The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

Billions of blue blistering barnacles, Ten thousand thundering typhoons – for a whole generation these were the epitome of cuss words thanks to Captain Haddock. I am one of those in late 20s who grew up reading ( mugging to be precise as Thomson & Thompson would have said) Tintin and almost worship Herge for the genius intelligent stories created in the black and white times of our grandpas. Being an hardcore Tintin loyalist the excitement to see the boy sleuth of screen was certainly brewing high. But the movie left me wanting more. It left a mixed reaction in me and here I come one by one at different levels.

Story Level – Hollywood have adapted many novels for big screen and most of the times it has failed to recreate the finesse of the original work. Spielberg's rendition of Tintin somehow managed a mixed reaction in terms of story. Firstly selecting "The Crab with the Golden Claws" make sense as that shows the boy sleuth meeting the gold hearted Captain Haddock for the first time and in the first encounter Tintin comes face to face with the perennial drinking habit of Captain. "The crab with the golden claws" had enough spice for a full fledged film but may be Spielberg wanted some adventure which prompted him to juggle with "The secret of the unicorn" and "the crab with the golden claws" thus making a concatenation of two stories. Personally I felt that the two stories have been woven wisely with liberty taken in creating an ancestral fight between Captain Francis Haddock and Pirate Red Rackham. Somehow the cocktail was well crafted with the story oscillating between two original books. But the second half was outright outlandish as Spielberg merges his own imagination in creating a full fledged action film which took away the essence of Tintin. The subtlety, intelligence were missing as the director chose to make a 80s Bollywoodish action climax which had no connection to the original one. Moreover the movie ended in the way the comic book "Red Rackham's Treasure" ends yet Spielberg hinted a sequel which is related to Red Rackham's treasure. That shows the sequel will be a total new story by Spielberg (or Peter Jackson) with touches of original. It will be strictly for those who have no idea of what actual Tintin is all about. I mean Spilberg could have named it anything Tom Dick and Harry if not Tintin specially for the second half.

Character Level – Spielberg is almost perfect in designing the characters. The look and the way the screen Tintin reacts brings in nostalgia of childhood days when we imagined (and discussed amongst friends) how Tintin would have behaved if made on screen. The attire to expression was all nicely done. Same goes for Snowy, the cute loyal dog of Tintin who can fight with the goons to save his beloved master. In fact children will fall in love with Snowy after watching this film. In one of the scene when Tintin gets kidnapped Snowy follows the car of the goons to the ship were Tintin was deported. The scene indeed brings out the pathos and concern inside Snowy for his master. Coming to Captain Haddock the characterization isn't as perfect as the comic book. The laziness and craziness in the first half were apt but then Captain fighting in the second half is too hard to digest. The detective duo Thompson and Thomson is appropriate and so is famous nightingale singer Bianca Castaphiore. But Spielberg should have included the verbal fights between Castaphiore and Haddock though he hinted Haddock and Snowy's

Fmovies: It took both Spielberg and Peter Jackson to put this film together and it shows. Two supreme storytellers who's combined efforts are better than the sum of the parts. How often does that happen? I've read tons of reviews of John Carter that talk about how good it is and how it got bad press from the start. John Carter didn't make 370+ million dollars worldwide! (I wish it did but it didn't.) Tintin did. Why? It gave the fans EXACTLY what they wanted. A magnificent adventure! And who better to give it than the two greatest adventure creators of the 21st Century! John Carter would have been MUCH better done as an animated adventure but they wanted to go live and look what happened. These days you need real buildup not just a "who's on the list to be John Carter this year?" kind of attitude. JC didn't have the buildup like Tintin or certainly not like the Avengers and so there was no momentum to carry into seeing the movie. With Tintin everyone was stunned BOTH directors were collaborating and it shows. It's a work of art in every sense of the word. From the magnificent vistas to the hair-raising action sequences this is the state of the art in adventure movies today. Of course, Andy Serkis, Cary Elwes, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Daniel Craig and Toby Jones wouldn't have it otherwise! and let's give credit to Jamie Bell for the most believable Tintin voice yet! Great job all! The only bad part of all this is that there are certainly Tintin characters the fans would have wanted in the movie but aren't present. Chief among them is Professor Calculus. My hope is this is the first of many Tintin adventures and the dowsing doctor will be appearing in the next film coming soon.

And Steven Spielberg has found that ship and that ship has sailed him to a brand new technology for filmmaking. Yes, I'm talking about motion capture or as Spielberg calls it "perfomance" capture. This technology is a like a new toy for Steven. You can feel the joy for filmmaking from every shot, every detail. He plays with the camera in a way he never could while making a live-action film. For example in probably the best scene of the film the main character, Tintin is gliding on a wire and the camera is following him throughout the whole scene in a continuous shot. But you can still say, you still see that this is a Spielberg movie. You know this is a Spielberg movie since the opening title credits that will remind you a lot of the opening credits in Catch Me If You Can. Even the music is very similar.

