A Christmas Carol 3D – Review
by John on Nov.29, 2009, under Reviews
Robert Zemekis is a madman. Yes, the same director who gave us Back to the Future has now established residence in the Uncanny Valley (wiki) with the insane task of bridging it. For three films in a row (Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol), the loonies at ImageMovers have used a process that morphs real actors into 3D avatars with the intention of making them look real. Madness, I tell you.
For A Christmas Carol, Jim Carrey gets lured into the wackiness. And you know what? Zemekis is getting good. Each successive movie displays great strides in the animation quality as well as the 3D effects. Carrey plays/voices Scrooge and all the ghosts (plus a few others) and every character looks more human than anyone in Beowulf or Polar Express. That’s not saying much, since Zombie Tom Hanks is looking frighteningly dated these days
The only reason to see this in the theaters is for the 3D. Directors are now out of the gimmick phase of 3D (well, most of them), and starting to use the extra dimension in artistic ways. The Toy Story 3 trailer makes the characters go dark when they pop out of the screen. This looks like they have left the bright light of the screen world, and into the darkened theater. It’s awesome if you haven’t seen it.
For A Christmas Carol, Zemekis also tackles light and shadow effects to great effect. Watching a light fade “down” a hallway creates an effect I have never seen in film. On the other end of the spectrum, the shadow of the Ghost of Christmas Future is used to create fascinting scenes of dread. Pay attention if you go see this.
One word of caution. This is the scariest version of the story, by far. It’s animated, so you may be tempted to bring your little ones. One couple did the same in my showing and had to leave early. If you’ve got kiddos who scare easy, avoid this.
Overall, A Christmas Carol is a hard movie to review. You know the story, so that’s not much of a draw. There were enough technical feats to satisfy my inner geek, but he’s probably crazier than Zemekis.
Grade: B-
