The Philippine Online Chronicles

If you’re looking for a fun weekend movie, you might want to watch “The Adventures of Tintin.” The movie, an adaptation of the famous comic series, opened on November 30 and rates a high 87% on the Rotten Tomatoes.

"The Adventures of Tintin" is much awaited especially by fans of the classic comic books. The character Tintin was created in the 20th century by a Belgian artist named Georges Rémi (1907–1983), or more popularly known "Hergé."

Hergé’s Tintin became highly popular and well liked. The clean and expressive drawing style was popularized because of Hergé’s "ligne claire" technique.

In addition to the attractive visual art, the story lines of Tintin also appealed to the public for being well-researched and straightforward.

The series revolves around a young Belgian reporter named Tintin and all his adventures as he solves one mystery after another with his smart fox terrier dog called Snowy and his grumpy friend Captain Haddock,.

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The Adventures of Tintin the movie

Truth be told, the main reason I went to see Tintin is because Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are part of the ensemble. I sort of have this need to watch anything that has those two especially if they are together, which is almost always the case.

It did help that it is a big project, produced by no less than Mr. Spielberg himself and by the hobbit king Peter Jackson. For me, that certified the film as a must-see, and had me lining up on its opening day.

The movie adaptation of this classic series is expected to be a blast with its great casting. The film, which is an American performance capture 3D film, features the talents of Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) as Tintin and mo-cap (motion capture) king Andy Serkis (the actor who played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings) as Captain Haddock. Daniel Craig voiced Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine, although the character looked more like Gary Oldman in the movie.

Simon Pegg and his soulmate Nick Frost play the twins Thomson and Thompson, the incompetent detectives. As expected, they provided most of the comic stuff.

Action-Packed

I watched the film in its 2D version, so I can only imagine how much better the 3D is. The movie in itself is pretty much action-packed, with great pacing and succession of events. I can imagine some scenes would have been so much fun-ner in 3D, especially during those chase and ship scenes.

Mystery

Based on the sub title,” The Secret of the Unicorn,” you can presume that Tintin’s adventure is a mystery about the Unicorn—which is actually a long-lost sailing ship. When Tintin buys a scale model of this famous ship, a series of unfortunate events started happening to him—events that led him to as far as the (fictitious) Moroccan port of Bagghar.

Classic

As soon as I got home, I looked up the original “Secret of the Unicorn” episode and I found it on Youtube. You can view the first part of the episode via this link. I can say that movie resembled the original in many aspects, along with its slapstick humor. However something was missing.

“A bit bland”

Despite all the hype, some critics say the movie is a bit bland and lacks a twinkle in the eye.

The cast included some of the most talented actors like Toby Jones (who voiced Dobby the house elf in the Harry Potter movies). However, except for Andy Serkis, everyone else was not able to breathe much life in their characters—a bit disappointing, especially since the cast was pretty strong. I’m not sure exactly where the movie ran short of magic, but I was hoping that with Spielberg and Jackson behind the lens, the movie could’ve been better.

Nevertheless, Tintin remains one of the best choices in theaters this week.