Still a 3D Square

For the first time in ages I went to the movies by myself, to see Hugo. I've had a fraught relationship with 3Ds latest incarnation; Avatar gave me a headache, and the curmudgeon in me asks, why is it necessary? Isn't 2D effectively 3D anyway? But I've been trying to keep an open mind, what with the likes of Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders trying it, so I sat down in the dark and gave myself over to Scorsese's try. And my mind isn't entirely changed. Young Hugo Cabret says in the film that a machine only has the exact number of parts it needs to work, nothing more; likewise, the 3D dimension often seemed an extraneous piece here. Scorsese's fairyland Paris is shiny and magical enough without the pop-up-book effects. So yeah, it's a bit of a clunky machine: it runs long, it's a bit mannered (that means you, Chloë Grace Moretz) and it often comes off like a PSA for film preservation. But screw all that, I was still totally in love with it. How could I not love something that clings as fiercely to film history as Hugo clings to his beloved automaton? And I have to admit, seeing Méliès fantastical world of mermaids and shooting stars and rocket ships, remade and replayed in 3D, took my breath away.