Spielberg goes back to his roots with an Indiana Jones style adventure movie...

Rating: 8/10 (2 June 2014)

With films like "Duel" and "Jaws", Steven Spielberg perfected the 'high concept thriller' – movies that could really be summed up in one sentence. Over time, he moved onto more personal dramas, and then at the start of the 2000s, futuristic science fiction. Most of the time he's extremely successful in finding new genres, but it often feels far departed from his original ideas. With "The Adventures of Tintin", he goes back to his roots with an Indiana Jones style adventure featuring everyone's favourite boy detective. It's visually stunning, extremely exciting and a movie for all ages.
The film follows Tintin, played by former 'Billy Elliot', Jamie Bell, on a quest involving a sunken ship – the Unicorn. Along the way, he meets drunken ship's captain, Captain Haddock, played by motion-capture pioneer Andy Serkis, and the villainous Ivan Sakharine, played by Daniel Craig. The adventure takes them all over the world, to different locations and landscapes, which are all visually exciting and provide for great action sequences. We later discover that Haddock and Sakharine's rivalry goes back generations, and there are some fantastic scenes which show the two's ancestors fighting just as the two are now. The supporting cast is also great, especially the choice of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg as the bumbling detectives Thompson and Thompson.
What makes this unique as a Spielberg film is the use of motion-capture animation, a new realm for the director. He takes to it extremely well, embracing the visual possibilities that it presents and allowing him to direct the camera towards the action straight away. In numerous chase scenes, the excitement comes partly through the chaotic camera-work, in scenes that would not be possible in live-action. He can give you different perspectives, particularly those of Tintin's dog, Snowy, and much more easily give you information that the protagonists don't have.
The script is extremely sharp and often very funny, making this well-paced adventure even more enjoyable. It never feels slow, always taking the adventure to a new place with a new lead which is just as interesting as the previous one. The scene on the plane and fight sequence on the old ship are particularly enjoyable. The one problem the film has is its ending, which is far too sudden a cliffhanger, and doesn't leave the events of the movie resolved enough to be satisfying. It would work much better if there was a firm finale to one case, which leads to an even bigger plot for the inevitable sequel. This is partially what the writers attempted, but it's not complete enough to work. The very fact that a sequel is being made excites me, however, since this is a constantly enjoyable adventure movie, which does justice to Hergé's original comics.