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Plot Summary
Welcome to a magical world of spectacular adventure! When wily and resourceful Hugo discovers a secret left by his father, he unlocks a mystery and embarks on a quest that will transform those around him and lead to a safe and loving place he can call home. Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese invites you to experience a thrilling journey that critics are calling “the stuff that dreams are made of.” *Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
94%- Reviews Counted: 203
- Fresh: 190
- Rotten: 13
- Average Rating: 8.3/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: I have seen the future of 3-D moviemaking, and it belongs to Martin Scorsese, unlikely as that may sound.
Fresh: Being a hardcore cinephile (like Scorsese) might add a layer of enjoyment, but it certainly isn't a prerequisite for walking in the door. A sense of wonder, however, is.
Fresh: It's a fairy tale for mature viewers, but the airy exterior hides emotional depth.
Fresh: Scorsese transforms this innocent tale into an ardent love letter to the cinema and a moving plea for film preservation.
Customer Reviews
A beautiful tribute to classic cinema...
Being a huge fan of Martin Scorsese, I must say; I was actually worried about seeing "Hugo" after watching the trailer. The dialogue didn't sound all that sparkly, and the humor looked very flat. But after seeing the movie, I gotta tell you, that trailer poorly represented how wonderful of a film this is.
The story (at first) revolves around the young Hugo (Asa Butterfield), a young orphan who lives in a train station fixing clocks. He's in possesion of a strange robot that he and his recently deceased father tried to fix. When his notes on the robot are stolen by toy shop owner Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley), he teams up with the owner's goddaughter Isabelle to try to get them back; only to discover that his robot has a greater connection to Melies than he realized.
While I really did love much of this film, the story itself has it's problems. What I've told you about the story is only the first half of this film. The second half focuses almost entirely on Melies and his former carreer as a filmmaker. While I did love the second half more than the first, the change in focus made it hard for me to find any emotional resonance with the characters. There are even a couple of romantic subplots that were, in all honesty, quite unnecessary.
Though the story had it's faults, I honestly didn't care because there's so much that this film does right. The entire cast gave fantastic performances, the art direction just transports you back to 1930's Paris in a beautiful fashion, it's all captured by the masterful cinematography, and Howard Shore's score is his best since the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. And for fans of old cinema, the second half of this film is like a kid in a candy store.
It was very mature, and so well done technically that I was just hypnotized. As a film on it's own, it does have some errors. As for the families, you can take your kids to see this, but they will probably be bored. Nontheless, it's a very enjoyable film. Two Thumbs Up!
"My friends, I address you all tonight as you truly are; wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, magicians... Come and dream with me." - Ben Kingsley as Georges Melies
I must be one of the few...
I simply didn't enjoy the film... Maybe its because I'm a film major and I have high expectations now. Maybe its because I'm missing some vital piece of information. Or...
The plot meanders around certain events, and connects 2 infallibly unconnected stories by tying them together with connections as thin as a hair at the drop of a hat. As interesting as the ending premise may be, it simply wasn't engaging to me. To be honest, I'm shocked that audiences have been drawn in by such a weakly weaved story-line.
The acting was bearable excepting that of the female protagonist, whose facial expressions seemed to me, for lack of a better word, pained or anxious, as if she was struggling to keep herself from exclaiming about a physical ailment that she's been suffering from for hours. All that's not even to mention that all the actors have elected, whether by direction or personal choice, to use heavy English accents for a movie that takes place in France. In addition, the comedy was somewhat stale and drawn out, and I got weary of such attempts, although kudos must be given for the acting chops of Sacha Baron Cohen.
For most of the film, the story masquerades itself as a boy's journey to complete the final project left to him after the death of his father. However, seemingly out of nowhere when the project is, at long last, complete, there is no closure and another journey pops out of thin air, extending the movie further.
That's not to say I dislike the movie entirely. I certainly enjoyed many aspects. Hugo's a fun and lovable, if stubborn character, and the premise at the start is very catchy. Its just when counting all the variables that I have to strongly disagree with the many Oscar nominations and critics... but to each his own.
In the end, the only thing I've gained from this is that George Melies shall finally gain the modern spotlight that he so richly deserves.
A children's movie for all
I have to say, when i went to see this I wasn't expecting anything special. Most children's movies nowadays wreak of pop culture references, false portrayals of adult life, crappy humor and overall just bad examples for kids to follow (for example, everything the disney channel has put out in the last decade), but this film was probably the most refreshing movie I've seen all year. Being a film lover i was pleased by the many references to old fashioned cinema as well as the film's storyline itself. It filled me with those youthful smiles that all the old classic children's movies used to bring to me when i was young, I'm 15:P Bottom line, if you want your children's heads with nonsense and other pop culture crap that is painfully abundant in modern children's stories, go see monte carlo or some other crappy disney shlop, if you want to be entertain and set a good example for your kids, don't hesitate to see HUGO. Definitely deserves every oscar nomination it has received.
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- $14.99
- Genre: Kids & Family
- Released: 2011
- © 2011 by PARAMOUNT PICTURES. All rights reserved.