The Polar Express (2004) Critic Reviews
Metascore®:
Based upon 15 Critic Reviews- Highest Rated
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Publications (A-Z)
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- Critics (A-Z)
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- Favorite Critics
Zemeckis and Hanks really seem to think they’re giving us a Christmas movie for the ages and a technology that will change cinema forever. They’re wrong on both counts. The Polar Express is merely a marvelous toy that has somehow become convinced it has a soul.Read the full review
A movie for more than one season; it will become a perennial, shared by the generations. It has a haunting, magical quality because it has imagined its world freshly and played true to it, Read the full review
The screenplay, by Zemeckis and William Broyles Jr., plumps Van Allsburg's simple fable about the purity of childhood faith in what can't be seen with all sorts of wholly invented characters, complications, and declarations.Read the full review
It's hard not to wish this film were more of a piece and less like loud music at the wrong party. Read the full review
Cinematic magic. Read the full review
The result is a failed and lifeless experiment in which everything goes wrong. Read the full review
An enchanting, beautiful and brilliantly imagined film.Read the full review
A story that soars with breakneck pace but slows in all the tender moments. Visually, this train ride is both majestic and edge-of-your-seat. Read the full review
A grave and disappointing failure, as much of imagination as of technology. Read the full review
As a spectacle, The Polar Express looks remarkable. As a film, however, it's the equivalent of an elaborately wrapped Christmas present containing a nice new pair of socks.Read the full review
