I lit a wee fire.....

Rating: 9/10 (6 November 2011)

Having bought a model ship,the Unicorn,for a pound off a market stall Tintin is initially puzzled that the sinister Mr. Sakharine should be so eager to buy it from him.
Resorting to murder and kidnapping Tintin - accompanied by his marvellous dog Snowy - to join him and his gang as they sail to Morocco on an old cargo ship.
Sakharine has bribed the crew to revolt against the ship's master,drunken Captain Haddock,but Tintin,Snowy and Haddock escape,arriving in Morocco at the court of a Sultan,who also has a model of the Unicorn.
Haddock tells Tintin that over three hundred years earlier his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock was forced to scuttle the original Unicorn when attacked by a piratical forebear of Sakharine but he managed to save his treasure and provide clues to its location in three separate scrolls,all of which were secreted in models of the Unicorn.
Tintin and Sakharine have one each and the villain intends to use the glass-shattering top Cs of operatic soprano the Milanese Nightingale to secure the third.
With aid from bumbling Interpol agents the Thompson Twins our boy hero,his dog and the captain must prevent Sakharine from obtaining all three scrolls to fulfil the prophesy that only the last of the Haddocks can discover the treasure's whereabouts....
Remember the Spielberg from the eighties? The one who was just interested in bringing magic to the screen rather than Oscar baiting? He's back in what must be his most family orientated movie since Jurassic Park. Of late, the great director has added elements of darkness into his movies, but here is the film we wanted the Kingdom of The Crystal Skull to be.
From the very upstart, it's clear that the only way this movie could have been made was the CGI world we are given, because some of the stunning set pieces and 3D would never have made it into the movie.
The voice performances are flawless, and it's great to see Craig playing the villain with such a gleeful pantomime sneer, and not taking it seriously. And he has one of cinemas greatest robberies by using an opera singer to steal something.
The story is beautiful, and the score by Williams fives it that little bit more of a 'Raiders' feel to it.
It does start off very slow, but once we meet the wonderful Haddock, the film never lets up on the action until the very end. The chase from the Sultans palace for the scrolls has to be the action sequence of the year.
Seamlessly made in one exquisite shot, the 3D really brings the film to life, and their are some angles that could not have been made possible if it were live action.
And it's very humorous, the Thompson twins are more or less the comic relief, but there is a Lot of humour coming from the rest of the characters.
It all ends with the hint of a welcome sequel, and features one of the best references to jaws ever made.
Spielberg is back, making the sort of films that made him the biggest director of the eighties.
Magical stuff.