Hugo Reviews

Hugo is the result of too many things, one of them is Martin Scorsese trying to take a break from the gangs and the violence to present a family movie, another thing is that, he was trying to get into visuals and 3D to "cope" with the modern cinema.

The movie is highly enjoyable, with very interesting story, a story that develops slow but end up being mind-blowing, the movie is highly underrated, in fact, it bombed at the box office, and never received the recognition it deserves, mainly, the idea of a family movie directed by Martin Scorsese doesn't sound appealing, but people are forgetting that Martin Scorsese is a masterful film maker, a guy who would get into any type of movie and make it good.

BUT, Martin Scorsese took the idea of a family movie too far, he tried to get a wide range of demographic to watch his movie, but end up repelling the adults, the movie seemed like a Disney movie for kids, the jokes and the slapstick's and some weird under-developed characters, were too childish to watch, and i don't understand why would he go to that place, a movie can be considered a family movie without being too childish.

I enjoyed every frame of that movie, the production design, the 3D, Asa Butterfield and Chloë Grace Moretz were awesome, even Ben Kingsley delivered a good performance, it's a movie about making movies, so at the end you get to see some visually stunning scenes about movies previously done by Georges Méliès and now are being re-created, i didn't like Sacha Baron Cohen character, i don't think he's funny at all, Emily Mortimer character was weird and pointless, and Michael Stuhlbarg performance made me feel like i'm sitting in a prop show, which took the movie to a downer level.

Overall, it's a wonderful movie, a bit childish, BUT defiantly deserve more recognition because it's highly enjoyable, but i still think that Martin Scorsese should stick to what he do best, not this.

Forget the naysayers wanting the Scorsese of Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Raging Bull: Hugo is absolute delight! So rich in its settings and details, so magical in its use of 3-D technology, so loving of cinema, so noble in its soul: a film Scorsese was born to make.

'Hugo' is set in 1931 and in a train station in France where a 12 year old orphan lives named Hugo (Asa Butterfield) who has to survive by stealing croissants, when an owner of a toy booth (Ben Kingsley) finds out he's been stealing, Hugo soon meets his god-daughter Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) but if Hugo is caught by the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen), he'll go to the orphanage

While the story is great, most adults may know who Ben Kingsley is but probably not who George Melies is, but we soon learn some things about George Melies and the first movies

George Melies directed 'A Trip To The Moon' a 9 to 18 minute movie in which a rocket flies into the eye of the man in the moon, but don't watch 'Hugo' just to see that, watch 'Hugo' because it's a masterpiece because you don't see much of 'A Trip To The Moon' at all

Hugo is pure enchantment that recalls to mind (at least for me) such films as Pan's Labyrinth, Time Bandits and Stardust; each, though very different, all possess a magical aspect to them that transcends the averaged movie. There is also an infusion of Dickens here that one would have to be blind to miss. I truly wish that I'd had the chance to see this film in theatres instead of at home and I fear that because of that I have missed some of it's grandeur. Should it ever again return to the big screen I shall make a point not to miss it again.

This was a film filled with surprises for me, though not the usual kind. Hugo's aspect is grand, equally both bright and dark, and mesmerizing; I truly felt as if under a spell the entire time. Yet the surprises I speak of are something else entirely.

A better cast of actors could not have been chosen for this film and they execute the steps of their dance before the cameras flawlessly. Kingsley, Butterfield and Moretz may have garnered more screen-time than the remainder of the cast but each and everyone made the most of their allotted time and all of their characters are vital components of the spell.

Cohen's station inspector was a delight for me, as was the brief cameo of Jude Law as Hugo's father. The automaton and Christopher Lee both brought smiles to my face in their turns. In truth, I smiled quite a lot while watching this film. :)

Yet the most pleasant surprise of all was the fact that Martin Scorsese himself directed this most incredible enchantment. A man whose name is synonymous with films that plum the depths of the darkness in the human soul; a man whose name brings to mind mobsters, bullets and blood; and finally, a man who I never thought in a million years would even be interested in helming such a delightful enchanting tale such as this. I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Scorsese yet his films have a tendency not to leave one filled with warm and fuzzy feelings, indeed quite the opposite.

Paris, Dickens, clockworks, the hunchback of Notre Dame, the fledgling birth of the film industry...all woven together into the perfect magic spell. Hugo is well worth the wait (and the watching) and the world seen through the eyes of a lonely orphan boy is a truly awesome place...even when that world is the confines of a busy Paris train station in the 1930's.

Now, I normally don’t care for 3D films. I find the third dimension to be an unnecessary distraction from the proceedings, an extra bell or whistle added to most action movies to distract the viewer from the inane plot, lousy dialog and poor characterization. But the 3D in Hugo, while still slightly unnecessary for me, did add a certain quality to the layout of scenes. It seemed as if some care and thought had gone in to decide how to use the medium and produce a more integrated result.

