A matinée adventure close to Hergé's spirit

Rating: 7/10 (22 December 2011)

The dynamic duo of Spielberg and Jackson has done a very nice job here, bringing to simulated life the adventures of a young reporter and his always-drunk captain sidekick to find secret plans of treasure in a bottled ship.
There is plenty of adventure for young and old unfamiliar with Tintin, and of course a trip to childhood memories for those who know the comic books. There's every reason to hope Jackson will direct a sequel. Hergé took pains to explore very different aspects of comic story-telling in different Tintin books, so every one of these sequels could stand own its own, like the better James Bond movies.
Tintin comes off as the same 'Everyman' seen in the books; a character almost anyone can smoothly identify with, and who made the reader feel 'hmmm, maybe I could do that, too.' No superheroes in sight, even though many of the adventures are pretty crazy.
The PG rating is spot on, with a few deaths off-screen and some blood, nothing the 8+ crowd cannot handle. As in any good adventure film viewable by children, the heroes Tintin and Haddock never kill anyone (even when it appears so for a moment), although they fight and shoot with abandon. As in any good adventure film viewable by adults, there are some interesting characters and some plot and visual ideas you probably have not seen in any other film before. Snowy (Tintin's trusted dog) in particular gets some of these going. He's his own little 'silent dog movie' built into the greater adventure. If you go to see it twice, just focus on Snowy, and you'll see what I mean.
The visuals are extraordinarily well done. Their character matches the comic strip from title sequence to final credits about as well as you could hope to match the inimitable Hergé. Serkis knows motion capture acting. The 3-D was never annoying (well, one gratuitous cane- swing excepted), and I am easily annoyed by 3-D.
It gets 'only' a 7/10 because the plot alternates a little too much between almost stalling at times (in the characterization scenes), then taking off too frenetically (in the plentiful and fanciful chase scenes); and because character development could have been a little better (but the comics don't do it in a single book, either...). I left the theater as a very satisfied moviegoer.