Every once and a while there comes a movie so stunning in its visuals that it makes you understand why movie theaters exist. The film is basic in plot, frankly we’ve seen stories like this before. Yet the look of the film, the feel, it’s so stunning that you can’t help but feel like you’ve seen a piece of art once you’ve left the theater. The movie follows Hugo(Asa Butterfield) a young orphan living in a train station in Paris. His father(Jude Law) was a brilliant creator that died in a museum fire. Hugo using what he learned from his father helps the clocks in the station run, while he tries to build a small mechanical person his father left behind. From there he gains relationships that leads to a beautiful love letter to early films from the 1900’s like Un Voyage A La Lune.

This film is a family friendly film, though it’s pacing is very adult. The pacing is an issue frankly is half way through the film slows down epically. This is a minor issue though in a very beautiful film. Many are most likely used to Martin Scorsese making violent crime drama’s. This film is far from those. Every scene seems perfect, it’s hard to describe. The film has many minor characters in it and their plot lines are basic and pointless but they are so small it’s hard to be annoyed by this.

The 3D is very special here, my stance on the technology is nothing more than a shrug. Most of the studios using don’t seem to understand it. When on saw Avatar on the big screen it blew me away, it was magical. Since then it’s been let down after badly made let down. Here the 3D works with the world Scorsese created, it’s frankly worth the extra charge at the box office.

The other stand out to this film are the child actors in it, Asa Butterfield and Chloe Moretz are stunning. Usually younger actors hold a film down or slow scenes down. Here they make the movie come to life. Now sure Jude Law is good in the small scenes he’s in. Ben Kingsley is impressive here as well but these younger actors really helped me through the film. The plot is frankly basic, there are no real big moments in the movie either. Their performances helped through all of that. They didn’t need to story to cover up for them. The acting stands alone which is very impressive.

If you love movies this is really a must see. The 3D is magical. The film itself is a very family friendly film. Be aware that besides a couple cute scenes with dogs the movie doesn’t dumb things down. No fart jokes or nonsense, the movie is very classy but it’s still totally worth taking your kids. Think of it this way, a decade from now they’ll look back at this movie and say “Why don’t they make movies like that anymore?”.

Rating: 8/10