A good kids movie that will entertain a more mature audience as well!

Rating: 8/10 (29 December 2016)

"Hugo" is about the titular character who lives in a train-station where he is doing the job that his dad used to do: fixing clocks. He gets to know this old shop owner, where after a chain of mysteries gets put in front of him.
"Hugo" was directed by the well-known master of cinema Martin Scorsesse. He is one of the best directors working today and all of the films I've seen of him have been good. You'd expect that he would maybe produce something worse with a movie who's target audience is children, but with "Hugo" he'll prove you wrong. He used some impressive long takes in this movie, like in the beginning and ending. The beginning scene was very CGI-heavy, which I didn't really like, but I understand why they had to do that. The CGI looked very fake, and I don't really understand why the movie got an Oscar for this part. The scene overall was good (the camera movements etc.), but the CGI was really off-putting, whereby I thought that the whole movie would be like this: CGI filled. Luckily this wasn't the case and was the other uses of CGI more subtle and worked better. Like for example the train sequence, there the CGI was way better than in the beginning, because there wasn't an overflow of it. The end scene was filmed very impressively. I saw a behind the scenes video of it, which only made the scene even better and more surprising that they even were able to pull it of.The score was nicely composed and created by Howard Shore. The movie was also beautifully filmed. Each shot was nicely framed and looked good. This was done by Robert Richardson, who had previously worked with Scorsesse in "Shutter Island", where he also proved his talent. The costume design I found to be good. It really helped to create a feel to the movie, and it also made the movie look more like it was set in the early 30'.
The acting was good even from the young actor and actress. Let's first talk about the protagonist of the story: Hugo. Hugo was played by Asa Butterfield. An actor who has showed multiple times that he is a fantastic kid actor. One example Is "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". In this movie too he gives a good performance, not as good as in the previously named film, but still pretty good, especially for a kid. Sometimes I found that the emotion he showed with his face, didn't match the emotion he put into his voice. Other times he did this perfectly and really showed his full emotion. His Co-star was Chloë Grace Moretz. She was also very good, better than Asa in this movie. Ben Kingsley played her uncle. He gave one of the best performances in the film. He was really able to portray how his character felt and we were able to feel with him, thanks to Kingsley's brilliant performance. Jude Law, for the screen time he got, was excellent. I very much liked him in the film. And last but not least I want to mention Sacha Baron Cohen. He played someone totally different from his other characters, and it worked. He was funny and acted it out very well. He was more of the comic relief for the children, but it really worked, because the jokes that were made were good for all ages and not just stupid fart jokes.
The screenplay was really well written. The story was interesting and not predictable. It sets up a little adventure that reminds you of what it's like to be a child. The story also was well constructed and by the use of flashbacks it also sets up the character of Hugo. I only have one really complaint about the screenplay and this is that at the end of the movie everything gets explained fairly obviously. I liked the twist that they put in there and that they teach the younger audience about film, but I just would've liked a more subtle approach better. I hope that this encourages kids to go watch movies of Georges Méliès, because that's where it all started. You also don't really have to know a lot of movies to understand what they are talking about, which is also a good thing. Like I've said before, the jokes were funny, and that's a good part thanks to the screenplay. There was some slapstick, but also some verbal humor. Sometimes I think that the jokes would go over the heads of children, but I think that that's a good thing, because by this you can keep the more mature audience entertained. I also liked the fact that there were some small side stories going on. Those too were funny and set up in a nice manner, whereby the added to the story and weren't just some useless images to fill up the time span of the movie.
In the end I found "Hugo" to be a good movie. It had a mix of things that adults could enjoy and that kids could enjoy, whereby the movie really becomes a good kids movie. The movie also teaches some things about early cinema which I very much enjoyed and also the way it was integrated into the movie fitted very well. 8.4/10