An average movie

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I thought I might as well check it out again. In fact, I remember quite well when this movie was released, there was quite some buzz about it. Eventually, I even saw the damned thing in the movie theater with my wife and kids but, personally, I always had some rather mixed feelings about this flick. Indeed, many people really despised it when it was released mostly because all the characters looked pretty spooky. Well, after all these years, this movie didn’t grow old well, I’m afraid, and it is still pretty damned ugly, especially the characters who all look like some creepy lifeless dolls. And yet, beside this major issue, it is actually not a bad movie though. Indeed, I just loved the breathless action scenes and, even though most of the the Christmas movies are just so tedious, this one was actually bearable and even fairly entertaining. On top of that, I always find it interesting when a director tries to experiment with something new and I think that Robert Zemeckis should be praised for that. Indeed, except for the human characters, it was visually pretty neat and there were also some dazzling action pieces. Basically, it was a half-baked experiment but like any experiment, you should respect the people who tried to push the envelop a little more. Eventually, Zemeckis would direct 2 more features using the same technology (my favorite would be ‘Beowulf’) but none of these movies would manage to really impress the audience or the critics. It must have stinged like a b*tch though when James Cameron came around with ‘Avatar’ which was using a similar concept but still managed to have a monster hit at the box-office. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.


6/10