The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn

What Did Work, Why I Liked The Adventures of Tintin

1. Perhaps one of the most beautiful pieces of film ever rendered, every single scene was visually stunning. I would say that the camera work was amazing, except it was animated, so do we have another term? The way the “camera” followed the action during the chase scene with the falcon was fantastic. Obviously the look of the characters is probably the closest to real humans in an animated feature film that has ever been produced, especially when it comes to Haddock…

2. Haddock – The one character who really feels like a real flesh and blood human with human problems and emotions, I could feel for him the entire time. Serkis’ Haddock steals the show from Tintin, his eyes emote so much, and you can hear his voice break with pure pain and sadness. As always Serkis is able to bring a computer created character to life-like no other actor could, he just gives a depth to every line, amazing.

3. Snowy – I love that damn dog. Much like Gromit, he is a dog who is almost more intelligent than his master and that just makes him more loveable.

4. The flashback pirate scene – I love pirate films, seriously I am a little obsessed with the POTC films, but I never thought an animated film could make such an amazing pirate battle. From the start of this scene you feel like you are there, you forget that you are watching a fake image, something that in reality could never be shot on film, but then it goes into overdrive with a duel that may go on my list of favorite movie duels. The way the characters are choreographed reminded me of the great Bob Anderson and his ability to make a sword fight scene not only be like a beautiful dance but also gritty and real. I also love how this scene is played, as a memory cutting back and forth as Haddock starts to sober up and remember, again not sure this could have been done as well in live action.

5. Humor. I’ll admit to laughing out loud several times and cheering, the entire script was jovial and light, the humor wasn’t in your face but more subtle.

What Didn’t Work, Why I Didn’t Love The Adventures of Tintin

1. It is a visually stunning film. I know, that doesn’t sound like a negative right? Well, unfortunately I was sitting there and taking in the beauty and was distracted by it and couldn’t get into the story. Then, when I did pull my eyes away enough to let my brain follow the action I was a little disappointed by how disjointed the story telling was, although this may seem like an animated feature geared towards adults because of the visual, it is still very much a kids adventure with all the simplicity and hiccups that a child’s film has. Does that make sense? Probably not, it is hard to explain. I think it may take another viewing, without the 3D, to really decide on how I feel about the story.

2. Tintin. As a character I really didn’t care about him, I cared more for his dog than him! I wanted to know more about him, care about his story, care at all about his safety, unfortunately it felt like I was coming into the middle of a series, like the writers expected me to have grown up on the comics. Well, I didn’t, so I didn’t care about this young man (how young was he by the way because I have no clue) or his ambitions etc. Also, when compared visually to Haddock he is just not as precisely rendered, where Haddock’s face showed his personality and told me who he was, Tintin felt like all the other digital characters from countless other films that try to make digital actors look real but fail. There was just something missing, the spark of life which Haddock had, I think it was all in the eyes, they just felt dead and cold.

I know that it seems like I should be giving this a higher rating, but my two issues are very big issues, but like I said it may just take me another viewing to really appreciate this movie.
7.5/10