Back in 1981, Steven
Spielberg made a film called Raiders of the Lost Arc, which
was a huge success. Someone told him that the movie reminded them of
The Adventures of Tintin, a popular French comic series.
Spielberg hadn't heard of it, but looked into it and started reading
them. They really captured his imagination and one day he hoped to
make a Tintin movie himself. Of course, sometimes it takes a long
time for a dream to come to fruition, even if you're one of the
biggest directors in the world. Though, sometimes it seems that the
wait is well worth it. This is one of those cases.
The film starts with
Tintin, a journalist who comes across a beautiful model ship that
begins to attract attention the moment he buys it. A strange American
man warns him of great danger and he gets approached by Mr.
Sakharine, who expresses great interest in the boat, though his
intentions remain unclear. When Tintin goes out, the boat is stolen
from his place, though he unknowingly removed the actual item of
value: a small scroll with a cryptic poem on it. While investigating,
misfortune follows Tintin, as a man is shot outside of his door and
he winds up getting captured by Sakharine's goons. But as he escapes
he meets up with Captain Haddock, a drunk sailor with a hazy history.
All Tintin knows is that he's connected to the scroll somehow and
he's their best chance of finding out the secrets that it keeps.
When one goes to see a
movie directed by Steven Spielberg, there are expectations that come
with his name. He's a director who has earned a reputation over his
prolific career. I don't think I've seen a movie of his that I
haven't enjoyed to some extent. Some I like more than others of
course, but I don't know if I've seen a movie of his that is a
complete dud. And of course, his great ones are masterpieces. But
this project seemed special because of the talent brought on board to
aid him. First, he co-produces it with Peter Jackson, the New
Zealand born film maker responsible for bringing The Lord of the
Rings to the big screen and who made an outstanding King Kong
remake. Not only that, but the screenplay was written by Shaun of
the Dead and Hot Fuzz's Edgar Wright along side Dr.
Who's Steve Moffat and Attack The Block's Joe Cornish.
I believe that it's a
good thing that the movie took as long as it did to get off the
ground. Had a Tintin movie been made ten years ago, or even five
years ago, I imagine that it would have been a very different product
than it is now. One of the most obvious aspects that stands out in
this film is the visual style. Spielberg uses the performance capture
technology that Robert Zemeckis used for The Polar Express and
other films. Though this style has not been overly popular with
mainstream audiences due to the people looking “creepy,” The
Adventures of Tintin uses it in a different way that winds up
being a strength of the film. Spielberg was smart to stay true to the
popular character designs of the comic book. This means that no one
looked like the actor portraying them and often didn't look like a
realistic human, perhaps with the exception of Tintin himself.
Though, Tintin looks a like an adolescent. I don't mind too much
because there is a great line to poke fun at this. The rest of the
people have exaggerated features so they seem like cartoons, but
extremely realistic looking cartoons. In fact, this is probably the
single most visually impressive cartoon film I have ever seen. The
animation looks far better than any of Zemeckis' films, though to be
fair, it is a newer film and it likely wouldn't have been possible if
Zemeckis hadn't paved the way first.
Now, I suppose a Tintin
movie didn't have to be animated. Perhaps not, but I think
that the final product is stronger because it is. There are a number
of things that were done in this movie visually that would have
difficult, if not entirely impossible with real life actors. The
animation is used to enhance the story. There are some very clever
transitions used to tell an action filled flashback as well as an
amazing one shot chase scene that would have been completely insane
to try and pull off with real people. If they tried, it likely would
have been mostly CGI anyway.
I think that some
people might be disappointed just because of the talent on board with
the film. I think it's possible that expectations might be a little
too high because of the previous work of these film makers and what
people think they should achieve when working together. I
would argue that they do their jobs perfectly. You see, the
objective of a creative team shouldn't be to create the single most
amazing spectacle that anyone has ever seen. If you keep trying to
do that, eventually you'll disappoint. Rather, all that they set out
to do was make the best possible adaptation of Tintin that they could
and I feel that they've done that. The screenplay is not a
jaw-dropping work of art, but it is very tight and efficient. Though
Tintin does talk to himself a fair bit in the first act, I suppose
that's not too much of a stretch. I've been known to chat to myself
and use a cat as an excuse. The script has humour and action and
tells the story at a very healthy pace. It does its job very well.
Spielberg's job is to
interpret that and translate it visually, which he has done in an
extremely fluent manner. But with Jackson, he has also done in it in
an extremely ambitious way. They mix classic adventure story telling
with the most cutting edge visual effects in the industry today.
That must be worth something, right?
Now, I'm not actually
that familiar with the source material. I remember Tintin from when
I was a kid because my dad enjoyed them and would share them with me,
but it has been so long I don't remember any of the details. As
such, I can't really tell you about the loyalty to the story or the
portrayal of the characters, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were
spot on. I believe that the story is a hybrid of three different
Tintin stories, though you wouldn't be able to tell with how well the
story flows.
Supposedly Tintin isn't
as popular here in North America as it is in Europe, but I'm starting
to find that difficult to believe. It seems that so many people I
talk to knows the character and read the stories when they kids. Or
perhaps it's the United States specifically who isn't familiar with
him because we Canadians seem informed enough. Or perhaps someone is
pretending to be cultured? Whatever the case, I'm glad that this
team of brilliant film makers have collaborated and released this
movie because I suspect that people will want to look into the comics
again or for the first time. I know I'd like to rediscover them now.
4.5 Stars
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