Film Review - The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

The Adventures of Tintin is based off the books by Herge and this new film from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson takes its inspiration from three sources: Secret of the Unicorn, The Castafiore Emerald and Crab with the Golden Claws, the film tells of Tintin buying an old ship the Unicorn at a market and others wanting to buy if off him, those of a more nefarious cloth as its said to reveal an old mystery.

I've been greatly looking forward to this movie due to the fact that I'm a huge Tintin fan since childhood, the animated series was a defining one for me growing up and I even read some of the books as a result, the moment I heard about a film based off that I knew I had to see it post haste.

And long did I wait for the day where I had my ticket and I got to see the film for myself, now having done so, how did I find it?

Well it saddens me to say this but the film is a disappointment for me, probably the biggest I've had in a long long time, mainly due to the baggy and overcomplicated storyline which tries to combine the sources mentioned above into a singular narrative and it just doesn't quite come together plus Serkis's Haddock REALLY got on my nerves, mainly due to playing up the alcoholism of his character which after a while really got on my nerves and plus I felt that he was all wrong for the part to begin with, same with Jamie Bell as Tintin who really didn't do that much I felt instead spell out the plot.

Moving on, I want to talk about the positives first being the sequence involving Sir Francis Haddock which is an outstanding sequence and the best Spielberg has been since Raiders of the Lost Ark, in fact that scene had more energy in it than any of the Indiana Jones sequels put together, the other was the capture work done on Snowy the white dog, a nice template to use for Brain from Inspector Gadget if that is rebooted, I also liked Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thompson and Thompson and Daniel Craig made for a pretty good villain.

But what's probably worst is this, the fact that only part 1 of the Red Rackham story was told in this movie, which spilled over into a 2nd book Red Rackham's Treasure which is hinted at but foolishly not old in this film, no doubt saved for a hopeful sequel which given its performance in the US, may never get made.

As for the 3D well it was 3D, dark, dim and blurry, so very blurry, see this in 2D as it will make you appreciate the look of the film and the performance capture a lot more as it will look brighter, clearer and not blurry but then again I've said that before haven't I.

All in all, nothing makes me sadder than to say this disappointed me as I had waited long to see it and really really looked forward to it but alas it is what it is, 2 out of 5.