Review of The Polar Express (2004) by Ken S — 07 Nov 2013

"The Polar Express" is a decent holiday film from Robert Zemeckis, and his first effort to fully use motion capture, a device he would spend a few more films fiddling with. By the very nature of motion capture, most of the characters look emotionless and dead inside.

The process, especially in this very early stage of the technology, didn't lend itself to character emotions (facial expressions just feel blank). Tom Hanks gives a good set of performances, but the main protagonist is pretty dull.

The story is slow paced, probably because it really is just a short childrens book being needlessly expanded to a much longer running time. It is not without its strong points, and it does have a good Christmassy feel.

..but it is still hard to recommend.