9 / The chariot race in Ben-Hur. The Robert Duvall-led helicopter attack in Apocalypse Now. Harrison Ford escaping a boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The dinosaur stampede in Jurassic Park. Every generation has its own special moment with cinema, where the action and visuals come together with such precision and beauty that one can only stare in awe.

Director Shane Acker, who worked on visual effects for the third Lord of the Rings film, has a new crowning achievement with his first feature-length film, 9. Unfortunately, when the haunting images fade, the paper-thin plot shows its true colors.

Part of the problem is that Acker, who expanded 9 from an Oscar-nominated short film, can’t distinguish great imagery from great storytelling. Attracting the attention of Tim Burton, and borrowing Corpse Bride scribe Pamela Pettler, the film feels like a Burton effort, which often means the visuals take priority.

But what visuals they are. In a post-apocalyptic world in what looks like London, two gnarled hands stitch together a burlap sack, attaching accoutrements such as a jaunty oversized zipper and digital binocular eyes (and befuddingly programming them to blink). The finishing touch: a black “9” inked onto its back. Looking alarmingly like Sackboy, from the hit Playstation videogame Little Big Planet, 9 awakens to find his creator dead, and is forced to explore an unfamiliar land.

If the reference to a videogame seems misplaced, then Ben-Hur was probably your defining cinema moment, because 9 as a film works out like many games of today–with heart-pounding action sequences, in which plot points and dialogue only serve to get from action point A to action point B, where there’s another bossfight.

The bosses this time around are machines, made by the same inventor who made 9, intending him and the eight that came before him as a mea culpa for mankind. To counter the machines’ lack of humanity, the creator inserted personalities into his creations, from the artistic 6 (Crispin Glover) to the loyal 5 (John C. Reilly), the adventurous 7 (Jennifer Connelly) and the cowardly 1 (Christopher Plummer). 9’s trait is one of empathy and concern, and so when he sets out to rescue his fellow “stitchpunks,” as Acker dubs his creations, he faces infighting almost as dangerous as what awaits them in the ruins.

Heady material, and one that could have been fascinating with the right kind of development. But at a scant 79-minute runtime, Acker is more interested in blowing our minds with the world he’s created than holding our hand through exposition. It’s a brave move, putting an adult spin on a familiar child’s theme of learning to stand up for what’s right. One only wishes the sophistication and effort given to its look matched the story behind it. There are two ways to blow an audience’s mind, and with 9, Acker took the easy way out.

9, the video

This is the video 9 which will be made into a feature film by Tim Burton and Shane Acker.

Shane Acker’s Making of 9 Movie

New clips and behind the scenece with the actors and makers of the movie by Focus Features.

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