Spielberg's Back!!!!

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2012)

TINTIN is the best movie of the year, and Steven Spielberg's best movie in more than a decade. The movie is fun, exciting, hilarious, creative, awesome, and, in the final scene profound.
Some people complain about motion capture animation, but I've always found the complaints exaggerated and ignorant. Animation is not supposed to have the same degree of facial expression as a great live-action actor. And, any complaints about the facial expressions in the TINTIN movie are even more ridiculous when considering that the main character in the original comic has pinprick eyes!
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN is an exhilarating, family friendly roller coaster ride. The action is thoroughly exciting. Spielberg introduces the three heroes in a steady, captivating way so that the story's frenetic action doesn't get in the way of one's sympathy for them. The comedy is playful and perfectly pitched. It adds immensely to the fun. Also, the motion capture animation is beautifully detailed.
TINTIN is a throwback to Steven Spielberg's earlier work. In fact, his classic movie RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK reportedly was compared in France to the Tintin comic books on which this movie is itself based, and that's the movie this movie most resembles.
Best of all, TINTIN has a strong moral, redemptive world view. (SPOILERS FOLLOW) Good conquers evil, an alcoholic sidekick finds sobriety, and the villain goes off to jail instead of being killed. THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN also has positive overt references to the Cross on which Christ suffered and died for our sins. That's actually one of the clues to where the treasure lies. Also, at the climax of the whole story, there's an overt reference to "St. John the Evangelist," the man who wrote the Gospel of John, the Book of Revelation, and three epistles in the New Testament. This content gives the movie a strong Christian allegorical, symbolic, or metaphorical sense where light from the "sun" reveals the final clue to the mystery of the hidden treasure. The light from the desert sun also helps sober up Captain Haddock enough so he can tell Tintin the story about how his ancestor's treasure got lost in the first place. Of course, in TINTIN, the treasure is gold and jewels, a family treasure. All this imagery, however, suggests that it's at the foot of the Cross, in the light that Jesus offers to all men (John 1:9), where one's true treasure lies. That's the best message you can send to any audience any time.