All looks no substance

Rating: 3/10 (1 April 2012)

The most memorable thing about Hugo is the way it looks. Martin Scorcese has i think, created a visually beautiful motion picture and on that level, it entertains. As far as the underlying story, it is long and worn out by the time it ends, to the point where i no longer cared. There is no doubt that the story of Georges Jean Méliès, is an immensely interesting one. As the man who pioneered special effects in cinema,Méliès early life and career was surely more worthy of telling in some detail. Instead Hugo buries an interesting story in a convoluted one about a boy grieving his deceased father looking for key (sound familiar)in a train station with a carry on inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen)who was terrible in this role. The automaton was intriguing but i cant help feeling that it was just a ruse to keep me in my seat to the end of the picture.i believe there was a far more interesting story to tell that was buried in vague metaphoric double meanings that you really needed to care about to get. Overall a pretty picture but nothing memorable.