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Huhh? How could I not be happy! I was just fangirling in a post up there somewhere! In fact, I was nearly arguing with a few bashi-bazouks who WEREN'T happy with the movie...I thoroughly enjoyed it. Just wanted Jamie Bell to do what he does best. :) That's all.

No spoilers.

Last night I finally saw "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn". I've been waiting many years for this movie. While there were some things I would've changed, I really enjoyed it. The movie consisted of most of "The Secret of the Unicorn" album, over half of "The Crab with the Golden Claws" and the tiniest bit of "Red Rackham's Treasure" (about 25% is original content).

PROS: It's Tintin in the flesh! (sort of). Herge! The movie shows the creators had huge love and respect for Herge and Tintin. Opening credits reminiscent of "Catch Me If You Can" credits - brilliant, amazing visuals that really capture Herge's art style, great acting/voice-acting, attention to detail - lots of easter egg moments for the die-hard Tintin fans. Mostly true to Herge's characters and the spirit of the adventures. Good script with some clever dialogue. Moments of quality humour, and impressive action. John William's music.

CONS: The last act of the movie while exciting and action-packed was a little too-over the top at times and was the weakest part of the script (not bad at all, it just sacrifices story for creative action scenes). John Williams music - it was great but more 'fun' than 'suspenseful'. I prefer much of the music from the early 90's Ellipse/Nelvana TV series. I would've liked to see more of Captain Haddock's angry and creative swearing. The movie lacks some of the finesse and clever character humour found in Herge's albums. Some villains were given less screen time.

Overall, the first 2/3rds or so of the movie are brilliant, the last third is merely very good. Naturally, the movie is best when it doesn't depart from the original stories. It's great to finally see a Tintin movie that's good!
Highly recommended!

8.5/10

*Tintin is rated PG for action violence. Suitable for older children.*

thank you for your post George - and for the comment by Anthea Bell - "to be true to the spirit of a book sometimes you have to be unfaithful to the word'.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, however was a tad annoyed by the way Herge's stories had been changed. This comment enabled me to make sense of the changes and enjoy the film the more. It has to be seen in 3D!

I agree with this review. The movie was truly terrible. Putting aside any connection to Tintin, it is a pretty awful stand alone movie.

Beyond the ridiculous fight scenes and terrible script there was a whole lot of bloopers or changes that were almost funny in their stupidity:

I accept that it's based on the English translation rather than the original material, but the Milanese Nightingale should have had an Italian accent. Or in this version is Milan in England?

A guy spelling out an 11 letter word as he dies is stupid.

Filling the hold of a ship with gold is a great way to sink a ship. But at least put it in boxes.

When Haddock was retelling the story of Francis Haddock, what was the deal with the soldiers pointing their guns at him? Would they have actually shot him?

There is no Red Rackham's treasure.

The coordinates on the notes appeared to be the same in the comics as they are in the film.

It makes sense in the Crab that the crew of the Karaboudjan would ruthlessly try to kill Tintin. They're serious drug smugglers. But why do you take over a ship and attempt to kill people when you're only using the boat for transport? There's no reason why Sakharine couldn't have just taken a commercial boat. All he wanted was a little piece of paper and all he needed to get it was his falcon.

When Tintin is locked up in the Karaboudjan why do they blow up their own ship to get to him? What's the rush? In the Crab it's because they think he's found a way out.

Moderator note: Post moderated to remove bad language. No swearing please, this is a family-friendly forum!
The Tintinologist Team

Just saw it today... My God... Herge must be spinning so hard in his grave it will change the earth's gravitational field and cause the end of the world...

The first fifteen-twenty minutes made it seem this was going to work... The point at which it all fell apart started with the useless chase by Snowy of Tintin kidnapped in a delivery box: This whole snowy episode is completely useless to the story (as is almost everything else after that)...

The real falling apart however came with the meeting of Haddock and Tintin: It actually never was a strong point of the albums anyway (in my opinion not a great album), but here we get right away into bad breath jokes, burp jokes, villains popping up everywhere with guns to be punched out instantly... Comraderie in punching Beverly Hills cop style (except that this makes Beverly Hills Cop look like timeless high art)...

The Castafiore episode dropped things a few notches below where I thought the floor had been reached, and things went downhill fast after that... It was all sad, depressing and utterly nonsensical...

