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The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Time Out rating

Average user rating

42 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Many questioned director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson’s decision to render Hergé’s classic series of comic-book Boy’s Own-style adventures in performance-capture animation. But it’s hard to imagine that either live action or traditional animation would have been capable of producing the thrilling blend of high drama, physical authenticity and visual invention found here. Ending a three-year hiatus following his disappointing ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’, ‘Tintin’ finds a re-energised Spielberg atoning for that misstep with a film which, in both its rip-roaring, globe-trotting narrative and its visceral dedication to pure white-knuckle thrills, is the true successor to his original ‘Indy’ trilogy.

We first meet our ageless hero sitting for an artist’s portrait in the market square of his unspecified home town (in the first in a long series of witty, self-reflective sight gags, the caricature looks just like a Hergé drawing). Tintin’s eye is caught by a junk stall and a model ship on display. This is the Unicorn – a sixteenth-century three-masted galleon which went down with all hands and a belly full of booty. The hunt for this treasure will send Tintin, his faithful dog Snowy and a mounting cadre of supporting players on a voyage across oceans and deserts, by ship, plane, jeep, motorbike and, perhaps most memorably, haulage crane.

Sticking to Hergé’s idea of Tintin as a relatively passive, colourless hero surrounded by outlandish archetypes, Spielberg and a crack team of British comedy writers – Joe Cornish, Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat – fill the screen with wonderfully bizarre and memorable characters, chiefly the inimitable Captain Haddock, a floundering, whisky-breathed soak gloriously realised by Andy Serkis. And while this means a few characters get overlooked – we never get a handle on Daniel Craig’s moustache-twirlingly villainous Sakharine, for instance – it does make for a notable absence of dull moments.

Visually, the film is astounding, as Spielberg takes full advantage of the freedom of his chosen medium. A mid-film flashback sequence, as Haddock recounts the sinking of the Unicorn, must rank as one of the director’s finest set-pieces, a dizzying mish-mash of impossible tracking shots, manic action and some of the most inventive scene transitions ever devised. This level of visual intensity can become bewildering – a later Moroccan chase sequence pushes things too far, resulting in sheer confusion – but for the most part, it’s exhilarating.

So, while it may lack the depth and humanity of masterpieces like ‘Jaws’ and ‘ET’, ‘Tintin’ is without doubt the finest example of Spielberg’s family-friendly fun side since ‘Jurassic Park’. It’s also the most creative, enjoyable and invigorating blockbuster of the year.

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time Out London Issue 2149: Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2011

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User reviews of this film

mike said...

Posted on Jan 26 2012 02:34 Great movie.

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Deeper Into Movies said...

Posted on Jan 06 2012 20:41 For all the millions spent on this production, it's hard to picture how anyone could generate such a generically lackluster teen hero. Only HAL 9000 might warm up to Tintin, a carrot-topped boy journalist who stumbles into a mysterious plot thick with thieves, treasure and ships in bottles.
Despite his G-rated retorts (“Great snakes!), this kid also bizarrely packs a handgun, setting off a slew of frenetic chases and shootouts befitting a low-caliber action movie. For a director who went so far as to digitally delete the guns in his E.T. re-release, Spielberg seems to have sailed off into a weird new dimension, and a shallow one at that.
(Entire review now playing at deepintomovies.blogspot and on Facebook as Deeper Into Movies.)

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Jeremy said...

Posted on Jan 02 2012 15:04 Having read all the Tintin books as a child I was delighted by this film in trying to capture the feel and pace that Hergé put into his works.
Many of the viewer who knock this film do so without the understanding of the books and the characters within them. This has been very apparent by many of the American reviews which seem to what everything spoon fed and totally focused on being polictically correct. Tintin comes from an age which has long pasted and many of the characters portrayed in Hergé work could be considered offensive by todays over sensitive reviewer.
What really matters is at the end of the day are families going to enjoy this film and bring joy to many a young viewer.
Congratulations on making a great film.

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Utopian indigent said...

Posted on Dec 31 2011 11:56 Excellent technology, action and humour. The core of the story is an alcoholic's battle against failure. This is excellent entertainment and multi-layered enough for a second viewing.

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violetta said...

Posted on Dec 13 2011 09:05 Moving movies into a 3D format does not assure an enjoyable experience - and this film proves the point that technology is not enough. The visual content is fantastic but it rushes by at a rate where most of the cleverness is easily missed. It gave me a headache of disappointed anticipation.

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Rajlaxmi K said...

Posted on Dec 09 2011 16:43 outsanding story and movie

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pooo said...

Posted on Nov 28 2011 21:50 this fil was poooooooooo lol

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anna said...

Posted on Nov 26 2011 10:48 i love tintin and loved him when i was a kid and the new tintin i so cuit and he has a cuite quif.he is jaw droping.

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johnnie mac said...

Posted on Nov 20 2011 12:12 I would say to any Tintin fan ,you must see this ,it is fab from strat to finish

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Mahi said...

Posted on Nov 16 2011 13:28 It has a light touch, a brisk pace and considerable charm, perfect family fare for casual viewers.Watched first day first show at wave cinemas it was superb experience

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stanly said...

Posted on Nov 09 2011 13:51 i agree with zak lad

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stanly said...

Posted on Nov 09 2011 13:49 is the game, tintin as good as the film? it looks rlly kl
lolz

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This atcrile went ahead a said...

Posted on Nov 09 2011 03:35 This atcrile went ahead and made my day.

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Observant said...

Posted on Nov 08 2011 16:58 Wow ... the Hollywood movie industry's jumped in to this review and posted plenty of comments to try and bump up the ratings. I thought it was so-so. And bearing in mind I saw it in its first week, I was surprised by how empty the cinema was. Given this was a 3d film, Tintin came across as a one dimensional character. There was little to warm to in this movie. Not in the league of Pixar - and as for Snowy - what a waste of an opportunity. Not Spielberg's best - by a long chalk.

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Pam said...

Posted on Nov 07 2011 14:03 My son and I thought this was a superb film and hugely enjoyable. The amazing technology made it look fabulous and, although I never read, Tintin as a child (thought of them as boy's books, I think), may well do so now. Rather like an amalgam of a Pixar and Indiana Jones film - teh attention to detail was superb and it made a rollicking good ride ! And Snowy stole every scene he was in !

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