The Adventures Of Tintin Review

• 17th Oct 2011

What do you get when have the brilliance of scriptwriters Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) and Steven Moffat (Doctor Who and Sherlock), throw in the genius directorial vision of Steven Spielberg, add Peter Jackson as producer and a soundtrack by John Williams, along with a healthy dollop of superb casting?  The answer is a visual roller coaster ride that is The Adventures of Tintin.

It’s been many a year since I read the books during my childhood, and my recollection of them are a bit hazy, so I won’t compare the film with the books for accuracy as it would be unfair.
The story (a mash-up of three Tintin books: The Secret Of The Unicorn, The Crab With The Golden Claws, and Red Rackham’s Treasure) opens with Tintin (Jamie Bell) buying a model of the ship Unicorn from a street seller.  He is confronted by  Lt. Delcourt (Tony Curran) wanting to buy the ship from him and warning him of the perils ahead if he keeps the model. He is also confronted (unknowingly to him at the time) by the villain of the story Ivanovich Sakharine (Daniel Craig) wanting to buy the vessel. Tintin refuses to sell the model, no matter what price, and the adventure begins to unravel when Sakharine tries to steal the Unicorn, and the tenacious boy-reporter goes in search of answers to a puzzle that leads to a lost treasure. He is assisted along the way by the bumbling inspectors Thompson and Thomson (the superb double act of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost), as well as the alcoholic, bottle-swigging eccentric, Captain Haddock. The frenetic action leads to a great finale, finding Tintin and Haddock up against Sakharine.

Spielberg’s first 3D venture was filmed using performance-capture technology, with a spectacular level of detail. The motorbike chase through a North African marketplace looks stunning, making proper use of the 3D (for depth perception rather than the easy option of having gimmicky items popping out of the screen),  drawing you further into the story.

Motion capture veteran, Andy Serkis, definitely steals the show as the eccentric Captain – from his first scene, thinking he’s locked in a cabin but never trying the door, to setting fire to the oars of the rowing boat to keep Tintin, Snowy and himself warm at sea, to using his potent alcohol-fumed breath to fuel a plane. Snowy, Tintin’s loyal sidekick and hero of the day many times throughout the film, steals a number of scenes himself, and I can see a ”Snowy” being on many children’s Christmas wish lists this year.

Hergé once said Spielberg was the only person who could transform his work onto the big screen and I think he would be satisfied with the highly evocative result. The film is terrific fun – a fast-paced visual epic, crammed with suspense and humour. As I was leaving the screening, I overheard a child asking his father if he thought there would be a sequel. I was wondering the same, already anticipating the second instalment of this franchise. It would be a great treat for kids (young and old) this half term.

Matthew Evans