I have to admit, I had skepticism about watching the film, Hugo, after my loyalty for Martin Scorsese had slightly diminished after The Departed, for reasons that I won’t go into detail about lest I start another debate about Infernal Affairs.  I finally watched the movie tonight and I have to say it is such a fantastic movie. The opening sequences are so visually dynamic and beautiful that it’s difficult not to take your eyes off the screen once the camera starts zooming into the train station. The film is such a departure from Scorsese’s usual gangster thriller genre, yet it feels like a film closest to his heart, divulging straight into the soul of his love for cinema. For film enthusiasts out there, the homage to early film-making, referencing Le Voyage dans la Lune and the first footage of a train entering a station is so wonderfully told. I can’t deny that my heart swelled a bit as I recalled watching the same images during my video art class in college.