Visually amazing, otherwise OK

Rating: 8/10 (31 July 2012)

Being a long-time Tintin fan, I had pretty low expectations when I bought this movie – but of course I had to see it. For the first time ever, motion capture and animation work perfectly – the realism is fantastic, down to the tiniest hair. Sometimes you could swear it is live action on film, though it isn't. The animated Milou (I refuse to call him Snowy, what a silly name!) is the best I've seen in that genre; totally believable.
The story is OK, a mix of different Tintin plot lines, nothing to complain about. But the dialogue and the voice casting, oh my! Haddock should have been a much more growling, non-Scottish, powerful character – and he swears ten times as often and fifty times more creatively in the comic albums. The Thompson cops aren't nearly enough stupid sounding (thanks to the very overrated Pegg/Frost duo), Castafiore should have been hitting false notes all over the place, and so on. And why is Tintin ginger? He's as blond as blond can get.
But these are minor quibbles. All in all, extremely entertaining – and I'm looking forward to the sequels.