The main character is Tintin, who is a journalist who we never see doing any journalism though, but that doesn't matter because he is the textbook example of a heroic boy with boy scout qualities. The voice of Jamie Bell fits perfectly for the character. Andy Serkis gives here an incredible performance as Captain Haddock, the drunken sailor who to me was often reminiscent of a grumpy Harrison Ford. The story did seem as too much centered on Captain Haddock though, you could even say this should have been called "The Adventures of Captain Haddock" instead of Tintin. Daniel Craig is unrecognizable as the main villain Sacharine. Although his voice did jump to his normal voice in one line but otherwise you didn't know it was him. Of course I can't forget to mention the lovable dog, Snowy. He steals almost every scene that he is in. He is very realistic, he acts like a real dog and even gets his own chase scene. I'm telling you will adore this dog.

The animation is magnificent, the motion capture has gone a long way since The Polar Express. It looks very realistic, especially all the features on Captain Haddock's face. The beard, the wrinkles and the eyes, they all looked amazing. Especially the eyes, they aren't so dead-eyed anymore as in The Polar Express.

The action scenes are brilliantly written and directed, the angles of the camera, the drive of the action scenes, timing of all the jokes(physical or visual) is genius. Because Spielberg is a genius. He is the master of adventure movies and there never will be another genius in adventure movies like him.

Overall Spielberg has created an old-fashioned style adventure movie for the whole family to enjoy,where the important things are just the hunt for the treasure, the friendship two people can make and the most important thing of all that it is an entertaining ride. Spielberg never disappoints, it doesn't matter if you are a fan of Tintin or not, you will enjoy this film nonetheless

The Adventures of Tintin fmovies. Even if you've never heard of the Tintin character, let alone read the classic Herge comics, this movie of his adventures is terrific from start to finish, complete with invigorating characters, dazzling effects (special and otherwise), exotic settings, and unabashed, wall-to-wall exhilaration and excitement. I enjoyed it.

Tintin (voice of Jamie Bell) is a young-lad reporter who, apparently, finds himself in extraordinary situations with some frequency. While shopping in a local market, he purchases a model boat called the Unicorn. Almost immediately, Tintin and his faithful canine friend Snowy are pursued by the mysterious Mr. Sakharine (Daniel Craig), ostensibly so that the latter can complete his collection. But of course that's not the real reason, is it? No, he's after more, much more. It all has to do with the Unicorn's real-life namesake and what happened to it (scuttled at sea) and, more importantly, what it carried. Right off, Tintin (okay, Snowy) discovers a scroll hidden in the model's mast that may be a clue to something bigger - but there are two other scrolls.

It's an old-fashioned treasure hunt. Tintin runs into a frequently inebriated Captain Haddock (voice of Andy Serkis), who has a strong connection to the original Unicorn and to the scrolls themselves. With Haddock and Snowy at his side, Tintin races across the globe to solve the mystery before Sakharine, a journey that takes him to multiple continents, fighting bad guys with swords, guns, fists, and feet. It's a throwback movie; a movie quite similar to Raiders of the Lost Ark, itself a throwback to the serials of the early 20th century. And, of course, the director here is one Steven Spielberg, whom you might recognize as a progenitor of that Raiders universe himself.

The movie is animated, both literally and figuratively, and the animation is so exquisitely realistic that it's easy to perceive it as completely lifelike. The action is intense and relentless, but because of the depth of detail in the animation, it's tough to imagine it as anything other than a terrific live-action film. When Tintin leaps from building to building or from a moving car, we actually cringe - can he make it?

Here's an added bonus - apparently, the movie is very close to the source material. Tintin has not been updated or modified to mollify new audiences; remember, so many Americans have never heard of the intrepid reporter. And there's no time waste on explaining who Tintin is, or what he is, or how old he's supposed to be. You know why? Because it's irrelevant, that's why. He's just an adventuring dude with a smart dog and a lot of panache.

Bell, Serkis, and Craig are all superb in their roles (the latter two have dual roles each). Simon Pegg and Nick Frost show up as Interpol agents named Thompson and Thompson and offer excellent comic relief; are they bumbling, or are they just that good? It's the latter.

There really is so much to like about this movie, and it's one of those rare films that can be recommended not only to children in general but to girls and boys alike. It's artful, engaging, fascinating, and wonderful to behold.

