Hugo not so charming after all

If it weren’t for the prevalent fast-paced structure of today’s entertainment, the new movie release, Hugo, might actually have been worthy of a high rating. As it is, the audience of the 21st century, especially the younger crowd, has been conditioned to focus on subjects with more attention at shorter intervals of time. This is unfortunate for movies such as Hugo, which started intriguing enough, but dragged on for a solid hour until the mystery of a writing automaton and the main character, Hugo’s father, was finally revealed.

The movie centers around an orphan who lives and manages the clocks in a London train station. This young boy becomes involved in the reparations and mysterious message of an automaton left to him by his late father. The set up of the story is promising and piques the viewer’s curiosity well enough, but interest can only be held so long when the viewer is denied again and again an answer to the question, “What sort of diabolical scheme was Hugo’s dad wrapped up in with this eerie robot?” And while we’re at it, just what sort of genius was able to design a robot that could write in the 1930s?

An agonizing, incalculable time later, the above question is answered, and the story turns out to be, rather than diabolical, more tragic, about a man’s admirable talent forgotten in the unappreciative corners of an old museum. Don’t worry, no more spoilers beyond that.

Two hours for a movie, in which the most exciting scene was arguably Hugo climbing stairs to escape being captured by the train station inspector, is much too long. The typically sappy ending in which (whoops, spoiler again) Hugo supposedly finds a new home in the family who helps him discover the secret of the automaton, gives it a two star rating.

Rating: 2 Stars