By Davin
Arul
Starring: Jamie
Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Cary Elwes
First
things first: this review comes to you through the eyes of a non-fan.
Nothing
against Herge's work – it was purely a budgetary consideration back in my
teens. Asterix or Tintin? Finally, roast boar, bruised legionaries and magic
potion won my hard-earned dollars.
Which
brings me to Messrs Spielberg and (Peter) Jackson's adaptation of the
beloved-by-millions Tintin comics.
Having
no emotional investment in the characters and stories, I can say that this
big-screen outing of Tintin kept me thoroughly entertained, almost from start
to finish.
There were a couple of oh-get-on-with-it-already moments, but
for the most part, every scene in the film propels the story along nicely.
It hasn't exactly turned me into a fan, so I'm not about to rush
out and grab all the comics to catch up on what I've been missing since that
fateful financial decision.
But even to these indifferent eyes, The Adventures of Tintin has all the trappings of a rollicking
good adventure: shadowy comings and goings, sinister baddies, abductions,
escapes, punch-ups, shootings, chases, more chases, still more chases, and even
– what's this – duelling cranes? (As in the heavy machinery, not the bird.)
While
one Tintin follower tells me that the originals seldom had this level of
spectacle (read: excess approaching the level of 1941), I didn't really find
anything too out of place.
Of course, it has the brave but somewhat one-dimensional
intrepid boy reporter Tintin (Bell) at its centre, along with the characters
you would expect: Captain Haddock (brilliantly motion-capture-performed by
Serkis), the plucky pooch Snowy (NOT Serkis, no matter what others might tell
you) and the bumbling cops Thomson and Thompson (Frost and Pegg).
 |
| The loyal dog Snowy. Nope, not Anthony Serkis! |
TAoT has a
strong Indiana Jones vibe in its chase sequences, with the already mentioned
over-the-top moment or two.
But it succeeds 90% of the time in maintaining a heady and
infectious sense of adventure, liberally dosed with humour – the kind that will
make you chuckle along, but not split your sides laughing – and it's all
boosted by a pleasing John Williams score.
There's
a wealth of detail for keen-eyed viewers to spot, and I hear fans of the comic
found numerous familiar visual elements that might as well have been winking at
them from the screen.
It wouldn't be complete without Captain Haddock, literally the
life of this party; without his … er, alcohol-fueled hijinks, colourful
metaphors and alliterative epithets, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed myself
half as much.
 |
| The good ol' Captain |
By Toutatis (oops), I'm glad that for once I didn't have any fan
baggage to weigh me down.
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