The Adventures of Tintin in Hollywood

Rating: 6/10 (6 February 2012)

First of all, I really wanted to like this movie. As someone who grew up reading the stories, my whole family and I were excited about seeing it. But here's why it didn't work. The beginning cinematography was beautiful and reminded me of colored pencil drawings (like the book). Also, I paid the additional money for 3D, which I liked, when it appeared. But the 3D was severely underutilized. The movie disintegrated into good cinematography and poor character development. Just like in the books, when we first meet Captain Haddock, he is a literal "wreak". But, in the movie is he never allowed to move beyond a immature drunkard. He never becomes worthy of respect. (The crane fight, BTW, was silly and unnecessary.) Hollywood interfered again by turning Tintin's race to get the ship into a cataclysmic event that destroyed a city. Hello? This is Tintin! He slips in, he slips out, he gets the job done. If only the director's could have trusted us to have a good time without unnecessary destruction and drama in the movie. The details of the books are not dramatically dangerous and exciting 100% of the time, but along the way, we feel like we get to know the characters. It would be nice of Hollywood to do the same.