Exploring: 9

September 8, 2009 in Movies by Brian Logee

9 poster Exploring: 9 9 is a stitchPunk, Tim Burton, movie that is in a post apocalyptic setting about the struggle of life to persevere:

The time is the too-near future. Powered and enabled by the invention known as the Great Machine, the world’s machines have turned on mankind and sparked social unrest, decimating the human population before being largely shut down. But as our world fell to pieces, a mission began to salvage the legacy of civilization; a group of small creations was given the spark of life by a scientist in the final days of humanity, and they continue to exist post-apocalypse. -official site

Here are 3 Good Trailers Looking at 9. I’m very curious about this movie, the idea sounds very interesting though I have some reservations about it.

The Look

The look of the setting is inspiring but what are we to expect from a Tim Burton Film. I just don’t know about the sock puppets and the robots. I don’t know if I can relate on the emotional level needed for this film with the 9. My hope is that in context of the entire film they won’t look so unempathetic especially since we are dealing with the topics of hope and survival of humanity in the face of an apocalypse.

The Promotion

The promotion for this movie has also been a mixed bag. I love all of the web work done, the site is a little flash heavy causing slowdown and times but it is fun and emmersive into the setting. I love how they used the old timey clips to help entice the audience into discovering what horrors happened to create the post appolopytic setting.

I was very disappointed with the clips released though, read more here: New Clips for 9 and A Letter From a Fan. Now that a lot of the biggest opposition robots have been shown in a lot of detail and how the 9 defeat them I have less of a reason to watch the movie.

Looking Behind The Curtain

To put on the mythic lenses for a moment, lets look at what the film has promised us. I should expect to see the themes of:

run away science intending to do good but cause harm
the military industrial complex bringing about an apocalypse
robots rising up and killing off humans
the perseverance of the human spirit and it’s amazing adaptability

What is missing from all of the materials is which side of the fence this film is supposed to fall on. I want to see either:

A dark tale warning us about the dangers put forth in this film and their final depressing outcome. In the end 9 human spirit possessed puppets are not enough to perpetuate humanity at best they could live forever to spread our names throughout history like warning beacons for future civilizations.
Or a tale of hope with maybe the discovery of a hidden population large enough to perpetuate the species with the lessons learned.

What I don’t get is how this is a tale of good verses evil that I want to partake in. From all of the promotional material it looks like evil has won and there is no hope for the future even if the 9 succeed in their task. Why should I care? That is why this is definitely a renter for I will want to see how it is pulled off but I don’t know if I will watch it in the theaters.

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Theater or Renter: September 2009

September 1, 2009 in Movies by Brian Logee

Theater or Renter: September includes eight SF movies Gamer, Carriers, 9, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Jennifer’s Body, Surrogates, Pandorum, Astro Boy. Will we watch? Will we rent? or do we even care?

Rules of the Game: Watch the trailers. Rate the Trailer. Then share with us your comments: does the movie, it’s trailer and buzz make you want to watch it in the theater, rent it, or not interested at all, and why?

Gamer:

Release Date: SEPTEMBER 4th

Listed as: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Studio: Lionsgate

Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor

Produced by: Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Richard Wright, Skip Williamson

Written by: Neveldine/Taylor

Stars: Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Logan Lerman, with Ludacris, and Kyra Sedgwick

The Plot / Story: It’s 2034 and mind-control technology has taken society by storm. A multiplayer on-line game called “Slayers” allows gamers to control human death row prisoners in mass-scale deathmatches. Any inmate who lives through 30 matches wins his freedom. Simon the current champion with 27 wins controls Kable who has lived through them all. kable’s ultimate challenge regaining his identity and independence by defeating the game’s mastermind through launching an attack on the system that has imprisoned him. (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

Carriers:

Release Date: SEPTEMBER 4th

Listed as: Drama, Thriller, Horror

Studio: Paramount Vantage

Director: Àlex Pastor, David Pastor

Produced by: Ray Angelic, Anthony Bregman

Written by: Àlex Pastor, David Pastor

Stars: Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Christopher Meloni

The Plot / Story: Four friends fleeing a virus pandemic find themselves stranded when their car breaks down in the wasteland, where the epidemic was spreading. They soon find themselves battling the infected and desperate survivors, and eventually against each other as the decisions they must make to survive become increasingly more gruesome. (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

