The Adventures of Tintin Review

Thoughts: The Adventures of Tintin, the collaboration of two great directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Before I continue with the review, the rating of the movie is relative to other animated movies and not live action movies. Although The Adventure Tintin was a fun movie, it was not anything more than a family adventure. The first half of Tintin was actually very good and surprised me by how good it was in the first half. But after a lot of unnecessary silly, childish humor and ridiculous action. The movie starts to wane in enjoy and ends up being more like a Looney Toons cartoon than a movie. Despite this major flaw, the movie was visually stunning. With some of the most realistic CG (computer generated) animation I have seen in an animated movie. The hands of the characters looked so real, and the transition from each scene was very inventive. The use of motion capture worked very well. Near the beginning of the film, I was very intrigued by story until around the 30 minute mark where it started to lose its intrigue and appeal. With some of the greatest film makers and writers, Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, Sherlock) and Steven Spielberg (do I seriously need to say what he has made), the movie could have been so good. And finally made a great action adventure animated movie but it did not. Although it is one of the best animated I have seen and it probably better than most of Pixar's (I do not like Pixar movies) movies, it fails to deliver on the hype. Also the all-star cast including motion genius Andy Serkis and other great actors like Daniel Craig, who's performance was underwhelming, was solid but only Andy Serkis was actually good. Around the beginning of the movie where I was most interested, there was a brief scene were a character is gunned down with a little bit of blood, which I thought really added to the realism of the animated, unfortunately it did not hold that realistic tone. Although I normally do not like many animated movies because they are usually more childish like any of Pixar's movies, but I love animated TV series that can actually make adult quality stories while maintaining a mostly family friendly content like in The Clone Wars, Young Justice, and Batman: The Animated Series.



Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Genre: Animation,  Adventure, Family
Release Date: December 21, 2011 (2011-12-21)
Running Time: 107 minutes
MMPA rating: PG


The Good: Good action for an animated movie, Realistic computer generated animation,

The Bad: Too much unnecessary silly and cartoony scenes,



Plot: Tintin (Jamie Bell), a young journalist, and his dog Snowy are browsing in an outdoor market in a European town (scene starts off with a cameo of Hergé doing Tintin's portrait). Tintin buys a model of a three-masted sailing ship, the Unicorn, on the cheap, but is then immediately accosted by the sinister Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine (Daniel Craig), and the mysterious figure of Barnaby (Joe Starr), who both try to buy the model from Tintin, without success. Tintin takes the ship home, but it is broken during a fight between Snowy and a neighbour's cat. As it breaks, a parchment scroll slips out of the ship's mast. Snowy spots it but is unable to alert Tintin. Meanwhile, incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson (Nick Frost and Simon Pegg) are on the trail of a pickpocket, Aristides Silk (Toby Jones). Tintin visits Sakharine in Marlinspike Hall, where he learns that there are at least two model ships. Tintin puts the scroll in his wallet, only to have it (his wallet) stolen by a pickpocket.
Later, Tintin is shot at, then abducted by accomplices of Sakharine, and imprisoned on the SS Karaboudjan. On board, Tintin escapes and meets the ship's nominal captain, Haddock (Andy Serkis). Haddock has been supplied with whisky by first mate Allan (Daniel Mays), who is working for Sakharine, and the captain is permanently drunk, and doesn't know what's happening on board his ship. Tintin and Haddock (and Snowy) eventually escape from the Karaboudjan in a lifeboat. Sakharine sends a seaplane to find them, but Tintin is able to capture the plane, and fly towards the (fictitious) Moroccan port of Bagghar, but they crash in the desert. Watch the movie to see what happens next.




Plot: 7.0/10- The story was a little dull and not that interesting after the first half of the movie and some of the plot points seemed forced although that is expected in a kid's movie.

Action: 8.0/10- The action in The Adventures of Tintin was very good for an animated movie except for the ridiculous chase scene that looked more like a video game than a movie. Also the sword fighting was cool and I have not seen many animated movies have action this good outside of Star Wars the Clone Wars.

Acting: 7.2/10- As usual with Andy Serkis in any motion capture role, was great and played the cantankerous Captain Haddock well and Jamie Bell as Tintin was OK. But Daniel Craig's performance was disappointing.

Art Style: 9.7/10- Tintin one of the best looking animated movies ever made, using the motion capture technology very well. Also the use of animation allows for camera work that would be impossible with real cameras and uique transitions between scenes.

Soundtrack: 8.7/10- Although not one of John Williams' best soundtracks, it is still a good soundtrack.

Comedy: 7.8/10- Although there were a good many laughs, most of the humor was cheap and unnecessary.

Would I Watch This Again: No.

Tintin is a visual spectacle that lacks in story but is solid family entertainment.

Closing Comments: Despite the stunning visuals and fun action, The Adventures of Tintin's dull plot and childish humor kept it from being better than average.

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