Eric's Movie Bin by Eric Naud,
December 15, 2011 page 19.....

Hugo

Perhaps the weirdest thing about this movie is that Martin Scorsese directs it. That’s right, the Martin Scorsese of gritty films like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, The Departed and Shutter Island. However, whereas under a less talented director this movie would have become just like any other kiddish romp, a la Diary of a Wimpy Kid, under the hands of a true master (not to mention lover) of film, it grows into not just an excellent movie, but a heartfelt tribute to one of the early masters of cinema.
The movie centers on a fatherless boy named Hugo (played beyond his years by Asa Butterfield with spectacular ice-blue eyes) living in the walls of a 1930s Paris train station while trying to finish a mechanical man (or automaton) his father was repairing before his death. He steals mechanical parts from a grouchy toymaker, “Papa Georges” (Sir Ben Kingsley), while at the same time evading a bumbling Clouseau-esque inspector (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) and befriending Papa Georges’ goddaughter Isabelle (dazzling Chloë Grace Moretz).
Now Hugo, both the movie and the title character, have a secret obsession with film, mainly with silent films, which is not a bad thing. When Hugo remembers his father, a light flashes near him, quickly, as if through a projector, accompanied by the sound of a projector, too. At one point the two sneak into a cinema and watch Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last. That’s not all – at another point, they find out that “Papa Georges” is in fact Georges Méliès, the retired master of silent cinema, but wait, that’s not all... Eventually we see a screening of his classic film, A Trip to the Moon (yes), in hand-tinted color (Yes!) with its original long-lost ending (YES!!!), and, finally, a couple flashbacks to Méliès at his prime are enough for a worthy dramatization of his career and his tragic fall from grace after WWI.
From the very first frame of this film, I felt I was in a product worthy of a film school. I was absorbed into perfect frame shots – like the flying aerial shot in the opening – all of them especially great in 3D. There may be a few subplots that don’t exactly connect with the main story, including a romance between the inspector and a flower girl, and a similar relationship of a middle aged couple, but thinking about it now, those subplots help make the story more believable and interesting. Despite all the grittiness of his previous films, Hugo seems to be the dream film that Martin has been wanting to make after all these years. In short, this is the filmmaker’s film. I HIGHLY recommend seeing this movie for all ages!

Three ¾ stars out of four