Review of The Polar Express (2004) by Ethan K — 01 Aug 2012

Right after finishing The Polar Express toward the end of July, I instantly longed for Christmas to be here. I could see very easily this movie being apart of a family tradition. It's a very sentimental, entertaining, beautiful, and at times actually enthralling movie! With some things that brought it down of course. No movie is perfect.

The animation immediately stands out as looking visually incredible! Well for it's time. Now it just looks only beautiful too very good looking. The only hitch in the otherwise splendid looking movie would be the actual faces. It must have been around the time that they really could not get animated faces to look realistic enough not to be creepy. Even now a days it's a struggle at times. That kind of leads into some problems in the movie.

I felt, at times, very bored and like nothing in the movie had emotion. It was weird because it would only happen very briefly before something extravagant happened. Whether it be the faces not giving a convincing enough expression, or odd little moments where the seemed to be no music to accompany some emotion, it still doesn't matter much though because it only took me out of the movie for a very short time. Short enough that I almost forgot about it until the film was over.

At times maybe the movie got a little to sentimental towards the end, but it was still very engaging to watch. Like I said, it made me really want it to be Christmas.

If I watched this movie on Christmas Eve (actually that's not a bad idea) I would be so primed for Christmas it would be ridicules! One of the things that really helped with the whole enthralling thing would be the action. Yeah! The action! Very well done! In fact, looking back the entire movie is well put together. With long shots panning in and out, the uplifting music playing in the background, and beautiful animation showing the world as it is. I think, definitely, I will be watching this around Christmas time next year. Because there are few Christmas movies, someone could argue, that is as sentimental, and emotional, as The Polar Express.

Prediction: 9.0/10.

Score: 8.3/10.