The Adventures of Tintin

I'm not usually fond of comic book movies, and I'm the first to admit that. However, films like Iron Man (Who doesn't want to see Robert Downey Jr. kick ass and not get arrested for it?) and The (overblown) Dark Knight were passable. Another film to add to that list is Steven Speilberg's animated adaptation of Hergé's classic comic series, The Adventures of Tintin. In case you haven't read the comic books or watched the short-lived animated series, Tintin is a Belgian reporter who risks life and death at unraveling mysteries and going on transcontinental adventures with his dog, Snowy, and his nautical, inebriated friend, Captain Haddock.

The film mixes together three of Herge's comic books within the series as Tintin (Jamie Bell) stumbles across a model ship that becomes the key to untold dreams and nightmares, as a malicious millionaire (voiced by a sinister Daniel Craig) stops at nothing to get it. Along the way, Tintin comes across Captain Haddock (voiced by a stellar Andy Serkis) as he, half-soberly, teams up with Tintin to seek vengeance as equally obsessive as Ahab's quest for Moby Dick by traveling land, air, and sea to get what is rightfully his.

Being Speilberg's first animated film, and being backed by Britain's exceptional screenwriters, like Edgar Wright, the voices were proved by some of England's top-notch actors. Jamie Bell is no stranger at playing young men satisfying their curiosities, either through dance (Billy Elliot) or through struggling with Oedipal issues (Hallam Foe), and his role as the adventure-loving Tintin was made for him. Andy Serkis has taken us to the dark side of fanatical greed as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and continues to stand out by playing the high-seas sailor, Captain Haddock, who drools for whiskey like Gollum drooled over the "precious" Ring. The comedic relief is provided, only shortly, by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as they play the Thompson Twins, the dimwitted duo who couldn't find a crime if they were standing next to a dead body and a bloody knife. A far cry from their previous work in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Either in 2D or 3D, the film is a fun-packed adventure as the camera is always moving and not taking any breaks. The downside of that is that there is minimal emotions displayed by Tintin or any time for expansive dialogue making one wonder if the screenwriting team of Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat, and Joe Cornish are selling themselves too thin. In any case, Tintin is sure to please both kids and adults during Christmas as the film is nothing short of another Spielberg blockbuster that is desperately needed after the disappointment of the fourth Indiana Jones film and the painful War of the Worlds.

3 out of 4 stars