01-03-2012, 09:25 AM
Someone gave us a Fandango gift card for Christmas so we decided to spend New Year's Day at the movies.
I'm a huge admirer of Georges Melies after seeing several of his movies in a film appreciation class. His mixture of magic and special FX still hold up today. They must have seemed miraculous at the turn of the century.
The cinematography is the real star of the movie. Long, unbroken shots that pull you through the Paris train station and the network of catwalks and clockworks above it. The 3D is used for great effect, not with things being thrown at you but with a glorious depth of field featuring bustling crowds, ticking gears and busy commuter storefronts.
The pacing was a little slow for a kids movie. If you've seen the trailer you've seen all the action shots in the entire movie. In our theater I only saw 2 kids out of 40 attendees so I guess more adults are interested in this film anyway.
Sasha Baron Cohen is top-notch as the frustrated station inspector. I can't wait to see him as Freddy Mercury in the Queen biography.
The kid that plays Hugo is OK, but his nostrils flare constantly. They are like eyebrows that move in and out, up and down or back and forth as the camera lingers on his perpetually startled countenance.
My only complaints were the seemingly forced 'slapstick' comedy chase scenes and the over the top train crash sequence that did not fit the tone of subtle magic that infuses the rest of the film.
Try and see it in 3D before it leaves the theater. It may lose something on the small screen.
I'm a huge admirer of Georges Melies after seeing several of his movies in a film appreciation class. His mixture of magic and special FX still hold up today. They must have seemed miraculous at the turn of the century.
The cinematography is the real star of the movie. Long, unbroken shots that pull you through the Paris train station and the network of catwalks and clockworks above it. The 3D is used for great effect, not with things being thrown at you but with a glorious depth of field featuring bustling crowds, ticking gears and busy commuter storefronts.
The pacing was a little slow for a kids movie. If you've seen the trailer you've seen all the action shots in the entire movie. In our theater I only saw 2 kids out of 40 attendees so I guess more adults are interested in this film anyway.
Sasha Baron Cohen is top-notch as the frustrated station inspector. I can't wait to see him as Freddy Mercury in the Queen biography.
The kid that plays Hugo is OK, but his nostrils flare constantly. They are like eyebrows that move in and out, up and down or back and forth as the camera lingers on his perpetually startled countenance.
My only complaints were the seemingly forced 'slapstick' comedy chase scenes and the over the top train crash sequence that did not fit the tone of subtle magic that infuses the rest of the film.
Try and see it in 3D before it leaves the theater. It may lose something on the small screen.
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