Got nomination by pandering to film lovers

Rating: 6/10 (30 May 2012)

There's a lot to like about Hugo, but there's also a huge glaring flaw that a lot of people overlook. First the good: each shot of this movie is gorgeous and the cinematographer did a really good job creating this world. The cast is a lot of fun and the scenes paying homage to film's history are really well done and incredibly moving. But they are also this film's main problem. The first half of this movie is about a boy named Hugo who is an orphan living in a train station. He spends his days winding clocks and trying to finish an automaton that he and his father had worked on before his father died. Most of this part of the movie is a mystery as Hugo tries to figure out how to finish the machine and how these different figures in his life are related. This plot is really interesting and engaging, which is why it's promptly dropped in the middle of the movie for a completely different story. Once Hugo discovers that this grumpy man who runs a toy store in the train station is, in fact, George Melies, one the great pioneers in early cinema, the mystery vanishes and the movie becomes How George got his Groove Back. Hugo is now a side character in his own movie and anyone who had any interest in the mystery is given a really slap-dash answer. This does lead to some beautiful and moving scenes for anyone who loves film, but these scenes have virtually nothing to do with Hugo or his father.