Robert Zemeckis tries motion-capture animation for a third time, a technology that's been a mixed-bag, creating some very pretty pictures and allowing actors to portray multiple roles but lacking the one thing that a Zemeckis flick always prided itself on in the past, which is a soul.

Scrooge (Jim Carrey) is a miserly old man who clings to money while neglecting humanity, his nephew (Colin Firth) and employee Cratchit (Gary Oldman) included. On Christmas eve night he is visited by the ghost of his former partner Marley (Oldman) who tells him his one chance at redemption is to be visited by spirits of past, present, and future (all played by Carrey). Of course this is a timeless tale, but like the best re-makes of "A Christmas Carol", you want to see something new. There isn't much of that here outside of the visuals. Zemeckis' vision is darker and scarier, but not necessarily better. The appearance of Marley's ghost is more haunting than anything in "Paranormal Activity" and there is a lot of disturbing ghostly and death-related imagery. These are probably the scared-straight type visuals Dickens would have wanted, but parents with young kids should be careful.

The scenery still has that joyful Victorian-Christmas feel and the characters look terrific. Scrooge is perfect as a bony, hunched-over figure with a long scowling face and protruding nose and chin. The ghost of Christmas past looks like aflying flame and is probably the movie's funniest visual. (The other is how much Bob Cratchit looks like Clint Howard.) And the ghosts of Christmas present and future are intimidatingly well-created. The movie works the best when Scrooge is at his meanest and there isn't a scene where Carrey doesn't commit to his performance, but like the rest of the movie, it doesn't have the originality of a say "A Muppet Christmas Carol" or "Scrooged". Michael Caine and Bill Murray are still the Scrooge-champs. The biggest problem though is that Zemeckis is still hindered with motion-capture, which animates the actors faces and movements but also makes them look emotionally hollow (especially around the eyes). And this is one of the few "Christmas Carols" where the Cratchit and Tiny Tim characters seem minimized in favor of stylized visuals and unnecessary action set-pieces, and where Scrooge seems to transform simply because the screenplay requires it. The richness of the story never comes through. Oh, and I still fail to see the benefit of 3-D.

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