Cling To The Mast

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (2011)

The Adventures of Tintin is a majestic sweeping spectacle. Steven Spielberg is a sorcerer of cinema and he decided to save this trick for about 30 years. Spielberg wanted to make Tintin after he made E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982), but you know how those can pan out sometimes. He finally unleashes it on to the screen in collaboration with Peter Jackson and it's clear that Spielberg was always the man to film Tintin. He changes the comics, hastens the adventure, expands the universe of Tintin for it to fit cinematically. The movie begins as if we are entering a world that was already pulsating and throbbing with ebullient life. It is a roller-coaster ride on celluloid.

The animation is exemplary. From the human beings, to the animals, to the city structures of exotic Bagghar to the water and the sand. The 3D is the best I've seen since Avatar. Spielberg matches the visual bedazzlement with his storytelling prowess mostly by indulging in some of the good ol' match cutting that he has always loved. We are watching a movie, a film. Not a cartoon, he lets us know. There are various other film techniques that Spielberg employs to bring forth a film that is always enchanting and endlessly entertaining.

The film is broadly split into three major action set-pieces. One is when Tintin and Captain Haddock escape from a ship, fly a plane and survive a crash in the desert. Consequentially comes the second action spectacle which is entirely made up of Haddock's hallucination/ memory. This sequence is sliced in two halves. The second half ends with a duel which includes two characters igniting and dousing a trail of gunpowder. (There is another duel at the end, the mirroring climax, but there the swords go down sooner than you think.) The sweep of this sequence is just a precursor to what is to come next.

The final action set-piece is the best in the movie. The chase sequence which begins with an opera singer soprano robustoing but it really reaches its crescendo with Tintin catching an eagle. This chase is pure technique, pure exhilaration. This is film school study material. Spielberg has made a career out of chases. His first film Duel (1971) is literally a one and a half hour chase. My favorite chase sequence in any Spileberg film is in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). This one matches the thrill exactly.

Sakharine looks like a combination of Tom Hanks from The Polar Express, Ben Kingsely and Bono but Daniel Craig manages to lend him a character of his own. Captain Haddock (as expected) owns the film by being flat-out hilarious. Motion capture and Andy Serkis (who plays Haddock) are becoming increasingly synonymous. Snowy is charming and funny (and smart of course). Tintin although, looks different. Purists may be averse to this but I find it refreshing. Spielberg is having fun with this one. This is what he wanted to do with his fourth Indiana Jones film. There is also a funny Jaws reference. It's like he is still thanking the movie that gave him a career. But then those don't always add fortune to the film (1941, anyone?). This film shows the master is still in control of his craft. He is still going strong at 65. This is great cinema. This is as close as you'll get to stroking his beard.

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