A few days ago, I managed to check out The Adventures of Tintin in theaters, and being a fan of the original comic book series myself, quite honestly it was one of my most anticipated movies of this year! And then I realized that the movie itself was yet to be released in the United States, and thus quite easily it can be said that it hasn't been released 'internationally' yet. From that, I decided to share my review of the movie here. As I've teased before, it's safe to consider the review as spoiler-free, as in the process I also tried my best to avoid those all (the images featured in the review are mostly the ones that have been published publicly, so if anyone would consider any of them to contain spoiler, I won't take it.) And without any further ado, let's see if this Steven Spielberg adaptation of the classic tale makes it or not...
Theatrical poster of The Adventures of Tintin.
Story and Script
It should have been known that while the movie was once subtitled as Secret of the Unicorn, it doesn't directly adapt the story from that book which is of the same name. Well, as have been revealed the movie actually merges the plots of several books of the series, which are The Secret of the Unicorn, The Crab with the Golden Claws, and Red Rackham's Treasure. To be precise, the main plot is actually mostly based on The Secret of the Unicorn, with plot points of The Crab with the Golden Claws and a bit of Red Rackham's Treasure to move the narrative. As this review is spoiler-free, that's all I will say regarding the plot.
While the plot of the movie is a combination of three books (two which were related, while one had a completely different storyline), it doesn't turn out to be a mess at all! In fact, it surprisingly was very well-written and well combined; probably thanks to Stephen Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish for that. As I've touched on before, the movie's main plot was totally similar to that of The Secret of the Unicorn, with plot points from The Crab with the Golden Claws and Red Rackham's Treasure. Saying that, the main plot was actually very simple, however such simplicity was turned to a fun ride with the well-placed merging of those two other sources I mentioned above. By 'fun ride' here, it's not just the plot that was well-driven in this movie, but it also would be accompanied by electrifying, yet again fast-paced, and exciting (and sometimes comical) action sequences. Tintin is never your average boy scout indeed, so expect to see chases, clashes, gun fires, and the likes. A lot of them.
The Adventures of Tintin.
It's also pretty impossible to not feature any references (and tiny easter eggs) from the material sources for such an adaptation like this, too. While the most references, nods, and all were taken from the three books I've already mentioned above, fans will be able to spot many other references and easter eggs from various other titles. What's better is the fact that some of these well-placed references actually played quite some roles toward the movie's main plot as well, saying that many of those weren't simply there to please the fans. A hint here, there's one cameo of a certain character, and the presence of the character actually drove the plot forward, too. To the fans or anyone who is familiar to The Adventures of Tintin franchise, seeing this one character's appearance could just put wide smiles on your faces.
Fans will be familiar to many scenes of the movie, as many were
directly adapted from the books. From The Adventures of Tintin.
Changes are also inevitable for any adaptation today, probably. And those surely were also present in this movie. Several characters were completely re-written from the roots (though they still retained a lot of characteristics and even went through some similar scenes to that of featured in the books) to fit the movie's merged plot, and apart of the merging of the plot, there also were several changes in some scenes that actually were directly adapted from the books. For example (no spoiler here, as I believe it was clearly hinted in trailers), this movie showed the first meeting of Tintin with Captain Haddock, while in the original The Secret of the Unicorn - which was the eleventh book of the franchise - both characters had been well acquainted. And yes, another example is that Snowy didn't get to 'talk' in this...which is good for me. Who wants to see a talking dog, anyway?
There's not much that can be said about the plot's weakness. Probably it started and moved for way too fast, but in fact, that's how any story from The Adventures of Tintin always goes! Maybe you would complain a bit for its fast movement, however it never lasted long as every such scene would always be followed by another scene which would lead the plot to its climax, indeed in an electrifying and fast-paced way as I've described it before.
Actors and Characters
As I've stated above, The Adventures of Tintin is supported by its quite strong line of cast, mainly for the lead roles. We have Jamie Bell in the shoes of the main lead Tintin; the motion capture specialist actor Andy Serkis as Captain Archibald Haddock; Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as the two look-alike bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson; and our current James Bond, Daniel Craig, as Ivan Ivanovich Sakharine. We have known their capacities as actors, but can they express the best of their talents this time through the use of motion capture?
Let us start with the main character himself, Tintin. Needless to say much, Jamie Bell actually gave a very good performance in bringing Tintin to life. Not much surprise there actually, as Tintin is much a straight, do-good character, and I never really thought that an actor like he is (whose nice performances I've seen in Billy Elliot, King Kong, and The Eagle) would ever have much trouble in portraying such a character, either. What stood out in Bell's portrayal of Tintin here instead was how his aspects outside of his quality fitted Tintin very well, such as his voice.
