Thrilling adventure across the globe

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2016)

Based on the legendary comic albums by Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin was an attempt by Steven Spielberg to bring the very European hero to the American audiences. And no better man to do it, since Spielberg himself has self-admittedly drawn a lot of influences from Tintin for Indiana Jones, for example.
And what a fantastic film. Based on three of Hergé's albums: The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure, it tells about a sunken treasure and clues to its location hidden within old artifacts, one which ends up in the hands of a young reporter, Tintin, pulling him into the plot. Along the way nefarious plots are uncovered, colourful (and occasionally hilariously foul-mouthed) characters are met, exotic locations are explored and all in the name of good fun, excitement and, above all, adventure. Picture perfect plot and the action supports it beautifully. It's exactly the same brand of thrills that made the Indiana Jones trilogy such an iconic adventure classic. Glad to see that Spielberg had at least one of these still left in him.
He also gets the characters very well. Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell) is exactly the same kind of pure hero in a fictive cape we've come to known from the comics. Daniel Craig as the villain is a lot of fun and captures the archetype of a cultured baddie beautifully. But my, and probably everyone's, favourite character is without doubt Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), a drunken rot of a sailor, who still shines from within with past glory and a core of iron and timber.
My only real gripe with the film is that I'm not a fan of the motion-capture style of animation utilized. All the backgrounds look great and allow for some really fantastic action segments, but the characters themselves teeter just on the brink of uncanny valley. Their faces are expressive and their motions have been captured well, allowing for some really good acting moments, but the skin textures are more than a little plasticky. Overall the quality of animation is good, but it could have been better.
Nevertheless, The Adventures of Tintin is a great film. I really hope they make a sequel because this is easily a franchise equal to Indiana Jones in terms of potential.