"9"

            “9”, directed by Shane Acker, was released on September 19. 2009 by Focus Feature production company as a marketing technique to earn more revenue. Scoring a 60 on the Metacritics scale with mixed reviews, the movie was quite successful earning about $15 million on its 5 day opening. The movie has been appraised on its graphics being nominated for many awards but is lacking enthusiasm in its narrative.
The movie background begins with a scientist who is asked to create the ultimate machine called the B.R.A.I.N, with the knowledge that the machine would help people but a dictator, instead, uses the machine to duplicate war machines from it. In response, the machines turned against  humans creating a genocide of all man-kind. To fight against the unstoppable machines he had created, the scientist creates 9 homunculus-like creations each containing a different characteristic of his personality.

Elijah Wood

The movie begins with 9 (Elijah Wood), a rag-doll, awakening in a laboratory. 9 begins to wander around the cities rubble confused as to what happened along the streets until he meets 2 (Martin Laudau) who notices that 9 can not speak and so repairs it for him. They converse over a medallion 9 had found until they get attacked by a machine, the Cat-Machine, which snatches up 2, along with the medallion, and takes them both to the Fabrication Factory leaving 9 passed out.
9 wakes up in an old cathedral where he meets 1 (Christopher Plummer), 5(John Riley), 6 (Crispin Clover), and 8 (Fred Tatasciore). 9 tells 1, who is the leader amongst the creations, that they must go and save 2 but 1 refuses to leave. 9 decides to go and rescue him and has 5 come along to rescue his friend.
The 2 reach the Fabrication factory where they find 2 but have to battle the Cat-Machine. In doing so, 7 (Jennifer Connelly), the warrior part of the scientist’s personality, comes in during the battle and defeats the machine.
Their celebration is cut short because 9’s curiosity caused him to unleash the ultimate soul-sucking machine which takes the life out of 2 leaving the others to flee. 7 then takes 9 and 5 to a library where they meet the twins, 3 and 4 who are unable to speak but offer help and answer questions. They then are shown the origin of the monster that 9 had unleashed and so 9 and 5 go to find 6 to try and grasp a fuller understanding of what has been going on but are captured by 8, 1’s body guard. While 9 and 5 are talking with 1, the B.R.A.I.N had sent a winged-machine to go and attack the creations but the creations defeat the machine. In doing so, they lose their cathedral to a fire that burns it down and so therefore, retreat to the library where they encounter another machine, the Seamstress, which uses 2’s body to capture 7 and 8 and take them to the Fabrication Factory.
The creations then go and attempt to rescue both 7 and 8 but only attempt to save 7 for the B.R.A.I.N had taken 8’s soul in front of 9’s eyes. 7 and 9 escape the factory where the others then send an oil barrel down a tunnel which destroys the entire factory; and with knowledge that the monster machine had been killed along with it.
While celebrating their victory, 5 discovers that the B.R.A.I.N had not been killed  and so the machine takes his life. They remaining survivors escape across a bridge except 6, who gets captured by the machine but manages to tell the others to go back to the “source”.
9 tells the others that they should go back to the source but the others refuse to listen and would rather destroy the machine so 9 runs back to the source where he had first awakened. 9 discovers a video message made by the scientist and learns why all the numbers had been created and their purposes. He also learns that the medallion is the key to destroying the monster and therefore runs to go meet the others to tell them the news.

9 bravely faces the B.R.A.I.N.

He finds the others with a cannon, ready to destroy the machine, and tells them the news he had discovered. He convinces the others to distract the machine while he grabs the medallion but in doing so, 1 risks his life so that 9 can save the others. 9 grabs the medallion and defeats the monster. In the final scene, 3, 4, 7, and 9 build a memorial circle where 9 unleashes the souls of the dead creations  from the talisman and release their spirit for a final rest.
The movie “9” was, overall, a well thought movie with a lot of dedication that showed through in the final production. The movie in the beginning could have had a better story line with more action that made a little more sense but the ending scene gave the movie a strong impact on the viewer that ties all lose ends together and brought everything to a closure.

TEEN WOLF: A SUCCESSFUL START TO A NEW SERIES!

Micheal J. Fox tranforming into a wolf
 in the 1985 verion of Teen Wolf

       The season premier of MTV’s new series Teen Wolf has started, and, with good fortune. Scoring a 61 out of 100 on Metacritic’s website with mixed reviews, the show had a successful start to the new series; especially trying to branch out from the typical “ boy turns into werewolf, falling in love with girl but can not have her,” type movie series. The 2011 premiere is a remake of the 1985 version which starred Michael J. Fox; but instead of Scott discovering his family has an unusual pedigree, Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) gets bitten by a werewolf while walking through the woods with his best friend, Stiles Stilinski (Dylan O‘Briento). The next day, Scott starts to notice unusual changes in his eyesight, strength, and stamina. Cliché? Yes, but its only the first episode. 

         Now with his new and improved senses, Scott lands a spot on the starting line up of Beacom High School's lacrosse team and catches the eye of a girl he had a longing crush for, Allison Argent (Crystal Reed), who he later escorts to a party. The story, at this point, sounds like all other werewolf series but the producers had to get all the boring parts out of the way first; then again, where would all the drama and suspense be if their wasn’t that traditional "romance affair" going on?

Crystal Reed as
"Allison Argent"

        Anyways, while Scott is getting cozy with Allison at the party, Stiles is at home going through random search engines on the website trying to figure out what is causing Scott’s unusual symptoms; and, to no ones surprise at this point of the episode, we learn Scott is transforming into a werewolf. I mean who would have guessed this would EVER happen to the nerdy but deffinantly attractive lacrosse boy?

         Immediately, Stiles calls Scott at the party and informs him of this supernatural power but Scott doesn’t believe him. However, “coincidentally” at the same moment, Scott starts transforming into a werewolf at the party and runs to the woods. To give you a visual of how the producer "tried" to make this transformation realistic, lets just say it looked like the director used their cheap 1999 copy right version of Adobe illustrator to make this scene look “real”. 

         Anyways, while running wild in the forest, Scott meets another werewolf, Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin), who confirms that Scott is in fact a werewolf.

         Derek’s explanation of Scott’s recent behavior is cut short when Scott gets shot in the arm by a werewolf hunter; and to no ones surprise, Allison Argent's father. Who would have guessed?

Cast of the new 2011 Teen Wolf series

         The episode comes to an end with Stiles picking up Scott from the woods the next morning and comforts Scott by telling him everything that happened the previous night is okay.

         The Pilot episode to the new 2011 Teen Wolf came with a success. Sure, it did have a lot of the "hot but nerdy boy gets bitten, becomes popular, and falls in love with a girl whom he can’t be with stereotypical scenes, but they got it all out of the way the first episode so the expectations now for the rest will be set high.