Could have been great

Rating: 4/10 (27 December 2011)

I was really excited to see this film, as I'm a big fan of Tintin, both the comics and the TV series from the early 90s. I was also pleased to see that the American influence would be primarily limited to Steven Spielberg, with the cast being mostly British and also having Peter Jackson on board. Things started off quite well, with the film sticking closely to the comics and TV episodes, keeping a good pace which got me into the film early on. I was also very impressed with the motion-capture animation and the 3D effects, even if some of the characters didn't look quite right.
However, soon after Tintin and Haddock crashed in the desert, things started to go rapidly downhill. The key to this was the fact that the story suddenly veered off onto its own tangent, almost disregarding the original story and the fact it had based so much of itself on the originals up until that point.
What also infuriated me was the silliness of it. Of course, a film like this should have a dose of silliness, there's no question of that. But there was far too much, which really ruined it for me. The climactic scene of the duel in the cranes is a prime example of this. It was just too silly for me to take it seriously. Not only that, but this would never have been in one of Herge's original stories.
My last gripe is that the film seemed far too long, particularly towards the end. A lot of scenes could have been either shortened or cut all together, as they didn't further the plot or provide anything to the enjoyment. This is another reason why I didn't enjoy the climax of the film, I was bored by the time it got around to it.
Overall, I would say that this is a film which had great promise, as Tintin is perfect for an action-adventure movie, but the fact that a lot of the film ignores the original stories ruins any chances of that. I would say that any major deviation from the original stories should only have been done if absolutely necessary to make the film work.