The Adventures of Tintin

A seemingly ideal combination of Spielberg and Hergé's comic book albums "The Crab with the Golden Claws," "The Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure." Unfortunately, it used motion capture animation that ruined the whole thing. Personally, I remain faithful to the series and the old 1947 puppet film. (29/03/2022)

The Adventures of Tintin is brought down by its comic book source with the central hero, who, in my opinion, lacks charisma and earns no sympathy from me. I completely missed out on the comic book series, even when I was part of the target age group. On the other hand, it is necessary to acknowledge Steven Spielberg for making the most out of the limited space offered by the comic book world and creating a typical Indiana Jones-like adventure ride, lightened by plenty of clever jokes and crazy action stunts. However, Indiana Jones has a big advantage in terms of the main character - a likable adventurer with a careless appearance and definitely not perfect, whereas Tintin, with his slick hairstyle, simply lacks spark and is rather boring. In comparison to Indiana Jones, the supporting characters are generally not interesting, except for the perpetually alcohol-soaked captain and his villainous adversary. Truth be told, the story itself doesn't have the potential to captivate the audience, but then again, we have Spielberg's amazing ability to enchant mainly male audiences of all ages with an adventurous spectacle, which makes even old dads gladly return to their early teenage years when they devoured cheap paperback books with eye-catching covers. We also have Spielberg's traditional professional perfectionism and the generous budget afforded by previous commercial hits. The result is a very decent and, within the current pop culture, highly above-average commercial spectacle, essentially an action blockbuster for the whole family. Furthermore, Spielberg understands the possibilities of animated film and knows how to work magic with both the camera and computers, adding a dimension to the traditional Indiana Jones stunts that are only possible in an animated film. Spielberg, at the same time, indulges his viewers a little by including references to his previous famous works. Try to guess who his Moroccan emir resembles, for example. I may not come back to Tintin anytime soon, but of all the highly anticipated animated blockbusters this year, it appealed to me the most and unquestionably surpassed films like Rango and many others. Overall impression: 85%. (21/11/2011)

I wasn’t looking forward to Tintin, so I can’t say I’m disappointed with the results. Actually, watching it in cinema on a very hectic day felt quite good. It’s nice to look at, undemanding, relaxing, entertaining… The humour is often almost cringe-worthy, but it’s effective in its own way. The animation was surprising, if the characters hadn’t been so clearly stylised, in some scenes I wouldn’t have been able to tell I’m not looking at something real (for instance, the first minutes at the marketplace). It’s not something to swoon over, but it’s OK for single-use fun. PS: Yesterday on TV I watched several scenes of the fourth Indiana Jones and I realised that in the last few years Spielberg has lost his sense of measure. I don’t like that kind of relentless action anymore. (20/11/2011)

A technically perfect flick with a lot of visual ideas, but its inwardly impersonal and not funny at all. Did any of the characters work their way into your heart? Did Thomson and Thompson make you laugh? I suspect that this whole thing is just the first of the trailers for a future tourist attraction at Universal Studios. The BRILLIANT action scene in Morocco (which is the only highlight of the film apart from the opera scene) seems to indicate as much. (07/11/2011)

Although the cleverest character of the movie is a dog, any simplicity is replaced by Spielberg’s playfulness and talent for this particular genre. State of the art technology (Zemickis’ innovation gets a good slap in the face when Spielberg manages in one movie to do what he worked on for years) is a blessing mainly in the action scenes, which are lively, full of ideas, humorous and perfect. The ending has superb gradation, including the grandiose clash of the two main antagonists on the crane. Beautiful work. (25/02/2012)