "return to the source". He seems to be mostly a loner due to being seemingly crazy, but 2 understood it was just his design. 6 happens to be a talented artist as well.
7: My personal favorite character (voiced by Jennifer Connelly). She's very agile and looks to be a sort of Lancer or Dragoon, able to leap high and run quickly, wielding a spear with ease and wearing a feather cape and bird skull helmet. She is brave, adventurous, but gentle as well, being possbly the only lady (as the twins having no voice sho no signs of being male, female, both, or non). One joke that comes to my mind is she's "Seven of Nine". *bricked*
8: Bigger and stronger then all the other dolls, though, also dumber. He acts as the muscle and personal body guard for 1. He usually carries a large sword and magnet (the magnet is used as his drug, as holding it over his head, his eyes static up and he feels a calming pleasure. This may have helped his mind decay into the stupid tank that he is).
9: Again, the main character. Brave, but knowing fear. He seems to be the Mario of the group, being balanced with a lot of the traits the others have. He is decently strong, he can be fast, he's quick thinking, can build well, has good memory, and can draw almost as good as 6. At some point, he is recognized as the key to save the group and lead them through anything.
It's unknown how much time had passed from when the group got together and when 9 showed up, but it seems to be that 9 was made a few years after the other 8, but didn't activate much later (it's hard to tell the time as the body looks well aged and decayed, but the world lacks insects and bacteria needed to properly break the body down, so the old man's body is in a kind of preserved stasis).
Sadly, poor 2 suffers a double-death. Within the first 10 min or so, he gets carried off by some cat robot. Once 9, 5, and 7 rescue him, poor 9 accidentally uses the strange item he woke up with on a machine, activating an evil robot that makes other robots and sucks out 2's soul (rather coincidental as 2 was a builder).
This event starts up the battle of survival between the once-dead machine and the eight remaining dolls. 1 and 8 wish to hide from it, 6 somewhat stays around 1 (most likely by peer pressure), and 5, 7, and 9 wish to right the wrongs and go back to fight. 3 and 4 eventually try to fight, but not untill later in the movie (they were hiding out in the library, cataloging everything, just as they were built for).
New enemies are made by the main bad robot too. A flying bird type (dispatched by a team effort), and a snake that has the upper half of 2. This creature was spooky... It gives me the willies, that's for sure... It slithers in, and catches the dolls off guard with 2 sliping out in view, then it's eyes would flicker a bright strobe, hypnotizing the dolls for easy capture. The snake would then grab up the comatose doll and sew it together to bind and gag it, then inside it's own body. 7 and 9 put up a good fight (5 being hypno'd out of it for a while, but eventually damages it's eye with a direct shot with a needle), but the thing gets away with 8 sealed up and 7 in it's grasp.
9 stages a rescue plan and DOES free 7, but poor 8 wasn't so lucky... in a daring escape, 9 and 7 just barely avoid an oil barrel filled and then pushed down into the lair and set on fire, exploding the facility and taking out all the nearby baddies. This was a nice ending for them. No more running and hiding. No more fear. Too bad it WASN'T their ending. The master bot dragged itself out of the rubble and decited to take the doll's souls by it's own means (as before, it was stuck inside the building, where as now, the support beam anchoring it down was broke and allowing it to crawl with it's arms). The dolls flee across a bridge that was fallen apart and wouldn't hold the master bot's weight. The bridge was starting to give, leaving the option for one final blow to finish off the robot, but 6 realizes that the other dolls are trapped inside of it, and must be freed. Even as 6 was snatched up by it and was about ready to die, he preached on to "find the sorce, go to the first room". 9 believed what he said and left the group to find answers to what was going on, going to the first place he woke up at. The rest of the group, missing the chance to finsih the Big Bad off, was spending what time they had left fending or fleeing.
9 finds the box he passed up before that had all the information he needed. His creator made the master bot, but it was flawed. Also, was used in a negitive mannor (instead of making machines to help, they were for the military. Not like that'd matter. Remember Mega Man?). In a last ditch attempt to preserve humanity, the good doctor used a cross of technology and old age magic to shatter his soul into 9 pieces and implanting them into the dolls. 9 was made to be a leader figure, and to use the device he woke up with to save the world, giving him a walkthrough of how it worked.
Final showdown. 9 finds the rest of the group vollying cannon fire at the robot, making minamal damage or missing. He explains what's going on and formulates a plan to steal the soul-sucking item. He planned to sacrifice himself and have 7 rush in and take the item, using it on the bot and destroying it, but 1 took the hit instead ("sometimes, it takes one to be sacrificed to save many"). 9 gets the talisman and draws out the power from the robot, destroying it and taking back 1, 2, 6, and 8's souls.
During that night, a ritual of hanging their fallen comrade's numbers up evenly apart around a fire was set up and the device was activated once more, opening up like a Ghost Buster's trap and freeing the fallen. They passed by their numbers, relieved to have been saved and make their way to the heavens. A burst of energy jump-starts the planet, and their essence fuels the clouds to rain water, and I believe some kind of micro organism (to rebuild the world with life).
There you have it. A run down on the movie 9. It's entertaining and the flow of the movie was pretty good. Some people might have a problem with it, but the story is pretty original and if you do find the short it was based on, watch it, you'll see they did a great job parlaying the 5min short into a full movie.
