FILM REVIEW
Review Scoring Chart - 10:
Masterpiece; 9: Outstanding; 8: Very Good; 7: Good; 6: Above
Average; 5: Average; 4: Below Average; 3: Bad; 2: Awful; 1:
Reprehensible; 0: Non- Functional.
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN
Dir: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost
Running Time: 115mins [A version of this article was first published on Flixist and is being reprinted to coincide with the film's US release.]
Tintin may not be particularly well known in the United States, but
he is something of a treasure for most people in Europe who ever enjoyed
a childhood. The news that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson were
mounting a big-budget remake caused considerable consternation that
everything special about the character would be drowned in Hollywood
gloss. Hergé, the writer and artist of the original albums, had selected
Spielberg as the man he believed could do justice to his creation, but
that was back in the '80s, when the director was fresh off the back of Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
It appeared a dark omen that the Spielberg who finally managed to get
Tintin onto the silver screen was coming from the woeful Kingdoms Of The Crystal Skull.
Fortunately, Tintin fans can breathe a sigh of relief. Secret Of The Unicorn
is far from a perfect film, but is the best one Spielberg has made in
the better part of a decade. The director seems to have been
reinvigorated by new possibilities in directing his first animated film
and though the motion capture animation can't match the warmth of
Hergé's drawings, the Tintin spirit is very much kept alive.
Purists may wish to know that the film isn't exactly faithful to its
source material, in narrative terms at least. The first third of the
film is lifted from the album which gives the film its name, the middle
act moving into Crab With The Golden Claws as a means of
explaining how Tintin came to meet his best friend, the sozzled sea-dog
Captain Haddock, and the conclusion almost entirely made up, but for the
final scene. Those discordant origins are tied together fairly well,
although why Spielberg didn't make Crab With The Golden Claws,
which is probably the story he draws upon most heavily, is a little
confusing, especially since the film's ending is rendered somewhat
incomplete due to the Unicorn album being the first of a two-parter. It is left neither completely open for a sequel - Red Rackham's Treasure
is not the most action-packed of adventures, so is unlikely to be the
basis for Tintin's second big screen outing - nor completely concluded.
We are left assuming that Tintin and Haddock will complete the rest of
the adventure on their own.
Up until that last stumble, though, Spielberg keeps the story ticking
over at a nice pace and mercifully makes no attempt at modernising
Hergé's timeless world or adding sharper edges to its charming
innocence. (A single joke about 'animal husbandry' breaks this rule and
feels very out of place). Tintin is still entirely chaste - his landlady
says he is strict about not receiving visitors after bedtime - and
despite plenty the plethora of shooting and fistfights, there isn't a
drop of blood spilt and villains' fates lie in gaol rather than death.
References to previous adventures are fun, if perhaps a tad too blunt at
times and may limit potential sequels given how it is suggested that
several of Tintin's adventures have already happened by the point we
meet him.
While all good-spirited fun, the film certainly doesn't shirk on the action. It is significantly more comedically inclined than Indiana Jones,
but features some set-pieces that are as exciting and superbly shot as
anything Spielberg has ever done before - though I'm generally not a big fan
of his, his reputation as one of the
all-time great action directors is fully deserved. The first of these set-pieces is a
pirate sea-battle, taking place in flashback, which puts the creatively bankrupt Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise to
shame. Every inch of the screen is packed with activity, from roaring
cannon fire and crashing waves to the two captains fighting to the death
as their ships burn and sink beneath their feet. Although it is obvious
how much fun Spielberg is having - witness the fantastically inventive
transitions between past and present - the master's discipline is still
very much in effect.
The second sequence is a show-stopping chase through a Middle Eastern
town as it is engulfed in the flood of a collapsing dam. All captured
in a single take and ridiculous in its scale, vibrancy and action,
Spielberg keeps a flawless sense of geography even amidst the rapidly
escalating havoc. There is never a second's confusion as to where anyone
is or how they get to the places they need to be. Even as an animated
film, it is one of the most thrilling pieces of sustained action that
Spielberg has put on screen in his entire career, even if it ends up
putting a dampener on the needlessly extended ending which follows and
cannot possibly compare.
Visually, the environments and animation are top notch, treading a
balanced line between faithfulness to Hergé's designs and a
semi-realistic style. The characters take some time to get used to, with
their eyes never conveying emotion to anywhere near the same extent as
those old black dots, but are a decent fit for a film that treats adult
action with a comic, youthful sensitivity. If anything, the 'realistic'
characters are more immediately engaging than the stylised ones: some of
the strangely shaped noses, in particular, can be jarring. As
personalities, the characters stick to the templates laid out in the
albums, which is fine for the main cast, but the underdeveloped nature
of Hergé's villains makes them a bland bunch, defined by nothing more
than their cunning plans.
The voicework assigns its strengths and weaknesses in similar places:
Jamie Bell is an ideal choice for Tintin, mixing young enthusiasm with
gritty determination, while Andy Serkis is good fun as Haddock. Snowy
doesn't get any lines, thankfully, but is animated with enough
expression to compensate. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are endearingly
pompous as Thomson and Thompson, getting a number of good laughs despite
their only real purpose being to satisfy fans and bring some slapstick
absurdity to proceedings. Less positive is Daniel Craig, completely
miscast as the villainous Sakharine. He isn't helped by the character
lacking any great personality, but his deep and distinctive voice sounds
wrong coming from a man more waspishly devious than physically strong.
John Williams' score, for once, also hits the wrong tone, going for
comic jauntiness where more gravitas is needed. Tintin's adventures are
more comedic than grown-up equivalents, but they are exciting because
they are delivered with a straight face. Williams' opening theme (over a
twee Catch Me If You Can-style credits sequence) is too bouncy and disposable, infinitely moreso when compared to the this magnificent track by Ray Parker, Jim Morgan and Tom Szczesniak, which most long time Tintin fans will associate with the character's animated adventures in the early '90s.
Regardless, The Secret Of The Unicorn is a significantly
better film than many fans will have been expecting, staying just true
enough to Hergé while adding a layer of superbly-staged bombast that
suggests Spielberg may have reignited the old spark which Kingdoms Of The Crystal Skull seemed to find extinguished. It may not be up to the high standards of classic Indy or Star Wars,
but as a family-friend slice of high adventure, it will be a great
gateway for parent geeks to transition their short rounds and padawans
(padawen?) into Harrison Ford's capable company. Fingers crossed for Cigars Of The Pharaoh next! [ 7 ]
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