Disney's A Christmas Carol 3D

Directed by Robert Zemeckis
"Starring" Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, and Robin Wright Penn

SYNOPSIS: Yet another iteration of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol. This time Robert "Motion Capture" Zemeckis has tried to bring the classic story to life.

THE GOOD: I will preface this by saying I don't like Robert Zemeckis, at least not anymore. Yes he directed Forrest Gump, but his recent foray into the world of 3D has left me confused and also frightened. Very, very frightened. Basically he uses motion capture technology to digitally animate actual actors and then puts them in 3D. I find this ridiculous. Why not just shoot real actors in a real environment. Not to mention that his visualizations end up looking profoundly creepy resulting in double takes of the "Is it Colin Firth or not?" variety. Beowulf is a prime example of this-he didn't even bother changing their appearance! It's just Angelina Jolie glowing with a tail! And when the lute came out I was just...done. Okay rant over.

This has a lot going against it. Namely that studios have just beaten this tale into the ground. However, Zemeckis does some cool things with his cinematography, stuff that obviously would not be possible in the real world. It is also a decidedly darker version of the tale. If you've ever read the story it's dark. Dickens was a moralist and all of his books have a certain slant. Most of the time it isn't pleasant and certainly not kid-friendly. So Zemeckis has made it dark, but with many funny moments, although I might have been scared if I was a kid. What I liked most was his portrayal of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. It was very well done, although his scene didn't really make any sense to me. I won't spoil it for you, but it was definitely new and really cool looking. The 3D really does add a nice visual component as opposed to some movies who rely only on the novelty to entrance viewers Zemeckis really uses the technology to tell the story and immerse the viewer (run-on sentence I know).

THE BAD: Well the ubiquitous of the story is definitely a negative. Zemeckis doesn't really do anything new with the story, although he adds a great visual element that is definitely new. I don't want to belabor this point, but the people in the movie are not people. There is something decidedly off about them. Maybe it's because he was trying to change existing actor's anatomy, but everyone looks a little weird and I was generally frightened. Especially when they're my favorite actors. I just can't help wondering why Zemeckis wants to use real actors for his facial characteristics. The technology is so good that he could create entirely new people, so why make Gary Oldman look like some sort of mutant hobbit? I just don't know.

Although I liked the faithfulness of the dialogue it just doesn't translate to a modern audience. Using 19th century dialogue while telling a story in 2009 is a hard thing to pull off and Zemeckis doesn't quite succeed. Coupled with the fact that often Jim Carrey is barely intelligible and I could see how audiences might get lost.

THE VERDICT: I'm really torn on this one. I know my being creeped out by the characters is something that maybe only I feel. But I can't help but feel that this just isn't worth seeing. Yes the 3D was cool, but I don't really see any other strong points other than the visuals. And even those visuals CREEPED ME OUT. Did I say this enough? I was creeped out. So I would say wait for it on DVD...maybe...unless you really like 3D....but don't pay extra.......yeah.

I give it 2 out of 5 stars*

Note: I re-read this post and it's riddled with contradictions. Is it scary? Yes sometimes, but it's also funny. Did I like it? I honestly don't know-I'm befuddled by it so take this review as is I guess.