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Tintin is solid, not spectacular
Dec. 29th, 2011 10:38 amSo I went to see The Adventures of Tintin a couple nights ago with the sister. I was a little apprehensive; the Tintin comics were an enormous part of my childhood, I still love re-reading them, and the last thing I wanted was for general American audiences to be introduced to the character via some bloated, soul-less adaptation. That, and the CG looked more than a little uncanny valley.
Well, it wasn't soul-less. At all. Giving Spielberg and Peter Jackson every credit, they really worked hard to make this movie shine in every possible way that the books did. But it is a bit bloated. Tintin is stuffed to the gills with as much as they could have possibly fit in; the film is an amalgam of Crab with the Golden Claws, Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham's Treasure. And as an unfortunate result, everything feels a little rushed. It's a little peculiar because they did a good job otherwise of trying the three together into a single story that could fit in 2 hours.
Admittedly, adapting a Tintin story into a movie accessible to an audience not familiar with the character is a tough task. Many of the best Tintin stories (The Calculus Affair, Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon, The Red Sea Sharks) simply aren't new audience-friendly, and most of the earlier stand-alone stories like King Ottakar's Sceptre and Cigars of the Pharaoh don't feature Captain Haddock, one of the most iconic comic-book characters ever devised.
There are some stupendous action sequences that fit the books perfectly, being both exciting and slightly slapstick. Thomson and Thompson are pretty funny as played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and there is a brilliant character cameo by Bianca Castafiore. I just wish they had let the story breathe a bit.
Well, it wasn't soul-less. At all. Giving Spielberg and Peter Jackson every credit, they really worked hard to make this movie shine in every possible way that the books did. But it is a bit bloated. Tintin is stuffed to the gills with as much as they could have possibly fit in; the film is an amalgam of Crab with the Golden Claws, Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham's Treasure. And as an unfortunate result, everything feels a little rushed. It's a little peculiar because they did a good job otherwise of trying the three together into a single story that could fit in 2 hours.
Admittedly, adapting a Tintin story into a movie accessible to an audience not familiar with the character is a tough task. Many of the best Tintin stories (The Calculus Affair, Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon, The Red Sea Sharks) simply aren't new audience-friendly, and most of the earlier stand-alone stories like King Ottakar's Sceptre and Cigars of the Pharaoh don't feature Captain Haddock, one of the most iconic comic-book characters ever devised.
There are some stupendous action sequences that fit the books perfectly, being both exciting and slightly slapstick. Thomson and Thompson are pretty funny as played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and there is a brilliant character cameo by Bianca Castafiore. I just wish they had let the story breathe a bit.