9:

Release Date: SEPTEMBER 9th

Listed as: Animation, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Studio: Focus Features

Director: Shane Acker

Produced by: Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov

Written by: Shane Acker (story), Pamela Pettler, Ben Gluck

Stars: Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau

The Plot / Story: The time is the too-near future. Powered and enabled by the invention known as the Great Machine, the world’s machines have turned on mankind and sparked social unrest, decimating the human population before being largely shut down. But as our world fell to pieces, a mission began to salvage the legacy of civilization; a group of small creations was given the spark of life by a scientist in the final days of humanity, and they continue to exist post-apocalypse. (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

More articles on 9 here

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs:

Release Date: SEPTEMBER 18th

Listed as: Animation, Family

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Director: Phil Lord, Chris Miller

Produced by: Pam Marsden

Written by: Screenplay: Phil Lord, Chris Miller Book: Judi Barrett, Ron Barrett

Stars: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Bruce Campbell, James Caan, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Andy Samberg, Mr. T

The Plot / Story: Based on the book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Scientist Flint Lockwood has a track record of creating unwanted or faulty inventions. While trying to solve world hunger he develops a method to directly convert water into food and releases the mechanism on the world. Hunger is eliminated as weather delivers food, but a problem of global proportions soon evolves when the food weather machine that Flint invented develops a mind of its own, and starts wreaking havoc on the world. Flint is now saddled with the task of stopping his maniac creation to stop the ensuing chaos. (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

get your copy of the book from amazon here: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Jennifer’s Body:

Release Date: SEPTEMBER 18th

Listed as: Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Director: Matias Anaya

Produced by: Daniel Dubiecki, Mason Novick, Jason Reitman

Written by: Diablo Cody

Stars: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, Adam Brody, J.K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris

The Plot / Story: Jennifer, a sexy popular captain of the flag team ends up as the sacrifice in a Satanic ritual, held by a rock band, hoping that the sacrifice will increase their chances of getting a record deal. The ritual goes horribly wrong and Jennifer becomes possessed by a demon and begins to feed off of the boys in her high school—first seducing them to get close, and then eating them as meals. It’s up to Jennifer’s childhood friend to stop her from killing more of her classmates. (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

Surrogates:

Release Date: SEPTEMBER 25th

Listed as: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Studio: Touchstone Pictures

Director: Jonathan Mostow

Produced by: David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Max Handelman

Written by: John Brancato, Michael Ferris (screenplay), Robert Venditti (story)

Stars: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, James Cromwell, Ving Rhames

The Plot / Story: Based on comic book series The Surrogates. In a future in which humans live in near-total isolation, never leaving the safety and comfort of their homes, and only communicating with their fellow man through remotely-controlled robotic bodies that serve as “surrogates”, designed as better-looking versions of their human operators. This utopian society starts to unravel with the first murder in years. Bruce Willis is an FBI agent who enlists the aid of his own surrogate to investigate the first murder in years, however, when several humans are murdered as their surrogates are destroyed he has to venture outside the safety of his home for the first time in many years to solve the case. (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

get your copy of the book from amazon here: The Surrogates (Graphic Novels)

Pandorum:

Release Date: SEPTEMBER 25th

Listed as: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Studio: Overture Films

Director: Christian Alvart

Produced by: Paul W. S. Anderson, Jeremy Bolt, Robert Kulzer

Written by: Travis Milloy, Christian Alvart

Stars: Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster

The Plot / Story: They believe that they must be the only ones aboard the spacecraft, but can hear sounds coming from its center. Exploring the spacecraft, they encounter several other surviving crewmembers, and the astronauts start to learn that a terrible event has occurred on board which might affect the survival of the entire human race. (Wikipedia) (The Official Site)

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3 Good Trailers Looking at 9

August 27, 2009 in Movies by Brian Logee

After yesterday’s post about bad videos, New Clips for 9 and A Letter From a Fan, I wanted to feature 3 good videos that do tempt, tantalize, and stir curiosity in the movie 9.

