Movie Review: The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn

What begins as a fun, nimble little mystery in thefirst act soon kicks into comedy-action-adventure high gear when juniorreporter Tintin, with his brave dog Snowy, stumbles upon boozy Captain Haddock(an excellent Andy Serkis), whose family legacy may prove pivotal in a race touncover the secret of the Unicorn.

From that point on, it's more or less non-stopcomedy—some fizzles, most of it works—with gags ranging from jaw-droppingblockbuster chase antics to throwaway background humour. Captain Haddock worksbrilliantly for the most part: he's unpredictable, endearing, and colourful inall the ways Tintin himself isn't. While the youngster is well played by JamieBell, he's mostly just there to work out the clues for the audience. Tintin andHaddock make for a good double-act, though: brains and brawn, cunning and in-over-his-headrashness; together they'd make a good Indiana Jones.

The plot is a by the numbersmystery/adventure/treasure hunt, complete with bumbling detectives (so-so comicsupport from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost), exciting sea plane action and hiddenclues, but it's brought to life in gorgeous visual style. While the script onlycomes alive in fits and starts, the whole film is bursting with rich detail,and is given added depth by good, solid use of 3D. The virtual cameraworkthroughout is stupendous.

One extended chase sequence through the floodingstreets of a North African city is so dazzling and dizzying it reminded me whyno other filmmaker can match Spielberg when he lets his imagination out for aspin. Another action scene, told in flashback, depicts a breathless pirateshowdown in a storm, and features some of the most playful transitions I'veseen since Ang Lee's Hulk. There's a pretty good villain, too, played by a wilyDaniel Craig.

Snowy, while definitely smarter than your averagecute canine, is also given to chasing cats, digging up fossilised bones fromthe desert, and gobbling sandwiches at decidedly inopportune moments. In otherwords, he's an instant audience favourite.All in all, it's a rollicking good adventure, one ofSpielberg's most fun movies in a long time, and I'll be buying it on Blu-raynext year.

Rating: 4.5/5