Hugo

So I thought with the dark themes of Requiem for a Dream, and the violence of Braveheart, it was a better choice do watch something a little more whimsical and different. Therefore the choice was Hugo.

Now I had no idea what Hugo was about when I first saw trailers for it. All I knew was that it was directed by Martin Scorsese and it was in 3D and apparently that was a big deal at the time. Maybe it was the quality of 3D maybe it was the visuals of the movie, I don't know.

Hugo is based off of the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret and if I recall correctly, it was an incredibly unique book. I have not read the book so there will be no comparison with the book in this review.

The story is focused on a young boy named Hugo. In a series of flashbacks it is shown that his father died in a fire (very abruptly in the film), and he was brought to a train station by his uncle, where he oils and fixes clocks.

Hugo is great with machines and wants to fix things that are broken, especially an automaton (a mechanical man).

After being caught trying to steal things, he begins working with Ben Kingsley's character at a toy shop. He also befriends his goddaughter (played by Chloe Grace Moretz). They have a couple of adventures, finding out they both love film (which was still in its early stages in the 30s, and eventually stumble upon the fact that her godfather was a famous moviemaker when movies were first invented. And Ben Kingsley actually plays a real person, George Melies.

This really took me by surprise because I really had no idea what this movie was about. Once it gets going, which actually takes a while, the movie starts exploring the birth of moving pictures and where movies come from. They actually explain the history of the invention of film and how it was mostly used by magicians and wasn't thought to be something that would be very popular in a few years.

Its fascinating because I took a film class in school, looking very in depth of how film began as a form of entertainment and art. I learned about the Lumiere brothers and I think Melies as well. The most interesting parts of the movie was the parts where it was talking about the history of film and how movies were made for a long time.

This obviously makes Ben Kingsley the best part of this movie, but the rest of the cast wasn't bad. The main character is played by Asa Butterfield (who is now Ender in Ender's Game) and Chloe Grace Moretz did a pretty good job herself.

There were a lot of other actors in this movie, Sacha Baron Cohen, Emily Mortimer, Jude Law, even Christopher Lee makes an appearance or two.

But beyond the children and Ben Kingsley, everyone else really didn't need to be in this movie. Sacha Baron Cohen plays a semi big role but only because he is the inspector chasing after Hugo half the time and he kind of gets his own romance plot, which in the end really was pointless.

Now the question is, is the movie good?

Well... sorta?

Visually, the movie is said to be a masterpiece. Just pretty to look at. I don't really see it. Yes it is pretty but I don't think I'll be bragging about the visual adventure I went on with Hugo.

The exploration into the origins of film was fun to revisit for someone who has studied film before. And I guess it might be a good educational journey for those who don't know those origins.

But story-wise, its just kind of dull. Hugo isn't that interesting of a character, the relationship between him and Chloe Grace Moretz is good but not enough to give real in-depth character development and the story is just not that great.

I think with all the hype about this movie and how stunningly visual its suppose to be, I think I was expecting something a little bit more whimsical and fantasy driven. While its alright that it wasn't that and good that I was surprised, Hugo wasn't really that interesting of a movie. At least not interesting enough for me to rave about it.

I think the only reason someone would need to see this movie is due to the visuals (which I am still not convinced are anything sublime) and the historical background of film. Otherwise, you could probably skip this one.

So those are my thoughts on Hugo. What are yours? Comment below and let me know what you think.

I don't really have a video that connects to this movie... so here's something totally different.