Satisfies, Gets the Job Done

Rating: 8/10 (30 December 2011)

I got the opportunity to see "Tintin" just yesterday, and my bottom line is that it's definitely worth seeing and delivers just about what I had expected out of a "Tintin" film.
I was in anticipation of this film upon the announcement that there would be a "Tintin" movie and that it was going to be made by Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson, but other than that, I was not expecting much. I also had some familiarity with the "Tintin" because I used to read the comic when I was younger.
It appears as though, for this film, Spielberg has taken a page out of his own "Indiana Jones" films, as many of the scenes in this film entail high speed chases, adrenaline filled acrobatics, and daring shootouts. This of course, is fitting because the Tintin comic contains many such sequences.
The film delivered in the sense that it stayed largely true to the comic book series on which it is based. Many of the characters looked exactly as I had imagined their 3D version would look in the movies, and as far as the artistry goes, I think the author of the series, Hergé, would approve. In addition, Spielberg manages to use 3D as much more than a simple gimmick in this film, as it helps many of the characters come alive, especially towards the end of the film, where Tintin, the title character is riding through the streets of Baggar in the climactic action sequence.
The nature and antics of the characters also stayed largely true to their comic book origins. This is especially true for Thomson and Thompson, who were just as I had imagined an animated version of them would be.
However, it addition to my praise, I do have some points of criticism. The first point, I had expected and thus it did not bother me as much as it would have had I not read the original comic book series. "Tintin" is essentially the story of a series of static characters that have fantastic things happen to them. None of these events or happenings have any effect on the characters personality, beliefs or point of view and each of the characters finishes, by the end of the story, at the same place they began. Tintin will always be a courageous reporter with a large traveling budget, and the villain (in this case, Sakharine) goes through no change of his own, or at least we are not shown any change in his character after he loses to Tintin.
My other complaint is a relatively small one, but it did begin to bother a little bit as the film wore on. There is a certain transition effect that Spielberg uses, at first innovatively, but then repetitively. At one point in the film, we are looking at a lifeboat on a calm sea, and then, objects start to form in the sea around the lifeboat until the sea becomes a puddle on a street that someone steps in. At another point, Tintin and Captain Haddock shake hands and the bumps on their hands formed by the protrusion of the bones on their knuckles become sand dunes in the desert. Spielberg uses this type of transition several times in the film, and at first it appears to be rather creative. However, it feels a bit overused by the end of a film. It felt slightly like the first time I learned how to make presentations on Microsoft Powerpoint, and became extravagant with the way in which I used the animation functions. At first it's fun, but later it becomes a little annoying to watch.
So the bottom line is that this film is good, not great. I'm sure it met expectations that Tintin fans had, but it really doesn't go above and beyond that. In the end, I would say that this movie is worth watching once.