From the Captain/Tintin meeting onwards, this movie exceeds any level of badness I have ever seen in a mainstream film (except that the crane fight was very well filmed, and would have been fun if this was a movie where it belonged)... It is an insult to cartoons to call it cartoonish... The dumb chases are clearly designed for the pre-teen market, but the plot is more than incoherent, it is simply inconsequential...

I was looking forward to what was to me probably one the very best scenes Herge ever wrote: The narration by the Captain of the adventures of his ancestor... I knew fairly abruptly, after the Captain/Tintin meeting, that things were going suddenly so bad that it was never going to happen...

Instead what we get is a delirious mirage in the middle of the desert, where the Captain, for no discernible reason or intent, sees a vision of a cheapened version of "Pirates of the Carribeans" (assuming that material can be cheapened further)!

Note well: Such visions, according to those responsible for this film, could only be inspired by the "recovered memory" syndrome, alcohool intoxication, thirst and desert hallucinations: The idea such visions could be inspired by the simple act of reading with passion, all night, old manuscripts from a trunk (while drinking mind you), as in the original graphic novel, was clearly deemed by Spielberg too unpalatable for the young audience to which this stuff is geared...

This attitude towards reading and storytelling, so crucial to the epic failure of this film, means those making it assume kids are no longer capable of wanting a coherent relationship between fiction and reality. Without this relationship, I fear archeologists from the future will dig the ground hard after our (few) remains to understand why we disappeared... If they find this movie, something will definitely go "tilt!"...

Gaston

Sans spoilers

I saw the film today. I was very satisfied. Having been decades in making, I think Spielberg and Jackson are satisfied, as well.

Herge said that Spielberg was the only one who could do Tintin justice. Unlike Gaston, I think Herge would be very proud of this adaption of his adventures - certainly not upset enough to roll over in his grave, no doubt - for the ability the screen has to distribute his art to wider audiences, and well, frankly, it was a fine movie.

Fine, but admittedly not perfect. John William's score was not one of his best, and as Tintinrulz states not near as good as the cartoon's was. The Thomp(s)ons are in too little of the movie and, most importantly, there is too much action (the third act in particular), if one compared it to the books. But then, much of the audience isn't, so that may not be a problem. 'Breathing space' would have helped with the pacing. Castafiore had a brilliant line, introducing Mr Sugar Additive, but she could have been a fantastic further addition, playing of Haddock further.

On the other hand, the flashback sequence is brilliant, the best part of the movie. The books integrate well together also, and the changes in plot from the books are done very neatly. Haddock's life story is well played out (I was pleased to see that Haddock's We Tintinologists, no doubt, enjoyed all the references to the other books in the well-designed credits sequence. I admit I was sceptical when I heard that the movie was going to be done in motion capture, but we've come a long way since 'The Polar Express'. Uncanny valley, this is not. The desert, in particular, is superb.

The whole thing was massive fun with plenty of suspense. While not in the same vein as 'Tintin et le Mystère de la Toison D'or', it is pretty darn close. If you haven't seen it already, get the the theatre as quickly as possible!

9/10

-Jolyon Swagg

I really liked the new movie! I find the sweeping camera VERY distracting, as if the producers wanted to show off as much CGI as possible, and normally, I can't stand motion-capture animation. (If you're gonna make the characters look THAT realistic, why not make it live action?!) But the story, characters, action, soundtrack, everything else held up so well, I can't help but like this film anyway. In a world where our favorite classic films or franchises get completely ruined when attempted to be "updated," this modern Tintin film actually does great justice to the material. :)

I don’t know what movie other people were watching but this movie is wrong on so many levels and took liberties where it did not need to.

I saw it a couple days ago and wanted to collect my thoughts before I wrote about it.

First of all I loved the look of it and I think they did a good job with the look of the movie and I know how much research was done.

The thing is the movie missed the mark of what Herge may have intended. Take for example the whole airplane sequence. There was no mention of how Tintin decided to take the pilots. Haddock wanted to pitch them in the sea if you remember from the book. Also the plane was too far away for Tintin to swim to it. Once they were in the air the whole landing scene was probably one of the stupidest scenes I have ever seen and it did not need to be?

