9 gets half that out of ten

If you do not want to be spoiled for the movie 9 yet do not read this post.

As a science fiction film, 9 fell flat. It was fun and all, but I, in my scientific humanism, atheism whatnot, got turned off at the mention of a Human soul.

Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers!


You have been warned:

The setting of this movie is your typical post robot induced apocalypse. It features prominently a barren waste land, devoid of life. From the various flash backs and what-nots in the story you learn that human made robots, created by a scientist who is voiced by Alan Oppenheimer, third cousin to J Robert Oppenheimer of atomic bomb fame, turned against humanity and destroyed all life using some gas.

The only reason cited in the movie for the robots' turn against humanity is that the machine brain was created from human intellect, but didn't possess a human soul. This is where I call frelnik. It's not souls I have a problem with. It's the objectification of it, literally as if it is a thing to be had, and that it's only applicable to Humans. As I understand it, the soul is a manifestation of the processes which make us people, similar to how the consciousness is a manifestation of the processes of the brain.

This sticks a bad taste in my mouth similar to racism. Whereas Black people are only suited to labor because they were born inferior, robots are only suited to the destruction of humanity because they lack the inherent goodness of Human beings. Mind you it is Humans which invented the whole war thing, and the mass killings of other Humans. In The Matrix when the robots subjugated Humans, it was because Humans repeatedly denied their status as people, and equal participants in the world. Other instances in movies where the robots destroy, it's because they've been provoked or that through some part of their programming was faulty compared to the ethics of humans, not from mere lack of a soul.

This movie seems irresponsible in theme, given the rich history of other robots in science fiction. It is not a movie that I'll be showing my kids.

And don't get me started on how the rain starts once parts of the scientist's soul escapes into the sky, and how that rain is full of green life despite the death of all living stuffs. Ugh..