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Review: The Adventures of Tintin
Jan. 3rd, 2012 08:55 pmVery entertaining film, certainly managing to avoid most of the pitfalls that could have otherwise sunk it. Spielberg is, apparently, a big Tintin fan himself, and the film manages to get across the atmosphere and charm of the comics almost perfectly.
I was a little disappointed with the choice of story to be adapted - The Secret of the Unicorn isn’t one of my favourites; I’d have preferredTintin in the Land of the Soviets The Blue Lotus. I understand they wanted a story with Captain Haddock (and Andy Serkis is excellent in the part), but I’ve always preferred the Tintin stories with more of a political theme to them to the simple treasure hunt story here. Still, the story’s engaging enough, and the use of elements from The Crab with the Golden Claws helps flesh things out a little.
(If nothing else, using a story with Haddock reduces the number of scenes that consist of little more than Tintin talking to himself. It’s true to the comics, granted, but it is something of a relief once the story gets started and these exposition scenes are left behind…)
The CGI looks a hell of a lot better than it has any right to; I was sceptical based on the trailers, but in the film it allows the characters to occupy a sort of middle ground between real people and cartoon characters that is perfect for Tintin – which, after all, switches gears from realism to cartoon physics all the time. The visual style ends up working quite well in emphasising how seriously a character should be taken – Thompson and Thomson are more cartoonish and can safely indulge in slapstick, while Tintin is more human, and so is at far more risk of taking serious injury during fights.
I was, however, a little disappointed that, for all Haddock got to indulge in his habit of shouting obscure epithets, he never uses my favourite, ‘Bashi-bazouk’. And there are a few minor bits that irritated me - an anachronistic reference to the 'Third World', a few shoe-horned lines about believing in yourself...
But overall, though, a very enjoyable movie.
I was a little disappointed with the choice of story to be adapted - The Secret of the Unicorn isn’t one of my favourites; I’d have preferred
(If nothing else, using a story with Haddock reduces the number of scenes that consist of little more than Tintin talking to himself. It’s true to the comics, granted, but it is something of a relief once the story gets started and these exposition scenes are left behind…)
The CGI looks a hell of a lot better than it has any right to; I was sceptical based on the trailers, but in the film it allows the characters to occupy a sort of middle ground between real people and cartoon characters that is perfect for Tintin – which, after all, switches gears from realism to cartoon physics all the time. The visual style ends up working quite well in emphasising how seriously a character should be taken – Thompson and Thomson are more cartoonish and can safely indulge in slapstick, while Tintin is more human, and so is at far more risk of taking serious injury during fights.
I was, however, a little disappointed that, for all Haddock got to indulge in his habit of shouting obscure epithets, he never uses my favourite, ‘Bashi-bazouk’. And there are a few minor bits that irritated me - an anachronistic reference to the 'Third World', a few shoe-horned lines about believing in yourself...
But overall, though, a very enjoyable movie.