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The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn
| Released |
26 October 2011 |
| Director |
Steven Spielberg |
Starring
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Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Cary Elwes, Toby Jones, Andy Serkis |
Writer(s)
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Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish |
Producer(s)
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Peter Jackson, Kathleen Kennedy, Stephen Spielberg |
| Origin |
United States, New Zealand |
| Running Time |
107 minutes |
| Genre |
Animation, adventure, family |
| Rating |
PG |
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Dr Jones, I presume.
Tintin with his tautological name, distinctive haircut and knack for solving mysteries was never exactly my favourite hero, I'm pretty sure I'd even switched channels on some of his earlier iterations but I still didn't balk at the prospect of seeing his distinctive quiff coming around the cinematic corner. This time Hergé's famous comicbook creation came with Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and a pretty impressive use of CGI attached, making it all quite the attractive prospect. Tintin also promised international adventures, intrigue, espionage and a rather impressive cast in Jamie Bell (Tintin), Andy Serkis (Captain Haddock), Sakharine (Daniel Craig), Nick Frost and Simon Pegg (Thompson and Thompson).
However my experience of the film was more a strange mixture of deja vu (remembering having experienced something before) and jamais vu (experiencing a situation that one recognises but that nonetheless feels unfamiliar). Throughout The Adventures of Tintin there's an air of Indiana Jones from start to finish but to paraphrase another movie, it's only semi-Indy, quasi-Indy, the margarine of Indy, the diet coke of Indy, just one calorie not Indy enough. All the traditional elements of the average Indy action movie are present and correct with the requisite amounts of adventure, mystery, villainy and comedy but yet they just don't quite hold together. Whatever one thinks of Harrison Fords acting style there was always a likeableness about his Dr Jones. He was impetuous, frank and funny while Tintin is comparatively a little snobbish, a public school boy that moans his way through adventure, scoffs and chastises his companions and isn't really that much fun.
The story itself is some kind of hogwash about pirates and a rather pedestrian buried treasure and the detective work itself is so signposted with little mystery to how events unfold that it often feels akin to playing one of those point and click computer games like Broken Sword. The animation is however undeniably impressive with long impossible swooping one shot sequences devoted to action moments (as when Tintin, newshound in tow, careens through a city bazaar followed by a roaring flood) and Dali-esque scene changes (when camera close ups transform to desert dunes or roaring seascapes). Even some of the jokes fly (in particular a scene where Tintin with the help of Snowy wrests a key from a sleeping shipmate) but overall bar the aforementioned impressive CGI there isn't enough to keep an adult interested. Children however (I won't hazard a guess but certainly before they turn into more discerning teenagers) will definitely enjoy this movie, it's a popcorn filled adventure that wows visually but in the end has little substance.
- Cormac O’Brien |