I went to see this film in a free screening and took my nephew and niece with me, seeing as it was a family film to try and get different reactions to the film.

Let me start off with my view of the film, I've been a fan of Tintin since I first saw the cartoon back in the early 90's, though never read the comics. When I saw the credits of who wrote, produced and directed the film, you think to yourself this film is going to be awesome, there is no way with all that talent they can't possible f**k this up (and they didn't). You have Spielberg directing, Peter Jackson as a producer. Also the writing team great with Steven Moffat, known for Sherlock, Dr who, Coupling and another of my child hood favs, Press Gang. Finally you have Edgar Wright, who wrote and directed Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

The version of the film i saw was 3d, as it was a preview and i didn't have a choice. Normally i watch all my showing in 2d as i think its personally a fad and a rip off and the films i have seen excluding Avatar, i didn't think the 3d aspect improved the film going enjoyment one bit. This again is my option while the 3d is nice, and the shots going through glass and water was really good, there was nothing else that would have me pulling out another £2 a ticket. I would have been happy with a basic 2d version.

On to the film story, TinTin (voice by Billy Elliott's Jamie Bell) buys a handmade ship in market. As soon as he buys it he gets a number of offers of people willing to buy it from him, which TinTtn rejects. When he gets home Snowy, Tintin dog, breaks the ship and a hidden clue rolls out, which begins Tintin trying to work out what it means. Tintin then gets kidnapped by the evil Ivanovich Sakharine (Daniel Craig), who is after the clue. This where Tintin mets up with Captain Haddock as they set of trying to work out the meaning of Tintin clue.

The film is a really mixture of action and adventure. We see the heroes on board ships, rowing boats, fly airplanes, riding camels, having carike chases and crane fights. The time flew past for me and not once did i feel bored, this was probably down to the amount going with the film, the quick pace of the action and the different locations of the characters were always in. It reminded me of the Indiana Jones films a lot, where he is on the hunt for treasure, and he only has half of the clues, and the bad guys have the others half and both sides are trying to get the other half for the themselves. He then needs to go around the globe via different transportation to get the info he needs to find the treasure.

There is also a large amount of humour in the film, seeing as Moffat, who wrote coupling helped write it, this is no big surprise. While i got the jokes neither my nephew (3) nor niece (8) did. So I am assuming that these were aim at the adults watching.

The characters the film makers can't chance much from the original Hergé comics, but Tintin I did find too goody goody, the captain is great character, who is drunk loser, but has a kind heart and wants to do the right thing. The bad guy, Sakharine, is perfect, scary enough to make you believe that he is ruthless killer who is a greedy and after revenge, but on the other had not going over board to make the kids feel scared or afraid of him when he was on screen. There is also the two comic relief characters of inspector Thomson, who are on screen just enough to make you smile at the pratfalls and their stupidness, but not too l

What begins as a fun, nimble little mystery in the first act soon kicks into comedy-action-adventure high gear when junior reporter Tintin, with his brave dog Snowy, stumbles upon boozy Captain Haddock (an excellent Andy Serkis), whose family legacy may prove pivotal in a race to uncover the secret of the Unicorn.

From that point on, it's more or less non-stop comedy—some fizzles, most of it works—with gags ranging from jaw-dropping blockbuster chase antics to throwaway background humour. Captain Haddock works brilliantly for the most part: he's unpredictable, endearing, and colourful in all the ways Tintin himself isn't. While the youngster is well played by Jamie Bell, he's mostly just there to work out the clues for the audience. Tintin and Haddock make for a good double-act, though: brains and brawn, cunning and in-over-his-head rashness; together they'd make a good Indiana Jones.

The plot is a by the numbers mystery/adventure/treasure hunt, complete with bumbling detectives (so-so comic support from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost), exciting sea plane action and hidden clues, but it's brought to life in gorgeous visual style. While the script only comes alive in fits and starts, the whole film is bursting with rich detail, and is given added depth by a good, solid use of 3D. The virtual camera-work throughout is stupendous.

One extended chase sequence through the flooding streets of a North African city is so dazzling and dizzying it reminded me why no other filmmaker can match Spielberg when he lets his imagination out for a spin. Another action scene, told in flashback, depicts a breathless pirate showdown in a storm, and features some of the most playful transitions I've seen since Ang Lee's Hulk. There's a pretty good villain, too, played by a wily Daniel Craig.

Snowy, while definitely smarter than your average cute canine, is also given to chasing cats, digging up fossilised bones from the desert, and gobbling sandwiches at decidedly inopportune moments. In other words, he's an instant audience favourite.

All in all, it's a rollicking good adventure, one of Spielberg's most fun movies in a long time, and I'll be buying it on Blu-ray next year.