‘9’ plot and characters mesh poorly with stunning animation

“9”

Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer (voices)

Directed by Shane Acker,… “9”

Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer (voices)

Directed by Shane Acker, Produced by Tim Burton

Focus Features

D

Rarely has the term “arbitrary” applied so aptly to a film than to Shane Acker’s animated feature-length debut, “9.”

“9,” set in a “Terminator”-esque post-apocalyptic future, where machines have apparently destroyed humanity, follows 9 (voice of Elijah Wood), a small burlap doll with a hearty dose of gumption, as he awakens without knowledge of what happened to society or why he exists. He quickly meets up with his eight burlap compatriots — appropriately named 1 through 8, of course — who have divided themselves into factions over how to survive the lingering threat of the machines.

1 (voice of Christopher Plummer) leads a contingent hiding away in a dilapidated cathedral, the group hoping the machine threat will fade away with time, while 7 (voice of Jennifer Connelly) heads a brigade that believes in a proactive effort. As the film progresses, the factions predictably collide and have to come to a compromise to survive.

Unfortunately, “9” does not go far beyond this bare-bones description in terms of plot. Never are any relevant questions answered — such as what the characters’ purposes are. Instead, Acker fills this void plot with stylized and overwrought action scenes, archetypal characterization and a bloated special effects budget.

While Hollywood is no stranger to 20-minute on-screen battles, albeit in this case between burlap homunculi and ragtag robots, at 79 minutes “9” does not have 20 minutes to waste — and there are multiple such scenes in this empty shell of a film.

On the other hand, the visuals are breathtaking. Every frame of “9” is deeply infused with Acker’s (clearly Burton-influenced) vision of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, which teeters precariously between dark miasma and banal wonder. Wood and the rest of the voice cast performs admirably, even though the presence of Connelly as the single female-coded character raises a number of additional questions that never get answered.

However, these superficialities, while perfect down to the last detail, fail to breathe life into “9.” Acker’s previous work was in short film (“The Astounding Talents of Mr. Grenade,” “The Hangnail”) and it shows — his debut feels like a short film concept that, unsurprisingly, fails when stretched out to a feature-length running time. Even at slightly more than an hour, “9” drags on as it becomes clear that, beyond simply not getting answers to any of the important questions in the film, no one — not even Acker — knows what those answers are. In particular, the film’s ending is incredibly unsatisfying — abrupt, melodramatic and pointless.

There is certainly no requirement that a filmmaker answer every question raised by his or her work. Indeed, many of the greatest films in history leave burning inquiries unresolved that serve to enhance the viewer’s investment in the film, and such unanswered questions etches the movie into the viewer’s subconscious well beyond running time. However, “9” fails to answer even the most basic queries about the world and the characters Acker has crafted.

Relying on stylistic overload, “9” promotes an insurmountable barrier to any kind of genuine investment in the film beyond a bare respect for its technical mastery.