A Christmas Carol

This movie came at me in a pretty confusing way. I think A Christmas Carol is one of the most amazing stories I have ever read or heard. The story is timeless. I also love Jim Carrey. He always seemed perfect for animation. So here comes the problem. Robert Zemeckis' new style of movie making sucks. I am absolutely turned off by this motion capture nonsense. Dead eyed characters lead to soulless characters. Why not just use the actual actors, especially if you create the images in their likeness. Beowulf was an unmitigated disaster in pretty much very way (I don't care what you say Robbie). I had my hopes that maybe, just maybe, the dead eyes would be fixed for A Christmas Carol and that the story would carry the picture.

I am not going to spend any real time discussing the plot. If you do not know what A Christmas Carol is, do yourself a favor and go die, because you obviously have no soul, much like Zemeckis' characters. A rich, nasty man gets visited by 3 ghosts near Christmas in hopes that he will change his life. Ghost 1 shows him the past, ghost 2 shows him the present and ghost 3 shows him the future. There it is in a nutshell.

There is very little more frustrating than watching Jim Carrey being contained. That frustration reaches new heights when you realize that Carrey is playing 3 or 4 characters, all of them animated and he is still being contained. Zemeckis, you bastard, let Jim Carrey be Jim Carrey! Carrey's Scrooge is not human looking, but I do not mean that in such a bad way, he is too tall and too thin and too pointy, but that is kind of how you expect him to be. However, Carrey always feels like he is holding something back. His energy is lower than you want. His line delivery never gets as nasty as it should and therefore his transitional pay off is not as sweet. It confuses me because it is obvious Zemeckis is not afraid of making the movie dark, he just won't let Carrey go dark. Carrey also voices The Ghost of Christmas past and I understand what they were going for, but his voice is too quiet as this character. Carrey's Ghost of Christmas Present is more boisterous and shows a sliver of what Carrey is capable of as a voice actor, but it is such a small role.

As for the motion capture process, well I am still not sold. Gary Oldman's Bob Cratchett, while voiced perfectly, looks super duper mega creepy. Cratchett should have a soul, but there is no soul when your eyes are dead! Tiny Tim does not even have a soul in this movie. You know shit is off when Tiny Tim does not have a soul! He is the soul of this story! Zemeckis, please for the love of God, STOP DOING THIS!!! Colin Firth provides the voice and the face for Scrooge's nephew and it is also creepy and annoying. In fact, here is just a blanket statement, none of the human characters look anything other than creepy, dead eyed, soulless beings whose soul purpose appears to be annoying the ever living crap out of me.

That being said, about 45 minutes into the movie, it gets pretty good. I love the design of the Ghost of Christmas past, as a candle going to enlighten Scrooge. It is a little on the nose, but Carrey and the design team have some fun with the head motion of the Ghost. It gets real laughs and lightens an otherwise very down tone of the whole picture. Then, the Ghost of Christmas present comes on and the movie really starts moving. There is this amazing effects sequence, where Scrooge's room take flight and the floors become clear and it is like a crystal ball and Scrooge can see everything going on. Maybe this is where all that motion capture nonsense actually works. However, I submit that doing it in animation where the eyes are not dead would be preferable.

There are some nice slick action scenes with Scrooge being flown through the city, or when he accidentally ice skates, or the best is when the Grim Reaper is chasing him through the empty streets and Scrooge shrinks for some unexplained reason. It is a thrilling, daring action sequence that rumbles with loud effects, gorgeous scenery and genuine heart racing action. When you factor in a wonderful score that plays on traditional Christmas themes, but revs them up to turn them into chase sequence music, it really set the movie's tempo on fire. There is also some really dark and creepy moments that are typically not shown in the versions of the story, at least to my recollection. It gets downright scary when The Ghost of Christmas Future shows up and brings his two little children with him. Those two children, representing want and ignorance are about the creepiest little things a children's movie can feature. It is funny that Where the Wild Things Are was talked about endlessly for not being for kids, but I assure you, nothing in that movie is quite as scary or dark as some of the images found within this movie.

A Christmas Carol remains a timeless story, which of course, is redundant, but Robert Zemeckis adds some nice little visual touches to the story. He has revved up the action, which beautifully shows off his animation technique, but I still contend that this motion capture nonsense needs to stop. Someone needs to show Zemeckis his old movies and remind him that characters who have souls are better than those without souls. I tried to approach this movie with an open mind, but in the 6 years since the final Lord of the Rings movie no one has been able to fully recreate what Peter Jackson did with Gollum. Motion Capture has its place, but I like it reserved for fantasy films and Gollum remains the absolute best created character through this technology. It takes a while to get going, but the final half is a pretty thrilling movie, with only short moments of quiet reflection for Scrooge. The emphasis is certainly on getting things moving!

Final Grade: C+