10
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
ANIMATED FILM STRETCHED THIN ON IDEAS Humanity has been destroyed, machines have taken over the earth and the only hope for any kind of restoration is a band of nine gunnysack robots. Anyone who’s seen the trailer can attest to the fact that “9” looks much cooler than it sounds, but actually watching the film convinced me otherwise. This brief 79-minute movie somehow manages DUSTY to seem too long with its reSOMERS petitive action, essentially repeating the same scene over and over. Director Shane Acker expanded his Oscarnominated 2005 short of the same name into this feature-length film, but now, it just feels like a short that goes on way past its welcome. The animation and atmosphere are creepy and impressive, but there’s still only about 11 minutes worth of story here. When 9 (Elijah Wood) becomes sentient, he awakes to find a world ravaged by evil machines. Eventually, he finds characters 1-8
scattered throughout the barren landscape, and together they discover the truth about the post-apocalyptic nightmare, where a scientist created an artificial brain meant to help humanity, but things turned evil quickly. The same scientist created the nine rag
dolls, and 9 believes it’s their destiny to fight the machines. The characters’ names are simply numbers, and it’s indicative of just how interesting these sock puppets are — each is given their own quality of bravery or inflexibility or
PHOTO PROVIDED
A scene from Focus Features’ “9.” The film is playing at Harkins Theater in Bricktown today and will be in theaters everywhere on Friday.
» “ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS # 2”
strength, but that’s about as far as character development goes. The impressive voice cast — Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly and Jennifer Connelly all voice a gunnysack — is pretty much wasted on these flat characters. The film’s main problem though, is the perpetual danger in which the characters find themselves. A giant robot will attack, they’ll try to escape, they’ll fight it, they’ll defeat it. Several minutes later, the process repeats. The creature design is phenomenal and the heroes dispatch of the villains in some undeniably creative ways, but it’s only a matter of time before the process becomes quite weary indeed. It seems like there’s imagination bursting at the seams of “9,” but it gets lost in the shuffle of chase scene followed by mortal peril followed by chase scene. Perhaps the film was expanded beyond what its concept could bear. “9” hints toward greater things, but as it stands, it’s a strictly paint-by-numbers affair. Dusty Somers is a journalism senior.
The Daily’s Osi Aken’Ova takes a look at two of this week’s most notable comic books.
books out there. Buy it!
After the events in the first issue, this one kicks off with Captain America chasing the Red Skull while Nick Fury explains the truth behind this mysterious adversary. Also in this book, we are introduced to Gregory Stark, Iron Man’s older brother. After the disappointing “Ultimates 3” and “Ultimatum,” the original “Ultimates” writer OSI Mark Millar is back and AKEN’OVA brings with him the same swagger and charisma the series had before it’s previous outing. One might have thought that all the good characters in the Marvel universe were expired in the “Ultimates” series but with the introduction of the Red Skull it’s clear that Millar was saving the best for last. Although this comic costs a little bit ($1) more than other ones it’s still one of best
“KICK-ASS #7” Finally, five months after the last installment, the seventh issue of “Kick- Ass” is released. (SPOILER ALERT) When we last left our hero, he was set up by Red Mist, who was actually working for the mafia boss, Frank D’Amico. This issue begins at the same place where the first issue started: Kick-Ass getting tortured. Although this book has a very long wait before its release, it’s worth the wait and serves as a cautionary tale for those of us that take our love for superheroes too literally. For those of you who’ve been living under a rock for the past year, the “KickAss” movie will be coming out sometime next year. After seeing footage from ComicCon, I’m not too excited about it, but at least we’ve still got the comic book, which I have to say is very good. PHOTO PROVIDED
Osi Aken’Ova is a film and video studies senior.
Captain America is back in comic book, “Ultimate Comics Avengers # 2.”
Chavez walks Venice Film Fest red carpet VENICE, Italy — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is getting a movie star reception at the Venice Film Festival. Chavez arrived Monday on the red carpet with director Oliver Stone for the premiere of the documentary “South of the Border.” Security outside the Casino venue was tight with armed military police checking bags. Hundreds of admirers greeted the Venezuelan leader and some chanted “president, president.”
PHOTO PROVIDED
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signs autographs.
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Chavez threw a flower into the crowd and touched his heart. At one point he took a photographer’s camera to snap a picture himself. Stone says his new documentary “South of the Border” is meant to illustrate sweeping positive changes in South America in recent years and counter attacks against Chavez by the American media. -AP