The Tintin movie: some thoughts
I finally went to see The Adventures of Tintin. Overall, I found it delightful in many ways and I'm glad there's going to be a sequel. Still going to post some thoughts, most of which will be rife with spoilers.
First of all, a disclaimer: I haven't read Le secret de la Licorne/Le Trésor de Rackham le Rouge for years, and my memories are a bit foggy (I don't own those books). I was going to reread them, but when I realised the film would merge the plots with that of Le Crabe aux pinces d'or, I decided not to, so I could enjoy the film on its own terms without going 'that's not what it was like in the books!' all the time. I still did a couple of times, though. Couldn''t help it.
I did, however, reread Le Crabe some months ago, and I was anxious to see how the movie was going to incorporate the plot -- it's a pretty important adventure, actually, given that it entails the beginnings of Tintin and Captain Haddock's life-long love story friendship.
So, what did I think of the film?
The opening credits were wonderful -- fun shout-outs to canon and great animation (I was reminded of the opening credits of Casino Royale, which I love as well). In fact, the whole movie is filled with references to canon. For instance, even though the opium smuggling plot from Le Crabe is removed, we see several crates on the Karaboudjan with crabs on them. Very cool!
The movie is heavy on the action: I've seen reviews comparing it to Indiana Jones, which makes sense given that Steven Spielberg directed it. Thankfully, the action is quite entertaining as well as balanced out by lots of humour, including the slapstick kind, which strengthens my impression that the filmmakers have done their best to stay true to the spirit of the source material. I loved the sense of place -- I've only been to Brussels once, but thought I recognised the Grand Place/Grote Markt at the beginning of the movie. The Morocco scenes are beautiful, and the François de Hadoque vs Red Rackham fight scenes rather breathtaking.
That being said, the characters are what interest me most of all, so naturally I was interested to see how well the movie did on that score. Apart from the Dupondts and Bianca Castafiore, nobody really looks quite like I imagine them, but that's not really a problem. (I knew of course that the CGI meant that no one was going to look like they do in Hergé's drawings.) The characterisation is the most important part, and overall I think they did a great job with it. The Dupondts are ridiculously incompetent and rather adorable; Milou saves the day several times (while also being tempted by food/cat-chasing at times); Tintin is stubborn and curious, and of course brave; Haddock is a deplorable drunk when we meet him, but we learn soon enough that there's so much more to him. (Loved that he saved Tintin's life after the plane crashed. <3)
The merging of the plots means that there's a great deal of talk about the Haddock family and their 'curse' (aka drinking problem) before we get to meet Haddock for the first time, which already does a lot to establish the importance of his character in the movie. In fact, I think it's fair to say that much of the film is about how the Captain must make himself worthy of being François's descendant and how he gets his reward in the end by recognising the superfluous island on the globe. (I went 'awww' at that part, btw.)
The casting of Sakharine as the main villain made for a fun showdown at the end, but it also took away from Allan's role as the bad guy -- he's pretty much just an ordinary henchman, and there are few traces left of his twisted, interesting dynamics with Haddock. I realise this is a minor complaint, however. (Also, Sakharine/Castafiore? So wrong. And so intriguing.)
A downside to the film's chain of events is that there's no real motivation for Tintin to buy the model Unicorn in the first place, except for 'ooh, shiny'. Also, the film ends when Tintin and Haddock talk about going to retrieve the sunken treasure, with Tintin asking something like, 'Are you ready for another adventure, Captain?' and Haddock being all 'Of course! :-D' I thought that was a bit OOC, since Haddock's generally not really that keen on adventures. I'm willing to give that one a pass, though, given that they're talking about retrieving François's gold, not chasing villains... His admiring comment about La Castafiore was a bit worse, though I thought that was clearly played for laughs.
All in all, the film was quite enjoyable, though I love the comics a lot more. No surprises there. *g*
First of all, a disclaimer: I haven't read Le secret de la Licorne/Le Trésor de Rackham le Rouge for years, and my memories are a bit foggy (I don't own those books). I was going to reread them, but when I realised the film would merge the plots with that of Le Crabe aux pinces d'or, I decided not to, so I could enjoy the film on its own terms without going 'that's not what it was like in the books!' all the time. I still did a couple of times, though. Couldn''t help it.
I did, however, reread Le Crabe some months ago, and I was anxious to see how the movie was going to incorporate the plot -- it's a pretty important adventure, actually, given that it entails the beginnings of Tintin and Captain Haddock's life-long love story friendship.
So, what did I think of the film?
The opening credits were wonderful -- fun shout-outs to canon and great animation (I was reminded of the opening credits of Casino Royale, which I love as well). In fact, the whole movie is filled with references to canon. For instance, even though the opium smuggling plot from Le Crabe is removed, we see several crates on the Karaboudjan with crabs on them. Very cool!
The movie is heavy on the action: I've seen reviews comparing it to Indiana Jones, which makes sense given that Steven Spielberg directed it. Thankfully, the action is quite entertaining as well as balanced out by lots of humour, including the slapstick kind, which strengthens my impression that the filmmakers have done their best to stay true to the spirit of the source material. I loved the sense of place -- I've only been to Brussels once, but thought I recognised the Grand Place/Grote Markt at the beginning of the movie. The Morocco scenes are beautiful, and the François de Hadoque vs Red Rackham fight scenes rather breathtaking.
That being said, the characters are what interest me most of all, so naturally I was interested to see how well the movie did on that score. Apart from the Dupondts and Bianca Castafiore, nobody really looks quite like I imagine them, but that's not really a problem. (I knew of course that the CGI meant that no one was going to look like they do in Hergé's drawings.) The characterisation is the most important part, and overall I think they did a great job with it. The Dupondts are ridiculously incompetent and rather adorable; Milou saves the day several times (while also being tempted by food/cat-chasing at times); Tintin is stubborn and curious, and of course brave; Haddock is a deplorable drunk when we meet him, but we learn soon enough that there's so much more to him. (Loved that he saved Tintin's life after the plane crashed. <3)
The merging of the plots means that there's a great deal of talk about the Haddock family and their 'curse' (aka drinking problem) before we get to meet Haddock for the first time, which already does a lot to establish the importance of his character in the movie. In fact, I think it's fair to say that much of the film is about how the Captain must make himself worthy of being François's descendant and how he gets his reward in the end by recognising the superfluous island on the globe. (I went 'awww' at that part, btw.)
The casting of Sakharine as the main villain made for a fun showdown at the end, but it also took away from Allan's role as the bad guy -- he's pretty much just an ordinary henchman, and there are few traces left of his twisted, interesting dynamics with Haddock. I realise this is a minor complaint, however. (Also, Sakharine/Castafiore? So wrong. And so intriguing.)
A downside to the film's chain of events is that there's no real motivation for Tintin to buy the model Unicorn in the first place, except for 'ooh, shiny'. Also, the film ends when Tintin and Haddock talk about going to retrieve the sunken treasure, with Tintin asking something like, 'Are you ready for another adventure, Captain?' and Haddock being all 'Of course! :-D' I thought that was a bit OOC, since Haddock's generally not really that keen on adventures. I'm willing to give that one a pass, though, given that they're talking about retrieving François's gold, not chasing villains... His admiring comment about La Castafiore was a bit worse, though I thought that was clearly played for laughs.
All in all, the film was quite enjoyable, though I love the comics a lot more. No surprises there. *g*