If you don't like it, you'll get a spank!

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2011)

Spielberg bought the rights of the adventures of Tintin, at least those starting with this episode when Captain Haddock comes into the picture. So we will have one film every Yule season, at least, if the actors survive the series or do not age too fast, though the digital processing of them enables them to age unseen in their digital skins.
The choice of technology and actors is perfect for those roles that are so well known that they do not admit any kind of mistake. The Dupont-ds are supposed to be perfect, and what's more perfectly dumb and inefficient, which they are. The very antagonistic representation of the Belgian policeman or inspector seen as Hercule Poirot for example. I must say the dog, Milou, is less convincing in that processing. He is processed slightly too much and smells as if he were just out of the dog's beauty parlor. The Castafiore is a marvelous superb operatic monster and she is truer than she could be in real reality.
The story is an old pirate story and Captain Haddock is an ignominious drunkard but he is fabulous in the desert and when he is reliving the adventures of his ancestor. At that level the film is quite a success for those who like pirate films and sea fights with sail ships, fire, canon powder, sabers and swords, etc. The falcon is also a good chap who fulfils his part quite well.
What Spielberg managed with great success is the great variety of landscapes, seascapes and other locations that is extremely important in this comic strip that leads the readers from the popular suburban areas of Brussels to the Sahara desert, the French foreign legion, the Atlantic by boat and the Atlantic by hydroplane, the unstable setting of a ship or a flying plane, as well as the disturbed stable setting of a city of a harbor. The duel with harbor cranes is quite a good idea indeed and spectacular.
Those of you who have known Tintin when you were the same age as the comic books will find it realistically done. Those who are from a younger generation will like the action and the special effects, and of course the chase for the treasure. You will only get the first leg of it right now, but next year, it is a promise, you get the second leg. After that If I believe the images of the opening credits you are going to get the moon, Tournesol and quite a few more of these adventures. I saw an allusion to Tibet too which is an earlier period, hence surprising. Have a good voyage in comic land.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU