Controversial, I'm sure, but I got a little bit bored during Martin Scorsese kid-flick Hugo. Don't get me wrong, in many ways it's a lovely story and it is beautifully produced, stunningly produced in fact but I kept waiting for something to happen that never did.
It is at it's heart an emotional story. Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is orphaned and 'adopted' by nasty uncle who puts him to work, doing his job of winding all the clocks in a busy Paris station then absents himself.
Left to his own devices Hugo, when he isn't winding the clocks, works on a project he started with his Dad to mend an automaton. This involves trying to steal bits of clockwork from a toy stall in the station and avoid being picked up by the station manager and his ferocious doberman.
Along the way he befriends Isabelle (Chloe Moretz), the goddaughter of the toy stall owner, who decides to help him.
And there are some real bottom lip trembling moments (and yes I did cry once) and there are a plethora of great performances - some barely more than cameos from some of the British acting elite (Ben Kingsley, Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Helen McCrory, Christopher Lee...) but ultimately the whole film lacked pace and was a little long.
A lot of work obviously went into creating the station world and it is beautiful, intriguing and exciting but felt underused. But then what do I know? Everyone else seems to think it's the best thing since sliced bread.
I'm going to give it 65%. On IMDb it's got 83% with the same Metacritic score. On Rotten Tomatoes it's got 94% from critics and 84% of site visitors have given it three and a half stars out of five or higher.
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