A Fascinating and Captivating Family Mystery Movie

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2019)

27 November 2011. The 3-D effects of this period movie while not perfect are superior in quality and add to the brilliance and visual impact of the solid, personal and intimate and focused storyline. Whether or not its a technological problem, the most noticeable weakness of the film is the failure to capture the enhanced ambiance of the 3-D potential of the vapor and mist that seemed to be found in many of the scenes in Hugo. Nevertheless the fusion of actual historical characters, the use of 3-D to recall the earliest days of cinema combined with mystery drama of this movie results in a remarkable captivating movie plot that involves the audience on the number of levels - visually, auditory (with notable sound differentials between speakers), clear and singular plot without distracting subplots. The implicit fantasy genre elements of this movie actually are more realized in reality and magic than in sci-fi or fantasy as part of the storyline itself which in some ways makes this movie even more remarkable and involving because of its actual possibilities as an authentic event. The weakness part of the movie occurred toward the end of the movie with the train station's guard who at the last minute makes a decision which appeared to be more based on another character's presence then his own which significantly reduces the emotive and ethical impact of the scene. The two 3-D scenes of the faces of at different times of the station guard and Kingsley are perhaps some of the finest uses of 3-D yet in its achievement of visual clarity and enhancement to cinema since 3-D came into its own. The additional fascinating element of the craftsmanship, the building and fixing and repairing of objects that has seemed to have gone of out fashion in today's contemporary throw away society of printers and consumables makes for both a traditional but enlightening and uplifting moral tale. This is a story of our time using the past, the good parts of it unlike perhaps Charles Dickens. With elements from A.I. (2001), Polar Express (2004) the fairy tale that becomes real makes for a truly memorable movie.