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The Polar Express
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Tom Hanks |
| MPAA Rated: |
G |
| Released By: |
Warner Bros. |
| Web Site: |
www.polarexpressmovie.com |
| Kiddie Movie: |
It's a great story
for kids. |
| Date Movie: |
It's a great story
for dates. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
It's rated G. |
| Gratuitous
Violence: |
It's still rated
G. |
| Action: |
Some fun scenes. |
| Laughs: |
A couple of
chuckles. |
| Memorable
Scene: |
The train
screaming down the tracks like a roller coaster. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
Nothing stood out. |
| Directed By: |
Robert Zemeckis |
| Produced By: |
Steve Starkey,
Robert Zemeckis, Gary Goetzman, William Teitler |
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The Polar Express
A Movie Review |
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There was a potential for my viewing of "The Polar
Express" to turn into a complete nightmare, and that was about five
minutes before the movie started when little Skippy sitting behind me
proceeded to start kicking the back of my chair. And we’re not talking
little taps, we’re talking "Wham! Wham! Wham!" types of kicks. I felt
a long movie coming, but then the Mom stepped up. The first time it
happened she nicely asked her son to stop, and he stopped. Then he
started kicking again and this time she stepped it up a little bit
threatening if he doesn’t stop they will go home without seeing the
movie. Then the third time she did one of the better parenting things
I’ve witnessed, she explained to her son that there were consequences
if he did it again, namely they would leave, and then she explained to
him why his behavior was unacceptable, namely because he isn’t allowed
to act that way at home, it was rude of him to be bothering me, and
that there are ways to act in public, and kicking the chair in front
of you isn’t one of them. Happily Skippy learned his lesson, because
he didn’t kick my chair during the movie. Way to go Mom, hopefully
this lesson will stick with your son. I suppose I should get to the
movie review portion of this, so let’s get to "The Polar Express."
The movie "The Polar Express" is based on the short story by the same
name, which I’ve heard is loved by everyone who reads it. Me, I didn’t
read it, but the movie if a fabulous Christmas story. The story gives
us Hero Boy who is at that age where he doubts the existence of Santa
Claus, and relays these doubts to his sister. Then, outside his house,
there is a clatter, but it isn’t Santa, magically there’s a train in
the middle of the street. Hero Boy goes out to investigate and the
Conductor tells the boy to get on the train. At first the boy is
hesitant, but then as the train begins to pull away he runs to just in
time get on it. They make another stop, this time in front of Lonely
Boy’s house, and Lonely Boy only makes the train thanks to a quick
thinking Hero Boy. We also get introduced to Know-It-All as well as
Hero Girl. And so, the movie continues as we get to learn a little bit
about the life of Lonely Boy, we get an exciting train ride to the
North Pole, Hero Boy has some interesting adventures with Hobo, and
eventually our trainload of kids find themselves at the North Pole
just as Santa is getting ready to head off for the night of Christmas
giving. And so, Hero Boy, Lonely Boy, Hero Girl, and even Know-It-All
are given assurances that Santa does exist, and also learn a little
bit more about the meaning of Christmas.
For a Christmas story, this is as good as any of them, and if I
could only base this review on the story it would be 5 stars out of 5
and this movie would go down in history as one of the great holiday
movies of all time. Sadly, at least for me, this is a movie that shows
technology advances aren’t always great in terms of movie-making. For
"The Polar Express" the filmmakers use a not really new, but never
this extensively used technique of performance capture. In simple
terms, the actor/performer wears this suit with a bunch of sensors on
it. As the performer moves, a computer maps out his movements, and
then they map a character’s movements based on that of the performer
using computer animation. It’s used a lot for video games, and also
was the reason why Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy was
fabulous. But, for this movie, they use it for everyone, with Tom
Hanks playing a lot of the roles, including Hero Boy, Father,
Conductor, Hobo, Scrooge, and Santa. My problem is that it doesn’t
seem to work. The children look a little creepy, even Hobo and Santa
look a little off, with the only character they seemed to really
concentrate on was the Conductor. I suppose either you’re going to
like the way the movie looks, but I didn’t. It’s at that half-way
point between animation and real life, where it just doesn’t click for
me.
For me I would have preferred one of two things: One, do the movie
completely in animation, like "The Incredibles." That technology has
gotten fabulous, but still leaves you not creeped out because the
characters are cartoon animation. The other option is to do this movie
for real. Find actors that fit each role, let them act, build real
sets, and us CGI to fill in the spots that need it. Either option, for
me, would have propelled "The Polar Express" into holiday stardom, but
sadly a fabulous story is ruined by a risky use of technology that for
me just didn’t work. That said, it’s 2 ½ stars out of 5.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!! |
