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The Polar Express
Metascore
61 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 36 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 36
  3. Negative: 4 out of 36
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Duane Byrge
    100
    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.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    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,
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    100
    An enchanting, beautiful and brilliantly imagined film.
  4. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Rory L. Aronsky
    90
    Just like “It’s A Wonderful Life” is shown on TV every year, The Polar Express should appear in IMAX theaters that traditionally.
  5. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Jennifer Frey
    90
    Every detail of the beloved children's classic is meticulously reconstructed in the film, with visuals that can only be described as wondrous.
  6. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    90
    A truly satisfying holiday picture, the kind everyone can enjoy.
  7. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    88
    It's a good, old-fashioned North Pole adventure.
  8. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    88
    It's a sensation - both a milestone in computer-animation and a likely Christmas classic.
  9. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    88
    Devoid of 21st-century irony, this visually stunning, action-packed yuletide treat is sweet and, yes, magical in a way that will enchant kids and give older viewers a twinge of nostalgia.
  10. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    88
    Cinematic magic.
  11. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    88
    So delightful it should come with a parental advisory: "Jaded adults, beware. Viewing this may pierce your shell of cynicism and spark a renewed belief in the magic of movie-making."
  12. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    88
    Like the coolest train set a kid ever had. It's not real and the faces on the toy people don't look human, but it has bells and whistles galore and will take you as far as your imagination allows.
  13. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    80
    If you have a chance to see the 3-D IMAX version of the movie ignore any objections. But if your only choice is a regular 2-D screen, The Polar Express is still three-fourths of a great movie.
  14. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    80
    The story offers lessons in faith and self-esteem; the darker passages of the child's journey are countered by shimmering, cascading beacons of light; and fine period detail adds to the nostalgic glow.
  15. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    75
    This movie, which aspires to be a Christmas movie classic on the "It's a Wonderful Life" level, is overwhelming, enjoyable and impressive, without being really entrancing.
  16. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    75
    For most of the way, it's indeed quite a ride: a cumulatively exhilarating, visually mouth-dropping, somberly stylish odyssey crammed full of virtuoso animation sequences.
  17. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    70
    It's hard not to wish this film were more of a piece and less like loud music at the wrong party.
  18. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    70
    Tom Hanks doesn't turn Polar Express into much of a thrill ride. For that you need 3-D goggles.
  19. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    67
    A genuinely handsome film, and it tells a story that is well worth knowing. It's a kind, gentle and sweet holiday confection. But my Christmas wish is that the DVD comes packaged with the book.
  20. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    63
    Visually, taking its cues (mostly) from Van Allsburg's Hopperesque art, The Polar Express is eye-popping. Storywise, however, it can be eyelid-drooping.
  21. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    63
    Simple and evocative, yet teeming with intriguing visual effects.
  22. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Jessica Letkemann
    63
    The Hanks overload feels like The Polar Express is "Being John Malkovich" transmuted into a computer-generated 21st-century children's Christmas film.
  23. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    63
    While the 29 pages of his (Van Allsburg's) mini-classic would have made a superb half-hour TV special, Zemeckis and writer William Broyles Jr. have created a steroidal monster with a heart about one size too small.
  24. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    58
    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.
  25. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    Many moviegoers may find its colors and effects delightful enough to make the experience a thrill. Look beyond the tinsel, though, and you may be disappointed.
  26. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    50
    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.
  27. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    The film's characters, computer-animated over motion-caputure footage of flesh-and-blood performers, are as blank-eyed and rubbery-looking as moving mannequins -- the stuff of nightmares, not dreams.
  28. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    50
    The result is another powerful children's story dulled into mediocrity by the worship of technology.
  29. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    50
    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.
  30. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ed Park
    50
    When it comes to the "humans," the atmosphere collapses. Unnervingly smooth, mouths moving in strange, even frightening formations, the Polar people are the least convincing things on-screen, glaring impostors amid the otherwise painstakingly rendered scenery.
  31. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    50
    This visually impressive yet emotional frigid fable could perhaps more accurately be tagged "The Bipolar Express."
  32. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    40
    In a word, it’s soulless.
  33. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    30
    Actually, the wonder The Polar Express induces feels something like a coma.
  34. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    30
    A grave and disappointing failure, as much of imagination as of technology.
  35. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    30
    A train wreck of mind-numbing proportions.
    All this critic's reviews
  36. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    25
    The result is a failed and lifeless experiment in which everything goes wrong.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.2 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 98 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 72
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 72
  3. Negative: 13 out of 72
  1. Treblotski
    6
    A great way to discuss the existence of Santa Claus.
  2. EnaB.
    10
    Wonderful. Magical. A Holidays classic.
  3. ChadO
    10
    This movie is simply incredible. I loved everything about it, the characters, the storyline, the music. The thing I loved most of all was the incredible visuals. I would definently recommend this movie to anyone who has not seen it.… Full Review »
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