A large grin dressed my face throughout the picture and in all honesty, it is very difficult to say something bad about The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn, other than the usual exaggerations of recent Spielberg films, the ending that is not really an ending, and Milou’s stupid name translation (Snowy??!! What the hell is wrong with Milo??!!), although this was not Spielberg’s decision.
A pure pleasure.
I’m French (Canadian) and I grew up reading all the Tintin books. In fact, The Black Island was the first book I ever read/looked-at-the-pictures when I put on my first pair of glasses at a very young age, and it remains my favourite Tintin adventure to this day.
My expectations were very high when delving into the dark theatre. After all, this was one of the more interesting adventures of Tintin put on the big screen by a true Master film maker, Steven Spielberg, and Peter Jackson, who delivered the absolutely magnificent The Lord of Rings trilogy. Add to this a plethora of great voice actors including Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock (perfect casting), Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thompson and Thomson (no, they’re not twins!), and Daniel Craig as Sacharine/Red Rackam, Weta Workshop on special effects and music by John Williams. Things of this magnitude have gone wrong before, but this time George Lucas is not involved...
So The Secret of the Unicorn exceeded my expectations in every way. Quick but steady pacing, flawless visuals, great use of 3D (although the exasperation for the technology is beginning to grind at the enjoyment), refreshing setting (mostly Europe), fantastic story effectively told, beautiful music and impressive sound effects, etc. Like dark chocolate dipped in smooth fudge topped with cool raspberry syrup and wrapped in bacon. Delicious!
A few bumps in the road.
The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn is similar to the Indiana Jones adventures in many ways. In fact, Steven Spielberg as mentioned before that Indy was partly inspired by Tintin. It is therefore not surprising that the film shares some of the flaws of Spielberg’s previous adventure efforts, most notably Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A few cringe-inducing scenes from Tintin are painful reminders of the nuked fridge or monkey chase scenes, most notably an action sequence in which Captain Haddock restarts the engine of a crashing plane using only the fumes from his alcohol-infused breath, or when two galleons locked at the masts twirl with each other above raging waves during an intense flashbacked naval battle.
I also found that Tintin was quickly eclipsed by the exuberance of Captain Haddock, and even Milou (sorry, I can’t bring myself to call him Snowy) in many scenes. Tintin drives the story forward, but the film is more a Haddock vehicle, which I believe is the case with the book, but we are expecting a Tintin adventure, not a Haddock sea tale.
Rest assured, these are very minor gripes that pale in comparison to the complete work, like three small drops of water in a bottle of great and ancient wine.
Forget the haters who say this is a kid’s movie or that it’s too far from the source material, or who cry “SACRILIGIOUS!” at the few changes that were made to accommodate the medium. Tintin was great. Like reconnecting with a dear old friend or watching Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time. This is Steven Spielberg film making at its best, and sometimes at its worst. But more importantly, The Adventures of Tintin – The Secret of the Unicorn is a fun time at the movies, a total blast from beginning to end.
9/10
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