The Adventures of Tintin/2011
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Jaimie Bell, Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg
The Film: He may look like a towel boy on a gay cruise-liner, but little Tintin's got the heart of Achilles. If you have no idea who or what a "Tintin" is? Fret not Americans... 82 year old Belgian graphic novels probably crossed your desk about as often as cricket statistics, lutefisk recipes, and David Hasselhoff's Night Rocker LP did.
It's a European thing.
But like topless beaches, filtered beer, and Rammstein records, The Adventures of Tintin happens to be a very good European thing.
Just think of Herge's Tintin as the great grandfather of Nathan Drake - and Woodward and Bernstein. He's a compact journalist with a little white dog, the seedlings of a smart fauxhawk, a penchant for solving riddles, and a loaded handgun. His motives are pure. His movement perpetual. And his skills at springing traps and escaping capture... intimidating.
The story has Tintin, his dog "Snowy", and boat captain (and dedicated drunk...) Haddock criss-crossing the globe hunting down the lost treasure of Haddock's ancestor's ship - The Unicorn. The best discoveries in the film lie in the many situations Tintin and company find themselves in. The traps, riddles, gags, and action set-pieces are thick in this adventure. So thick in fact, that I can't imagine how a single Belgian artist could have managed to fill 20+ books with this many uncanny problems - and this many canny solutions.
Though I will yowl and complain about Spielberg's direction in War Horse, (review coming Friday) and generally point out that the movie represents all of Steven's worst instincts and flaws as a filmmaker, The Adventure of Tin Tin is everything a great Steven Spielberg movie can be.
The Bagghar street chase - involving a motorcycle sidecar, a bazooka, several villains, a troublesome falcon, and a collapsing dam - is one of the best, continuous chunks of action Steve Spielberg's ever put on film.
In Tintin's world a room full of sleeping sailors is a treacherous minefield and an attack by a pirate ship can take on the dizzying thrills of a Buccaneer boat swing at Knott's Berry Farm. With the restrictions of the physical world cast aside, Spielberg wields animation like Merlin wielded fire and light - Tintin never runs out of ideas, never slams into a single barrier it can't find a resourceful solution to, and never seems to run low on steam during its entire one hundred minute run time.
The Verdict: I saw this twice. Both times with self-proclaimed Tintin fans. We all loved it. The Adventures of Tintin is thrilling, funny, clever... and, as it happens, is Steven Spielberg's best work since Munich. Take the whole family.
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