The Adventures of Tintin

Movie Name: The Adventures of Tintin

Year of Release: 2011

Director: Steven Spielberg

Stars: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Daniel Mays, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones, Joe Starr

Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5

Synopsis:

After the disappointing "Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", director Steven Spielberg is back adapting the work of belgium author Hergé. "The Adventures of Tintin" follows Tintin, the young reporter who is tangled in a mystery surrounding an ancient boat, one that belonged to the family of Captain Haddock, who becomes one of Tintin's close friends. Both Tintin and Haddock have to face off the villainy of Rackam/Sakharine, a man who wants to claim a long lost buried treasure and avenge his family against Haddock's.
Steven Spielberg uses the same performance capture process that created the lifeless figures of Robert Zemeckis' "Beowulf" and "The Polar Express" to bring to life Tintin's adventures. There is beauty in the way the shots are staged and designed, but the figures remain lifeless and uni dimensional. The film has a mixture of Indiana Jones and some slapstick, but the Tintin from the pages of Hergé never really comes alive. For all the noise and spectacle taking place, in the end the spark and life from the characters and their adventures on the pages, feels strangely lifeless and stale on the screen. The film always feels like is trying too hard to be a lot of different things simultaneously, adventure, slapstick, comedy, without ever really being any successfully. What is left are some beautifully done shots for a film and a character that deserved quite a lot more.