But we’re also talking about a film which blares something that for me is an automatic indicator of quality: “Directed by Martin Scorsese.” Scorsese is a virtuoso, a master of his chosen craft, an artiste with an expansive, rich filmic vocabulary. The opening sequence is a cinematic gambit ably done by an auteur working at the top of his game on a story that takes twists and turns that are surprising.

We begin from on high, up in the clouds, and zoom along with a train before the camera becomes the train. We don’t stop the momentum as we zip through the train station, past figures and random passengers, before stopping. We’ve come to our soundstage for most of the film – Gare Montparnasse railway station in Paris. And these early sections are lively, full of fun and mischief as Hugo must escape from the tyrannical Station Inspector, keep the clocks running and find new ways to steal food to survive.

It all sounds a little depressing, and his childhood is very much out of a Charles Dickens novel, but there’s a wandering sense of fun that pervades Asa Butterfield’s performance. He’s a charming little street urchin, a voyeur who views the train station as his own private movie theater, and each section and interaction amongst the employees that he views from afar a different genre. And the first hour or so, maybe a little less, plays out like this.

Then he meets Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz, a ridiculously talented actress already), the goddaughter of the man who runs the trinket shop. Their friendship is a meeting of like minds, even if their chosen mediums are different. He, having lost his father at a young age and forcibly become the keeper of the clocks with his drunken uncle, hasn’t had much time to read. But his fondest memories are of the movies. And she is forbidden from seeing movies, but loves to get lost in the new worlds and ideas presented to her in books. They see a similar passion, and there really isn’t much of a difference between being obsessed with the magic of a novel or a book, they each give you something special.

Once we discover the identity of her godfather, and why she is forbidden from watching movies, Hugo takes a dramatic shift. Now it becomes something terribly personal for Scorsese, and here is where he shows his passion. It transitions slowly into the story of one boy who works tirelessly to preserve the legacy of nearly forgotten greats in cinema. He wants to preserve these films and educate the masses on their importance and artistic legacy.

If this sounds familiar, then it should. Hugo becomes Scorsese’s personal manifesto about film preservation, to return spectacle to the cinema, and to make believe in the magic. That isn’t to say it is all pure vanity project, there’s too much warmth, fun and wonderment on display for that.

And Scorsese slowly integrates scenes from real silent films, without having fussed with them or done any digital trickery, I wanted to give a standing ovation. The scenes recreating many of these moments are just as good. Hugo slowly turns from a family film about a street urchin living in a Paris train station into an elaborate love poem to the movies, and all of the creativity and joy they can inspire in people. That a scene, which left me heartbroken as a film lover, where film strips are forever lost, having been melted down to make heels for shoes can transition into one boy rescuing the surviving prints from certain death left me walking out on a natural high. But, then again, every Scorsese movie leaves me walking out like that.

2011 was an interesting year in cinema, in that many of the prime players for the awards season looked back at the history and figures that helped shape American cinema as we know it. We had the great, loveable comedy The Artist, and a flawed film with a stunningly complicated and fully-realized central performance in My Week With Marilyn, and, of course, Hugo which took disparate elements from both, and crafted my personal favorite movie of that year. Funny how these things go in cycles. 2011 was the year in which the movies took a look back at themselves.

hugo is a cool kid and he is really good at finding and he is good at hiding from the station incaperter

This is a bad movie.
Bad, really bad.
Mind you! I expected little from this but I got even less.
The characters are bland, the acting is laughable and even the colors are way out of balance!

The story development goes from nothing really happens to nothing ever happened with some I-just-dont-care and please-kill-me in between. The script tries to get some amelie-ish feeling without any luck or inteligence leaving the secondary characters orphaned to die alone and rot. The main course of the story could have been developed in an interesting manner but it just tumbles along the sidewalk for hours and then wraps it all without mercy.

It tried to be something more than a kid´s movie and ended being just rubbish. Sorry Martin but you just missed this shot but hey! nobody seems to care! Some day in one or three years a lot of people is gonna watch this movie again and think to themselves "what did I liked back then that I cant find now?"

There´s no magic in this movie, only characters telling you that there is.

3D in terms of space and is very beautiful... But we did not like the progress of the issue ... Martin Scorsese has also included if their fears ... fear of being forgotten

Directed by Academy Award winner Director Martin Scorsese, HUGO is the movie nominated for Academy Award for 2012.

Based on the Brian Selznick novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret", movie combines a young boy's passion of fulfilling his farther dream & adventure with a cinematic history lesson. A good movie to watch.