Captain Archibald Haddock (Andy Serkis) meeting with Tintin
(Jamie Bell). From The Adventures of Tintin.
Moving on to the supporting protagonist, the troubled Captain Archibald Haddock, who was portrayed by Andy Serkis. As much as the actor is a specialist in motion captures, the character of Captain Haddock himself is always quite a complicated one, that it would need quite a talent to bring him to live with no trouble. Well, I did miss Serkis' performance in Rise of the Planet of the Apes of which he was supported by many people to receive an Oscar, but now I can understand why he could get such support, as his performance in this movie alone should be enough as well. In fact, I would say that among all the other actors, he was the most brilliant! Haddock's twisted personality as the sometimes bumbling drunken man as well as his braveness within were all well portrayed by Serkis, not to mention the much emotions projected by him for the character that brought the movie into somewhat a new depth. Also, his performance as Haddock's ancestor, the brave Sir Francis Haddock was equal in amount of greatness. There's nothing else I'd add; he's brilliant and that's all.
Next, we have Daniel Craig as Ivan Ivanovich Sakharine, a character that was adapted from the book yet had a completely different role in the movie. As for the portrayal, I really liked it as well. When you first saw the character, you would barely recognize that the character - not look-wise, anyway - was portrayed by Daniel Craig, but that's where the greatness laid for me! Of course the character was radically different if you're used to his performance as James Bond - but indeed in other movies like The Invasion he always had quite similar performances - and yet in this one, he managed to portray such a radically different character in a different way, too. Forget it if you expect to see the all-serious, quite grim Daniel Craig in this character. Well, probably there would still be a little bit of such characteristics, but overall Craig managed to portray the character very differently to his usual image as an actor.
I can't say much regarding the other characters. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost brilliantly played Thomson and Thompson and were able to bring the comical comedy aspects the way the characters supposed to be, while Toby Jones also managed to bring the character of Aristides Silk well. What makes it hard to talk much about the other characters aside of the three main roles I mentioned above is that they were not given THAT much screen time that we could care more about them not. Probably there are many other names that are featured in the cast list, such as Tony Curran and Gad Elmaleh, however the limited screen times of their's as well as the use of motion capture (which altered many of the actors' appearances pretty much) made them less significant.
Visuals and Effects
As we have all known, the movie used the motion capture technology, with the CGI rendering done by the infamous Weta Digital. This move alone is actually a very spot-on option I'd say, since this way taken made the movie even way better than it could possibly be if done in a traditional live-action way.
The first advantage is rather obvious, actually. Well, probably we can still imagine the likes of Jamie Bell portraying Tintin or even Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock in live-action portrayal, but can you imagine actors that are able to fit the looks of Thomson and Thompson if presented in a live-action movie? And that's why; the motion capture allowed the characters to follow the original cartoon-styled designs, and yet still with the level of realism motion capture technology can do nowadays.
Thomson (Simon Pegg) and Thompson (Nick Frost) - or vice versa -
discussing a possible case with Tintin (Jamie Bell). From The Adventures of Tintin.
While the designs may be close to the original series' cartoon-style, the animation still would amaze us all. The renderings were all very smooth, detailed, and all that we could nearly see what were presented as real stuffs if not, well, because of the cartoon-styled designs as mentioned above. The characters, skin textures, background environments, and even Snowy's furs were very well-rendered. Lightings and camera angles were also nicely played that we could easily enjoy every scene well.
Snowy, Tintin's loyal pet dog as smoothly rendered by Weta Digital
in The Adventures of Tintin.
Music
Composed by the legendary John Williams, this might just be another aspect that makes The Adventures of Tintin a movie anticipated by many people. However, I have to apologize to suggest you to NOT expect to hear a track akin to that of the "Star Wars Theme" or "Indy's March" to be made "Tintin's March" of this movie (and its possible future franchise.) While Mr. Williams managed to compose scores that were very fitting to the movie's themes - comical, thrilling, electrifying, all at the same time - that also were great to accompany all scenes of the movie, it was quite disappointing that there was no such 'remarkable' score that people would remember of this movie. The music was simply good, but not as great as people would expect from John Williams.
In the end,
The Adventures of Tintin is not a movie that was created only to please its fans, but non-fans alike with its fast-paced narrative, exciting action scenes, great performances, and amazing visuals.
Rating:
Starring Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Daniel Craig,
The Adventures of Tintin is set to be released in the United States on December 21, later this year!
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