Nice movie, but surely not the next Indiana Jones

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 2011)

After Mars needs moms I thought that making computer movies with 'realistic' humans in it, was a bad idea. But here is another attempt, this time by movie legend Steven Spielberg and the Lord of the Rings himself, Peter Jackson.
As we all know The adventures of Tintin was a billion years in the making. After Raiders of the Lost Ark someone told Spielberg that there were a lot of similarities between Indiana Jones and a European comic hero called Tintin. So the filmmaker bought the movierights, lost them and eventually obtained them again to make this first Tintin movie.
In the comics Tintin is a young reporter who travels all around the world to chase after a good story. He has visited Russia, Tibet, Africa, the Middle-East and even Nazi-Germany. The first comic was published in 1930. And although the kids don't read the comics anymore, almost all European grownups know this hero. Tintin's best friends are a white dog named Snowy and a noisy sailor called Captain Haddock. And he gets a lot of help from two rather clumsy Interpol agents, Thomson and Thomson. In the Spielberg movie these characters also appear. In fact, the director stays pretty true to the comics.
After the first trailer I wasn't anxious to see The adventures of Tintin on the big screen. But after the German TV-commercial which showed a lot of action, my hopes for an unforgettable movie event began to rise. Does Spielberg still have the magic to make something incredible and make full use of the computer effects?
Unfortunately the answer to that question is no. The adventures of Tintin is good fun, that's true. But I don't think it will live up to the big hype. The story begins when Tintin buys a model ship, the Unicorn,on a market. Turns out it contains a secret message that will lead to the search of a lost treasure. Tintin gets kidnapped, gets acquainted with captain Haddock, travels to Morocco and finds out what villain is behind all this and why he wants to have his revenge on the Maddock family.
The good things first. The visuals of The adventures of Tintin are truly stunning. The story takes place in the 1930s and has an old European city (Brussels? Paris?) with old pittoresque streets, a boat, airplane, desert, palaces and exotic Middle Eastern alleys in it. But even better: the computer animated characters look very convincing. I even think it's the best I've ever seen, although I guess they're not meant to be very realistic. All of them have a caricaturistic face, usually with a big nose or extra wrinkles. Contrary to the comics there's a lot of action in this movie. The best one was already seen in the German TV-commercial, that's when Tintin rides a motorcycle. Well done. There's also a great seabattle with pirates.
Okay, then the rest. What I didn't like about The adventures of Tintin was the hero itself. Actually he's quite dull. Unlike Indiana Jones he doesn't have any rough edges. He can fight alright, but you know he will never play it dirty. Tintin has an angelic face that tells you he will never be harmed or injured. There goes the suspense! Thanks to framed newspaper clips on the wall of his living room we get to know that Tintin is a very successful reporter who has written several important stories. But why couldn't Spielberg tells us that with some pre-story scene like in Raiders of the Lost Arc? That would have worked much better.
Captain Haddock is much more interesting though. He starts out as a alcohol addict and even stays that way. But he's funny as hell. Great voice performance by Andy Serkis. Even Tintin's dog Snowy is more exciting than Tintin.
The story doesn't work either. It keeps being pushed forward by Tintin saying: "Wait a minute, now I understand" after he has decrypted another clue. The audience can't think along with the characters. They must accept that what they're saying is true and hope that something interesting or entertaining comes out of it. Although the story takes place around the same time as Indiana Jones and also has old motorcycles, planes and Middle Eastern streets in it, Tintin has little to do with our favourite adventurer. And that's bad, because I really was hoping that Spielberg had found a new kind of hero. The movie doesn't end with a bang but instead has some sort of cliffhanger. That didn't satisfy me at all.
The Adventures of Tintin is good fun. It has some nice scenes and especially captain Haddock and Tintin's dog Snowy are very funny. But both Spielberg and Jackson are talented enough to give us more than just 'good fun', aren't they?
I hope they'll do much better in the already planned sequel.
7/10