I thought Hugo was a masterpiece and and one of the best uses of 3D
I've ever seen, including the previous high watermark of Avatar.
Seeing tiny particles of dust glinting in and out of the middleground
sunlight in the station scenes and snowflakes falling (in
perspective), lit only by street lamps was simply beautiful. You
really couldn't take your eyes off the screen for more than a second
or two without missing one exquisite visual touch after another. The
recreation of the famous Gare Montparnesse train crash had me on the
edge of my seat and took me by complete surprise as I'd never read the
original source material, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret". I loved the
concept that Hugo considered his purpose was to "fix broken things"
and his solutions for "fixing" Monsieur Georges and the Station Master.
I know a number of critics felt that the stories of Hugo, Isabelle and
Monsieur Georges never properly integrated, and the separate, smaller
stories of the Station Master/flower girl and the old man trying to
woo the lady with the angry dog were just distractions, but I felt
everything fit together very well. Much like the many pieces of a
clock in fact, the multiple story threads all came together to form a
fully-realized and satisfying mechanism.
As they say, if you see only one movie this year, you really should
get out more and see more movies. If you're that sort of person you
probably wouldn't enjoy this movie either, but if you really like the
art and have even a passing familiarity with the history of cinema
then I can't recommend Hugo highly enough. However, it really has to
be seen in 3D to get the full visual enjoyment.
Colin Hunter
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
___________________________________________________________________
How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List
Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu
In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L
The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
