Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

Director Steven Spielberg and Producer Peter Jackson bring to the big screen the beloved comic book character Tintin in glorious 3D motion capture. Jamie Bell is the young journalist/detective Tintin, who is thrust into a century old mystery when he buys a model ship known as the Unicorn, which sunk in the 17th century. Ivan Sakharine (Daniel Craig) desperately tires to buy the model Unicorn ship off Tintin for mysterious motives, Tintin however refuses to sell and instead begins to investigate the secrets surrounding the Unicorn. Along the way he befriends Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) ancestor to the Captain of the Unicorn.
This is one film that definitely has to be seen in 3D. The animation is beautiful and the action scenes are inventive, flawless and thrilling. There are plenty of hilarious slapstick in the film that is bound to get anyone laughing. The scene transitions are especially cool and while many audience members will not take note of them, film buffs with a keen eye are sure to find enjoyment from them. The voice acting is top notch, even Daniel Craig is impressive, something I had reservations about due to his crap-tastic accent in Defiance. My favorite part of the film was however Tintin's dog Snowy, an incredibly smart and loyal sidekick.  The main let down in this film is the lack of emotion in Act Three/the climax. Two particular characters should be very personally connected through a century old family feud, but there is no successful emotional payoff in the resolution of this fight. As the film title suggests, Tintin is the main character but the story turns out to be more about Captain Haddock. Tintin, especially in the crisis point dwindles in the background, which has a negative flow on the film.
This Tintin film is the first in a planned trilogy with Peter Jackson to direct the sequel. We all know that Peter Jackson is very capable of topping the first film in a franchise (ie. LOTR  sequels) so here's hoping that the Tintin sequel is even better.

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