Two more down

This past week, I finally had a chance to see the last of the Best Picture nominees that I needed to see in theaters. Oddly enough, both stories center around a boy hoping that mysterious a key would reveal a message from his deceased father.

Hugo

I will start off by saying that this movie is visually stunning. I have only bothered to see a few films in 3D and for the most part I've been disappointed. Avatar was an exceptional use of the technology, but everything else was just a waste of money. The only reason that I saw Hugo in 3D was because that was all that was still playing. And I have to say, it was not a waste of money. Scorsese's use of the technology truly lives up to what Avatar showed us was possible. I was fully immersed in this world and it's wonderful aesthetic.

The trailer for this film is pretty unappealing. Just trying to watch it again now, I couldn't get all the way through it. It's no wonder that it wasn't really successful at the box office. I don't blame them for not knowing how to sell this movie because even after seeing it, I would have no idea how to do it either. It is a film that starts in one place and then ends completely somewhere else. It is the story of an orphan that lives in a train station, who is in search of a key that he believes will deliver him a message from his deceased father. Somehow his journey ends up being a nostalgic love letter to the history of film. This movie is disguised as a kids movie, but I hardly see the story being appealing to children. The film is pretty dialog heavy and I don't know any kids that are really interested in the the early pioneers of French cinema. That being said, I am not a kid. I enjoyed the film, although I wasn't as enamoured with it as many were. Even though it unexpectedly ends up being about silent films, I found the plot progression to be pretty predictable. But even though the story lacked a little, it was a visual feast and I ate it up.


Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

This movie was probably the biggest 'huh' of the Oscar nominees. Overall, it is pretty poorly reviewed and criticized for being exploitative and emotionally manipulative. The 9/11 fictional film centers around a boy, Oskar, who believes a key will reveal a secret message from his father who died in the World Trade Center. I felt that this story could have been told if the father had died in a number of different ways and wasn't just a victim of 9/11. It's really just an observation, not a criticism. I can see why some people might see it as exploitative, but even though it wasn't necessary for the story, I think it was told tastefully. There were parts of the story that were lacking. It's a bit contrived. I wish that we got more out of the people that Oskar meets on his journey. I wonder if they were perhaps given more attention in the novel. Originally, the trailer for the film made me more interested in reading the book than seeing the movie. I intended to read before ever seeing the film, but since it is a Best Picture nominee, I had to see it sooner rather than later. Now that I've seen the film, I think I've mostly lost interest in the book. I wouldn't say that this was a bad movie, but it is just okay at best. It has some nice acting performances, but I think there were a lot of other movies that were far more deserving on a nomination over this one.


Seven down, two to go. I've had Tree of Life sitting on my entertainment center for over a week now, waiting for me to be in a proper mood to see it. I may have to watch Midnight in Paris on demand because Blockbuster's poor availability probably won't have it by Feb 26. I'm bummed right now because it was only $.99 on Amazon last week and now it's up to $3.99.