NOT TOO LATE FOR A CHRISTMAS CAROL

I wasn't planning to watch this highly acclaimed movie at first but since there weren't much choice left and so I find myself booking six tickets with the cousins to the movie "A Christmas Carol" starring Jim Carrey.

This movie is an adaptation Charles Dickens' book with the same title. Jim Carrey takes on not only the lead character, Ebenezer Scrooge, but he also plays the three ghosts who haunted Scrooge. 

With this movie, Director Robert Zemeckis has applied the technique of performance capture, which is the similar technique he has used in his films The Polar Express and Beowulf. I remember enjoying The Polar Express a lot the last time when I watched it with my best friends in Ipoh. I find this technique impressive but I still don't get the point of doing it though.

I find "A Christmas Carol" entertaining maybe because I didn't expect a lot from it. I don't even know the story prior to watching it. It was really a "surprise-me-with-what-you've-got" that kinda thing. I believe that the movie would be even more interesting, fun (and scarier) if you watch it with 3-D effects. The director, in my opinion, has successfully manage to scare the crap out of us because all the unexpected items, ugly faces and sound effects pop out at the most unpredictable parts of the movie.

I still do not understand how this movie can actually be targeted to children. I mean seriously, I think it will be pretty scary from a child's point of view. Even my tall masculine 12-year-old cousin bro admitted that he was scared. I bet most children after watching this movie will have nightmares of Scrooge's face popping in and out of the cloud generated in their sleep.

There's no doubt that the story is meaningful.

It teaches us to be nice to everyone; to not be calculative and greedy. We should always help the poor and the needy.

However, I find some parts of the movie disconnected. There were certain scenes that really lost me. The dialogues don't make real sense. I mean, you get the overall idea but some lines were a bit hard to decipher, especially during the "Ghost of the Present" part.

I think Jim Carrey's had in many ways contributed to the popularity of this new version of the movie. The whole hype of the movie is not really about how great the story is but rather to see Jim Carrey do his magic with the various characters he is playing. Besides, a movie on "The Christmas Carol" had already been made before, previously starring Patrick Stewart. Not only that, "The Christmas Carol" is in fact a popular play in the U.S.

But overall, it is no doubt a heart-warming movie, just what one needs to get themselves in the true spirit of Christmas - the season of love and giving from the heart. So remember, no matter how cliché this sounds, Christmas is not about the presents, but about the spreading and giving of love. So let's make this year's Christmas a heart-felt one and spread the joy and love to the people around us. 

TC- My Rating: