9

It's not often that I get an urge to watch a movie randomly and then follow through with those actions. Typically I get an urge to watch a movie, in general, and find nothing in my 400+ collection. How many times I skipped over 9, I can't be certain of. What I could be certain of last night, though, was that this movie needed to be seen, and seen it was.

And it was great. This movie probably popped onto my radar because Tim Burton's name was attached to it (he produced it). How much fanfare or reception it had I couldn't tell you; but I'm glad this movie exists and was wonderful. The first thing to come to mind is to say this movie does not screw around, and it is so concise I think other movies need to take a clue from this. A part of that is because it's animated: they probably don't waste a lot of CPU cycles processing film that ends up on the floor. With a traditional, live action movie I would imagine you would end up with a lot of extra footage and that somehow makes its way into the movie, as evidenced by some comedies that are about an hour too long (re: Knocked Up). It could be that, but right now I'm more inclined to say it's the screenplay that deserves kudos.

So continuing with the concise angle, this movie gets right to the point and does not inundate you with character setup, information and back stories. No, it lets all that flow out naturally over the course of the movie. You aren't given a flashback on why the title character is so important or is a proven leader. No, they don't shove all that down your throat: they put him in situations where he develops (important) and proves his character through his actions. These little characters have some big character.

The world that they are in is fantastic too: the war-torn post-WWII European city and time gets even better as they mix in these little technical marvels. The Matrix-esque robotic domination of humans is given a brief history, but gets more depth added is later in the story.

One more thing to add is that this movie was shockingly dark.While it was not really scary, exactly, I was surprised by some of the imagery. Definitely not for kids; this movie got darker and the characters more hopeless before seeing the light, and even when that does happen, it leaves things open (for slight interpretation).

I'll close by starting where I left off: considering most movies are too lengthy these days, this is one where I would be happy to see more of. But, I hope that a sequel is not in the works, as sequels do, it could tarnish this little gem.