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Critics Consensus: Hugo is an extravagant, elegant fantasy with an innocence lacking in many modern kids' movies, and one that emanates an unabashed love for the magic of cinema.
Critic Consensus: Hugo is an extravagant, elegant fantasy with an innocence lacking in many modern kids' movies, and one that emanates an unabashed love for the magic of cinema.
All Critics (219) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (204) | Rotten (15) | DVD (3)
Being a hardcore cinephile (like Scorsese) might add a layer of enjoyment, but it certainly isn't a prerequisite for walking in the door. A sense of wonder, however, is.
Leave it to Martin Scorsese to use 3-D not as a gimmick, but as a means of drawing us into a unique and magical environment...
Scorsese transforms this innocent tale into an ardent love letter to the cinema and a moving plea for film preservation.
It's a deeply felt piece of work, something which only Scorsese could have brought to the screen...
It might be curtains for celluloid, but Scorsese, a boyish 69, clearly isn't leaving the stage any time soon. He directs every film with the passion of his first. And it shows.
Thematic potency and cinematic virtuosity -- the production was designed by Dante Ferretti and photographed by Robert Richardson -- can't conceal a deadly inertness at the film's core.
It can't be counted a modern classic like so many of Scorsese's other films. But it's a charming flight of fancy, if not for children, then for their parents who are still young at heart.
Martin Scorsese's family fantasy blend[s] a beautifully imagined treasure hunt with a tribute to cinema's early pioneers.
Whether young or old, Hugo remains an arresting, heartwarming delight and one of the must-see films of the festive period.
For Scorsese the door to the past is never closed. Hugo does not so much revisit the past as reveal that it is still alive, elaborately disguised as the present.
It just, somehow, doesn't come across, doesn't add up to anything memorable.
However, it is when Scorsese moves to celebrate the early magic of silent cinema with some inspired flashback sequences that his film really hits a glorious stride.
Let's be honest, it is disappointing to see a movie that wants to praise the magic of Cinema but whose 3D doesn't always work so well, and it feels like two different stories clumsily combined, with unnecessary subplots and a mediocre leading performance by Asa Butterfield.
Super Reviewer
There's a whole lot to love about "Hugo" but most of the time the beauty it strives to connect with a deep emotion, fails to do so. The main reason "Hugo" works is because its visuals are enchanting, it's based in the world of Melies, and it connects different elements of movie magic together to form a great story about magic in technology and film. Though the film is very beautiful and has colorful characters, including Ben Kingsley as Melies and Sacha Baron Cohen as a squeaky legged patrolman, there's no emotional response to the absolute magic. The lead character is played by Asa Butterfield, who gives little to no emotion when delivering his lines, while his backstory, and how he gets himself involved in working the clocks in the train station, is full of holes. The film is strangely paced and the plot is oddly structured. Though it's definitely the pinnacle of ooh and aah filmmaking (based on the greatness of Melies) it lacks the chemistry of the thing it is inspired by.
Yes, a tip of the hat to the origins of filmic storytelling, and yes, made by one of the acknowledged best in the field, but lacking the essential heart connection it reaches for, misses it but only so much ... and that's unfortunate. Nonetheless a good work, with competent professionals all over the place, but when Sasha Baron Cohen steals your film, and as only a minor character, you should know you've got a communications mix up.
three stars
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