Review of Hugo (2012) by Sab P — 21 Apr 2015

Like a giant clock, this film is a nice visual feast with lots of intricate moving pieces working in unison, but in the end, it is a monotonous ticker that doesn't.

Do anything new or take me anywhere particularly magical. Yes, "Hugo" did have surprise plot twists that took the story to a far different place in the end than I was expecting... but where it took me was a far less interesting place than I hoped for. When it all boils down, "Hugo" is just a two-hour-long pep talk to an old man who lost his confidence in old cinema, and regains this spark of desire by seeing his work plastered on the big screen again. No major revelations. No real sacrifice. Just a lot of fancy special effects baiting audiences to sit through a story-lite bore, as if Paramount had extra money to burn in a furnace. The early 20-Century world of France looked nice with its CG backgrounds and hyper-realistic dream sequences.... but quite frankly, I didn't give a damn when everything else felt un-motivating.

The second half of the movie spends a great deal of time praising old silent filmmakers, and instead of being whisked away by these sentiments, I felt annoyed for two reasons. First, I was annoyed that Scorsese couldn't reference anyone else but Melies, whose poke-the-moon-in-the-eye film has been tiredly referenced in past films and television to an exhaustible degree. Second, I was left slightly puzzled when instead of praising the technical ingenuity of Hugo the common man, (or boy,) Scorsese pats himself on the back for the Oscar committee through his comparing filmmakers to magicians. One may argue that it is the acting and characters that make a film immortal, not the silly eye-tricks on celluloid.

And as far as characters go, none within "Hugo" were very convincing. Hugo himself seemed well-developed and sympathetic, but his bravery and mechanical brilliance was swept under the rug in favor of focusing on Ben Kingsley's character who, let's face it, never really changed by the end of the movie... he simply changed BACK to the character he once was. I don't mind the fact that Kingsley's character was, ultimately, the main focus; what I did mind was that his side of the story was far less memorable than Hugo's adventure-filled life. Chloe Moetz' awesome talent was completely squandered as she played an unmemorable role nearly identical to that of the little girl in last year's "Boxtrolls," and she tried too hard to deliver that wannabe-Hermione-Granger persona.

This movie could have been told much more effectively if it had been produced with no special effects, 50 million dollars cut from its budget, and 30 minutes cut from the overall running time. I couldn't decide whether I thought the automaton or the wind-up-mouse was my favorite character in the entire movie.