Steven Spielberg goes all out for the Adventures of Tintin

Rating: 9/10 (23 December 2011)

The Adventures of Tintin (2011) directed by Steven Spielberg, screenplay by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish. Starring (voices by) Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Daniel Mays, Gad Elmaleh, and Toby Jones.
Even before any real footage was shown, I knew that the Adventures of Tintin was going to be well done, because it wasn't done in live-action. I don't think the concept of Tintin would work all that well in live action (the French already tried this, and those films are not very good from what I've heard). Additionally Herge himself approved of Steven Spielberg, saying before his death that if any director could be perfect at making a Tintin film, that Spielberg was the one.
Thankfully I got exactly what I wanted, because the Adventure of Tintin is a great adventure film, based off one of France's most iconic characters.
The story combines three Tintin stories (The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure), and puts them into one film. Tintin (played by Jamie Bell) a reporter (not Belgium for any fans who interested), stumbles upon, and purchases a model ship called the Unicorn at a market stall. Tintin becomes interested in it after the mysterious Mr. Sakharine (Daniel Craig, completely unrecognizable) wants it. Eventually Tintin finds himself embroiled in an adventure to find out about the secrets of the Unicorn.
The Adventures of Tintin is a film using motion caption (a term used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model), and admittedly that's probably where the Adventures of Tintin suffers most. While this isn't exactly the Uncanny Valley (I swear those posters with Bianca Castafiore look too real to be animated), it's still not the best it could possibly be. If I were to come in and having never seen a movie using Motion Caption (which Thankfully I have), I would find the faces of the characters to be freaky. The motion caption in this movie is however better than the motion caption that was used in the Polar Express, or 2009's A Christmas Carol, and does show some improvements, often veering between real and unreal.
The acting (or voice acting), is good. Jamie Bell is decent in the title role, although his character is not well developed (Tintin's character development is not the focus of the stories anyway). Andy Serkis does a great job playing the character of Captain Archibald Haddock, the descendant of Sir Francis Haddock (the Captain of the Unicorn), having a fairly decent Scottish accent (although to be fair his nationality was never directly been revealed in the comics). As I said earlier Daniel Craig comes off as being unrecognizable as Ivan Sakharine the villain (who's character was actually not a villain in the original story but a collector of ships), complete with a different voice. The team of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg add humor (and maybe some unnecessary humor) as the two inept Scotland Yard detectives Thompson and Thomson. The characters have some funny scenes, but I wasn't laughing at all their antics.
The score by John Williams (who else could score a Steven Spielberg film?) is well done, while not as memorable as Indiana Jones, it still has it's own beat.
The writers Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish have written a grand adventure story, with some comical moments through in their for good measure.
The opening sequences is well done, with a jazzy tune, showing Tintin running through a series of comics.
The ending leaves the film open for a sequel, and I can only hope that the U.S. is willing to give Tintin a chance, because dismal box office in the U.S. may persuade Paramount to can the sequel they already announced (thankfully it's been doing gangbusters oversees, so that may change their minds).
The adventures of Tintin is a thrilling and fun adventure movie, featuring some of the better use of Motion Caption. With Tintin Steven Spielberg has crafted another fine adventure film.