I have been looking forward to this for tiiime!
I loved Tintin as a kid (who didn't?), which led me to be equally apprehensive and excited about the prospect of a immense budget Spielberg rework. Not to mention the script being produced by some absolute creme de la' of British comedy talent, in the form of Stephen Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish (big up Cornballs!).
There was a huge amount of buzz round this film, as there often is when it takes a long time from conception to production.
Mixed reviews and the prospect of die hard Tintin fans being let down, softened the blow a little for me, so I went in with fairly low expectations...
First of all, this film looks fantastic. The quality of animation is by far the most original, silky smooth, amazingly textured and just plain beautiful constructed visuals I have seen in a long, long time.
The motion capture technology is tip-top, bringing real clarity and fluidity to the characters and also helps stay true to the original graphic novel's clean cut, simplistic, pastel coloured animated style.
It's literally mind blowing how good it looks, so much detail is crammed into every shot that it just sort of flows over you with a wash of hyperreal, colourful and high-octane action. It's fully immersive and captivating, which animated films (for me) don't do very often.
OK so enough about looks, we know it's all about personality...
This film should be called The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Crab with the Golden Unicorn Claws, as it ambiguously incorporates a few Tintin stories into one. This confused me a little at first but does enrichen the narrative slightly, opening the story up to a wider range of locations and characters.
I did find the story a little shallow though. It seemed to rush through without any true climactic moments that really stick out as being brilliantly orchestrated set-pieces.
Don't get me wrong, there's some amazing action sequences that are wonderfully choreographed, and do well to showcase the freedom that doing this kind of animation brings, but they just seemed to fall a little short of spectacular.
However, the distinct comedic charm and mystery of Herge's original ouvre is definitely portrayed in a fantastically original and multi-layered form, helped a lot by the scriptual tweaks.
The 'acting' for me stays true to the essence of Tintin, Captain Haddock's (Andy Serkis) performance is great, really captivating his belching whiskey doused charisma really well.
Tintin (Jamie Bell) himself is played a little different, but equally charming. Snowy's performance is outstanding too...
The Thompson Twins (Simon Pegg and Nick frost) deserve a mention too, creating a very considered, funny picture of the bumbling police officers, who save the day when it counts.
This film serves an obvious purpose, as a set-up to a franchise, which is of course inevitable.
It does come across as a prequel-esque introduction to a new generation of Tintin which I am pretty satisfied with, and definitely leaves me wanting Destination Moon to lift off soon...
On the whole Tintin is really captivating, showcasing the best of modern animation techniques.
It breathes big-screen life into the massively popular and timeless stories which are built upon extremely competently by a great script and cast.
Definitely DON'T go and see it in 3D as it is completely lost in the brilliant 3D animation technique and is an utter waste of money...
Highly reccomended to Tintin fans and a wholly capable introduction if you're new to the stories.
7/10
Trailer:
Cal x
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