Wow. Visually, this movie was a masterpiece: the animation is graceful and fluid, and the art is unquestionably beautiful (if haunting). But sadly, this is the kind of movie that is 95% style and 5% substance, and I need more than that in my movies. I mean, even if you allow the movie to have the conceits it needs to be internally consistent, there are just a bunch of logical inconsistencies that make NO sense. The poor pacing and awkward storytelling make it really difficult to enjoy the movie. Initially things move very slowly and then the plot quickly accelerates with very little development, while scenes seem to start and end minute or two earlier and/or later than they should have. I saw the movie’s final major revelation coming from about fifteen minutes in, and the final scene is frankly disappointing on a number of levels. 9 is a beautiful movie with interesting ideas, but it doesn’t have the filmmaking chops to completely pull it off.

4.5 out of 5. Compelling (if a tad confusing) adventure set in a post-apoc world where Man vs Machine and Man loses. Not a novel concept, Matrix (cough) Terminator (cough) but 9 delivers this in loads of style.