Jason KingTINTIN: A Review
December 23rd 2011 23:02
:
Animated Indiana Jones kid's film with spectacular visuals!
Category: Reviews
I had a different childhood to most of the people I know and I never ever owned a comic book - for some reason I preferred to read and let my imagination draw the visuals of what I was reading. But with the pending release of Tintin all my friends are coming out of the woodwork as comic fans. I had only heard of Tintin but really had no idea what it was all about. The first time I even knew what Tintin looked like was when I saw the first poster for this film. So I went into this film with basically no idea what I was in for.
I came out of the screening quite flat and had limited emotional bonding with the film. I can say though that visually it is outstanding and Spielberg directed the film with Peter Jackson due to his love of the story since his first review of Raiders of the Lost Ark compared the two.
He then purchased the rights to the story in the early 80s and has been preparing to make it for yonkers.
This film combines the Tintin tales of The Crab with the Golden Claws (1947), (Tintin befriends Capt Haddock and rescues him from smugglers) and the two-parter 'The Secret of the Unicorn' & 'Red Rackham's Treasure' (Tintin and Haddock search for pirate treasure). This could prove a disappointment to many a fan and I would have preferred to see an introduction Tintin, who he came to be, why he became to be and commence the tale with his introduction to the audience. I feel if you have read the comics you will know him better and therefore not need the background and character build.
The film is shot brilliantly with action sequences that could never be completed in a live action movie. Spielberg originally wanted to shoot it as live action but Jackson talked him out of it claiming live action could never give the story justice and I have to agree. It also maintains a very childlike film noir quality that added to the visual experience and gave me the feeling I was watching an animated Indiana Jones film starring a MUCH younger Indy (who wasn't actually Indy at all hahaha).
The action is relentless and goes from action sequence to action sequence at the cost of a soul of the film. Don't get me wrong, the action is insanely brilliant and colourful, although one particular scene looks like a direct copy of Pirates of the Caribbean. I just didn't overly care for the characters and found the lead character, Tintin, my least favourite character, something that is probably not the goal of the director. My favourite character would easily be Capt Haddock followed by Snowy, the dog.
I think where it lost its soul, for me, was in the fact that I knew no one would ever get seriously hurt. It is a kid's film and Tintin, Haddock and even Snowy would never face the possibility of death, or if they did I knew nothing would go bad for them. It also lacked a "love interest", something that could break the resolve of Tintin and make him hurt and therefore make the audience root for him more and want Red Rackham to pay for his cruelty.
All the actors voice their parts admirably. You can tell that Andy Serkis, as Captain Haddock, easily had the most fun doing his part. Haddock provides most of the laughs in the film although I even found a lot of the laughs were few and far between. Frost and Pegg also provide some decent laughs as Thomsom and Thompson. I LOVE Jamie Bell and he was a great Tintin, although I just felt the character was a bit two dimensional. I really liked Rackham / Sakharine but not until the final credits did I even realise it was Daniel Craig - good to see him as an evil bad guy
This film will make a squillion dollars and there will definitely be a sequel and next time around I am hoping for a more emotive response from myself. Commences on Christmas day on nearly every screen in Australia and worth a disappointing 6 out of 10. Now, I hope I don't get as many threats for giving this film a 6 as I did for MI4. Sheesh that film has some serious supporters
I came out of the screening quite flat and had limited emotional bonding with the film. I can say though that visually it is outstanding and Spielberg directed the film with Peter Jackson due to his love of the story since his first review of Raiders of the Lost Ark compared the two.
He then purchased the rights to the story in the early 80s and has been preparing to make it for yonkers.
This film combines the Tintin tales of The Crab with the Golden Claws (1947), (Tintin befriends Capt Haddock and rescues him from smugglers) and the two-parter 'The Secret of the Unicorn' & 'Red Rackham's Treasure' (Tintin and Haddock search for pirate treasure). This could prove a disappointment to many a fan and I would have preferred to see an introduction Tintin, who he came to be, why he became to be and commence the tale with his introduction to the audience. I feel if you have read the comics you will know him better and therefore not need the background and character build.
The film is shot brilliantly with action sequences that could never be completed in a live action movie. Spielberg originally wanted to shoot it as live action but Jackson talked him out of it claiming live action could never give the story justice and I have to agree. It also maintains a very childlike film noir quality that added to the visual experience and gave me the feeling I was watching an animated Indiana Jones film starring a MUCH younger Indy (who wasn't actually Indy at all hahaha).
The action is relentless and goes from action sequence to action sequence at the cost of a soul of the film. Don't get me wrong, the action is insanely brilliant and colourful, although one particular scene looks like a direct copy of Pirates of the Caribbean. I just didn't overly care for the characters and found the lead character, Tintin, my least favourite character, something that is probably not the goal of the director. My favourite character would easily be Capt Haddock followed by Snowy, the dog.
I think where it lost its soul, for me, was in the fact that I knew no one would ever get seriously hurt. It is a kid's film and Tintin, Haddock and even Snowy would never face the possibility of death, or if they did I knew nothing would go bad for them. It also lacked a "love interest", something that could break the resolve of Tintin and make him hurt and therefore make the audience root for him more and want Red Rackham to pay for his cruelty.
All the actors voice their parts admirably. You can tell that Andy Serkis, as Captain Haddock, easily had the most fun doing his part. Haddock provides most of the laughs in the film although I even found a lot of the laughs were few and far between. Frost and Pegg also provide some decent laughs as Thomsom and Thompson. I LOVE Jamie Bell and he was a great Tintin, although I just felt the character was a bit two dimensional. I really liked Rackham / Sakharine but not until the final credits did I even realise it was Daniel Craig - good to see him as an evil bad guy
This film will make a squillion dollars and there will definitely be a sequel and next time around I am hoping for a more emotive response from myself. Commences on Christmas day on nearly every screen in Australia and worth a disappointing 6 out of 10. Now, I hope I don't get as many threats for giving this film a 6 as I did for MI4. Sheesh that film has some serious supporters
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