Massively Overrated - Big Disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (5 March 2012)

Another great example of why I trust reviews, award shows and hype less and less every year. Here's a film that's been hyped and hyped and won tons of awards; a movie everyone is talking about, but which has almost no redeeming value.
Sure, it's visually stunning and beautifully made, but the story and characters are dimensionless and empty. It was almost unwatchable. I kept holding out hope that something compelling or meaningful or interesting would happen, but it never did. The fact that the movie was so long only made matters worse.
The mechanics and clockworks they plastered all over the ads created a sense of excitement, mystery and adventure that is never realized in the film. What seems really exciting and inviting in the posters and ads is cold and dull in the actual film. It felt monochromatic and alienating when I was actually watching it.
One last nitpick - a pet peeve of mine is movies where the character's accents don't match the location. In this case, a movie set in France, where all the characters have English accents. A bit annoying.