Good vs Evil

In this TV spot they briefly show some of the characters in the film. They briefly show some of the villains / machines without spoiling any of the conflict. Most importantly this video sets up some of the conflict giving some idea of what happened to create the current state of events and who is on what side.

Spark of Life

This TV spot helps to further clarify the stakes that the hero is facing and what all of the conflict is over.

The Count

A nice look at the 9 characters that the story is about.

New Clips for 9 and A Letter From a Fan

August 26, 2009 in Culture, Movies by Brian Logee

9 worm creature 300x211 New Clips for 9 and A Letter From a Fan There are two new clips out for the movie 9. Watch them at the bottom of the post. Do we really care? Maybe, but more importantly: when does movie promotion go too far?

Movie promotion should be like a good burlesque show. Tantalize us. Show us a little here… Show us a little there… We the fans love getting to watch trailers and to see clips for movies. Watching them excites us and makes us desire to watch the movie. It allows us to run to our friends and say hey have you seen this trailer or clip? You have to check out this little teaser show!

Make sure it is relevant. Show us a little arm or leg, we don’t care if you feature the floor boards that your standing on. We the fans don’t like to waste our time watching clips or trailers that feature moments from the movie that don’t stimulate our imagination, draw our attention to what is the competitive advantage of your film and why we should watch it. Like in these clips they show us the dolls in action but that was better served in a trailer. They show us another creature of the setting but that was not the focus of the clip and they show how it is defeated making it irrelevant in context and showing too much at the same time. The last thing was the scene of awakening the machine which left me wondering if they showed too much. But in either case those moments should be saved for when we go for the full movie experience.

Please don’t show too much it will ruin the moment when we get the full show. Burlesque is the art of teasing, and tantalizing the audience’s imagination with promises of great things to come. If they show too much then there is nothing left to get excited about and nothing left to look forward too. G.I. Joe had a problem with this with the Eiffel Tower scene, their burlesque dance turned into pornography showing too much. Sure it made the trailers more exciting but it robbed the actual movie of the impact that it should have had and robbed me of the full movie experience. Good burlesque would have featured moments of the chase and the tension building up to the actual Eiffel Tower scene but cut away at the last moment leaving the audience guessing.

Movie promotion goes too far when it shows too much robbing us of the full movie experience or if it wastes our time with stuff that should be saved for when we watch the movie. I’ve put in the two clips below for those who are curious and as a good case study. The only interesting parts are the creatures featured in the clips which would have been better featured in a trailer with shorter quicker exposure of those creatures allowing us to wonder more about them and not seeing how they get defeated.

Awakening the Machine Clip

9 saves 7 clip

Speculative Fiction Today #415 “What The Frakken Frell?”

July 21, 2009 in Podcasts, Speculative Fiction Today by Brian Logee

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast (speculative-fiction-tody): Play in new window | Download

Culture

What’s Up with dashPunk and Speculative Fiction Today
Brief mentions from Shore Leave Convention
The Eagle Has Landed footage of (get clip of song to play) (via Hulu)
Goggles for Hard Negotiations (via dashPunk)

Movie

Marilyn Manson casts Emma Watson in his Musical Cinderella (via dashPunk)
“9″ Clip featuring The Winged Beast (via dashPunk)
Thor’ casts Natalie Portman as Jane Foster (via Entertainment News)
‘Karate Kid’ remake starring Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith (via Entertainment News)

TV

Simpsons Worth More on Hulu Than on FOX (via NewTeeVee)
Ugly Betty (via Hulu)
Sean Bean to star in HBO’s A Game of Thrones (via SCI FI Wire)

Subscribe

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“9″ Clip featuring The Winged Beast

July 17, 2009 in Movies by Brian Logee

Check out this clip for the movie 9. In it we get to see 9 and friends fight a winged mechanical creature. Watch the clip above.

I like the look of the movie though the animation carries a distinct feel the physics and effects feel natural. I have to agree with Edna, when will people learn about the dangers of wearing a cape. 9 is released September 9, 2009.

The Story: When 9 comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone. It is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. 9 convinces the others to stop hiding and go on the offensive if they are to survive. They must discover why the machines want to destroy them and as they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.