An Enjoyable Yet Underwhelming Animation

Rating: 6/10 (10 May 2020)

While Tintin is a fun, exciting film, I had expected more given the creative team involved in this movie, including Steven Spielberg as director, Edgar Wright as co-writer and Peter Jackson as a producer.
The movie begins with a fantastic title sequence magnificently scored by John Williams, which sets the tone for the film to come. Although I had not read the source material by Hergé, I was certainly aware of them and appreciated the wonderful nod to the original, iconic, two-dimensional artistry of the comic book which took place during Tintin's introduction scene. From here, the movie quickly distinguishes itself from what came before, with the motion capture animation feeling fresh and inventive.
The motion capture technology works very well here. All human characters are easily able to display genuine emotion on their computer-generated faces, never feeling lifeless or distracting. While the human characters are beautifully realised and have a realistic look to them, the animals feel closer to standard cartoon animation. Moments featuring a cat and a herd of cows stood out from the rest of the films visual look. Even Snowy did not seem to be rendered as well as Tintin or his human counterparts, although his presence is never distracting.
The cast does a great job with Jamie Bell doing a great job of bringing the titular character to life. And while it was nowhere near their best collaborations, it is always great to see Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on screen together. It was also fun to watch Daniel Craig give an enjoyably villainous performance. Andy Serkis, as Captain Haddock, was the heart of the film, however, getting the only real character arc in the film.
While the movie was entertaining and engaging throughout, the ending was slightly anticlimactic. It ends abruptly on a cliff-hanger, without any real resolution. This is particularly frustrating since we are still waiting on a sequel almost ten years after its release.