Hugo

Until now I'd never had the person at the box office comment on my particular ticket purchase but when he smiled and said "good choice" after I asked for a ticket to Hugo I admit that my already high hopes climbed even a bit higher.  Upon entering theater 8 I realized that I had not been the only one who had great expectations for Hugo.  It was surely the biggest theater in the multiplex.  Most of the seats remained empty though as the masses flocked to the latest Jonah Hill and Justin Beaver products. Wait, maybe it was Zac Enron and not Justine Beaver. Which one was the girl in High School Musical?  Anyways she is the one who's in New Year's Eve.

From the opening scenes it is obvious that a lot of heart, soul and 170 million dollars went into the making of Hugo.  It is visually gorgeous and rich.  The 3D (I didn't have the 2D option) was very well done but not really necessary I think.  Technically stunning, I'll be very surprised if Hugo doesn't win at least a couple of those more obscure academy awards that they hand out about half way through the show when viewers are out going to the bathroom or getting a more refreshing snack to counter the salty/sweet ones they polished off during the first half.

Hugo is played by a boy (Asa Butterfield) I've never seen before and he was okay I guess.  He soon meets a girl played by Chloë Moretz (good thing she has the umlaut over the e in her currently twelfth most popular girl's name, otherwise everyone would be calling her Klow right?)  I first saw her in a small part in 500 Days of Summer and then she had a starring role as Hit Girl in Kick Ass. And I'm sorry Chloë but after you've been Hit Girl you just never get to wear a beret in earnest ever again.  In all honesty I just don't like her much.  She seeems to have this annoying quality about her that shines through into any role or character she plays.  Her smiley nature in Hugo is almost creepy in its fakeness.

Other prominent characters are played by Ben Kingsley, a shop owner inside a Paris train station, Sacha Baron Cohen plays a cross between Borat and Inspector Clouseau, you've got Uncle Vernon Dursley hitting on Hagrid's girlfriend throughout the movie, hang on, I thought the Dursleys hated magic folk.  Anyway there are lots of characters and hundreds of extras and the whole thing is just grandë all around. (Hey I've got the ë copied onto my clipboard so I might as well keep using it right?)

The first half of the movie is quite an adventure and things seem promising but the second half kind of turns into early film appreciation 101.  Everything is extremely well done but it just seemed to be missing a heart.  The moments that should have been touching or heart tugging mostly fall flat.

There are many clever bits.  As we laugh smugly at an on screen audience's panicked reaction to a train rushing towards them in an early silent film we forget that we had just minutes earlier held out our hands to catch some 3D snowflakes that seemed to be falling all around us. 

Hugo is not for the young but for the young at heart.  It is a movie about movies, an ode to movies and their earliest beginnings.  On certain levels it is a wonderful spectacle, overall though it lacks a heart to make it work, to do what it is made to do, just like the automaton.

breaking dawn - part 1

Two weeks after opening night the theater still got quite full.  Even the tardy section at the very front below the crossover aisle was full of large groups who were shocked yet again to find that they would not be able to all sit together only because they had walked in just as the lights went down on a Friday night.  I have always been lucky at these twilight films though.  Even when the room is full I have always had empty seats beside me because everyone assumes that surely I wouldn't be there alone and that the woman who dragged me there was just out buying some popcorn chocolate and a diet Coke while I saved her seat and watched her purse which must be hiding under my jacket on "her seat".

It's been quite a while since I read the last book. Once the movie got going I realized that besides my memory of the major plot points and the overall outcome of the story I had forgotten most the the smaller details. I suppose that's a good thing as much of the story seemed new again. The movie begins with Jcub getting his wedding invitation which immediately makes him take his shirt off (I mean REALLY, is he still doing that?) and go off running to prove that this time he really is done and is never coming back again... ever, ever, ever! (or at least until everyone has forgotten that he is still pouting.)   Of course he does show up at the wedding where he makes a scene and a injects a fresh dose of love triangle drama that all the girlies love so very much.  Thankfully even in the movie version of the story Bella doesn't invite Jcub to come along on the honeymoon which was a huge relief to me. I  was actually slightly worried about something like that happening given the blatant and obvious team Jcub nature of the screenplay writers and directors thus far.

The honeymoon on the private island is well done. The one thought that stuck in my mind though was, "so she didn't shave her legs for her wedding then?"  Bella gets pregnant and the rest of the movie is mostly the drama surrounding that.  I was yet again disappointed that the love triangle angle was still so prominent even after Bella becomes Mrs. Cullen.  It seemed most of the time Ed was standing over in a corner while Bella and Jcub got cozy.  Shirley it wasn't this bad in the books because I don't think I'd have been able to finish them if it was.

The highlight of this movie for me was the special effects.  Just writing that makes me sigh but I'm afraid it's true.  Bella's decomposition into her sickly, being consumed from the inside out, skeleton is frighteningly realistic.  Even greater than that though is her transformation into vampire Bella.  The regeneration of her body is done so well and convincingly that seeing her lying there with her still closed eyes I was sure she had never looked better, EVER!  The effects weren't cheesy and obvious either.  Somehow it looked like I was seeing a real transformation, it was impressive!

Ultimately, given its negative synergy status as a "part 1" movie BD1 is at best a satisfactory experience.  Did you ever get an S on your elementary school report cards?  I remember thinking, not knowing what to think.  I wasn't good and I wasn't bad, I was satisfactory, whatever that really meant...

The movie ends at the exact moment I would have ended it too so i can't fault it there but the fact that it's just half the story makes it impossible to be truly satisfying. Satisfactory? Yes. Satisfying? No way!

I'm not a fan of these final book movies being split into two but considering the extra money they bring in I'm sure they're here to stay.

Ah, by the way, apparently there is a scene involving the Volturi after the credits so be sure and stay for that, I missed it.