Hollywood Product: 9 (1)
GENRE: CGI sci-fi adventure
THE PITCH: In a post-apocalyptic city, robotic ragdolls (called “stitchpunks” in the production notes), including inquisitive 9 (voiced by Elijah Wood), find remnants of the war machines that destroyed humanity. It’s like Pinocchio vs. Terminator.
MONEY SHOTS: The film’s basically built around a series of set pieces of the stitchpunks fighting mechanical monsters, including the Cat Beast, which resembles a bionic feline skeleton; the hypnotic serpentine Seamstress; and the Fabrication Machine, which looks like a jerry-rigged version of one of the Sentinels from the Matrix movies. They’re cool, even though the action scenes prove somewhat repetitive, and feature two jumping-from-the-fireball clichés.
BEST LINE: “I don’t mind having just one eye. It allows me to concentrate on one thing at a time,” remarks mild-mannered 5 (John C. Reilly). Most of the other dialogue is too bland for me to remember.
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(Image courtesy Focus Features)