Why was Sakarine the villain? Why is Tintin calling his house an apartment and not a flat?? Why are they camped out in run down Marlinspike - It made no sense? Why were the three scrolls and their back story changed? It did not need to be. Why was Barnaby an American and no mention of the Bird brothers?? Where was Calculus? Why was the cellar in Marlinspike not a storeroom with Tintin imprisoned in there? Why did Tintin not mention it was an “old chapel” as in the books? What the hell was that Omar Ben Salad sequence in the movie for? Castifiore never appeared in those sequences in the books. It was unnecessary and a time waster. The ending was entirely wrong. I could go on and on.

There was a major injustice of making Haddock a fool. I know he was drunk sometimes more in the early books but they made him look stupid, come on, give the guy some credit. The guy is related to a long line of seafaring men that were very confident and it was degrading after a while.

I also found myself knowing every line before they spoke it then to find out that was altered as well. The best part of the movie was the pirate battle, to be honest.

I understand taking certain artistic license but this was too over the top, too overdone, and did not have the feel that made the books so special. I agree with one reviver that said this movie tries to constantly convince you that it’s a good film. I hate to say I agree. It’s sad to see when we have a lot of tools to do justice to the subject matter and then take it into an entirely different path. It is also sad that many of these people actually grew up on Tintin that worked on the film. They should know better...

Hmm, I see that opinions on the movie are quite split. I, however, am on the side that was utterly thrilled by it. I'd been waiting for this movie since 2008 (which was when I had heard about the confirmation of it); it was the first movie I'd been excited for in years, and I was not disappointed.

I'll admit that I didn't know what to expect with Andy Serkis as the Captain. But as the trailers and previews started being released, I realized that it worked--Scottish accent and all. As close to my heart as David Fox's portrayal of the Captain is from the Nelvana series, I cannot deny that Andy Serkis was just as awesome. In fact, I honestly couldn't tell you who is the better Captain.

I'm somewhat of a purist in the sense that characterization and, subsequently, character relations, have to be perfect. And I felt that the movie pretty much nailed the characters. That settled, I could easily handle the plot changes and Sakharine's promotion to main villain. As NikkiRoux said in her review, it was the "refueling" scene that was the only one that had me raise my eyebrows, but I found the rest of perfect. The changes fit.

I actually liked how the Captain's alcoholism was handled. One of the things that I was never so sure of in the books was how it always seemed to be played for laughs. Yes, the movie did play it for laughs at some points, but I really did like how the movie, at times, played it dead serious, with the Captain realizing that it was a vice that was causing him to be more of a hindrance than a help. And I loved that he felt genuinely bad about being a hindrance, as well.

The friendship/camaraderie scenes were done very well, and that, to be honest, is what thrills me the most about Tintin as a whole: friendship cuteness, as I like to call it. I was thrilled with the whole scene at the docks--Sakharine threatening to kill the Captain, the Captain yelling at Tintin not to give in, Tintin saving him anyway, giving up the parchments, and the Captain trying to raise his spirits with a pep talk... All absolutely wonderful. In fact, that entire scene at the docks was probably my favorite part.

And having the Captain as my favorite character, I adored how his role had been expanded upon. Actually, I also enjoyed how Allan, my favorite villain in the series, also had an expanded role. If the dock scene was my favorite, my second-favorite scene was seeing the Captain and Allan settle the score--something that I wish had been in the books. I had to hold back a cheer in that theater!

And the crane duel... Dear gosh, the crane duel... Pardon the cliché, but I was at the edge of my seat, quite literally.

So, yes, I found the movie to be absolutely wonderful. It reminded me of why I loved this series so much. My first words when the end credits started rolling? "...So when is the US DVD release date?!" Here's hoping the movie novelization will tide me over until then!

Why was Sakarine the villain?
Why not? I'm all for fidelity to the original books, but the Bird Brothers are rather dull villains.

Why is Tintin calling his house an apartment and not a flat?
I don't see the problem here.

Why are they camped out in run down Marlinspike - It made no sense?
I'm not sure why it was run-down, maybe to make it more foreboding.

Why were the three scrolls and their back story changed?
The story had to be changed quite a bit as they incorporated The Crab with the Golden Claws.

Why was Barnaby an American and no mention of the Bird brothers?
I'm not sure why Barnaby was an American. Maybe a shout-out to Americans.

Where was Calculus?
The movie didn't include much of Red Rackham's Treasure, so he'll probably be in the sequel.

Why was the cellar in Marlinspike not a storeroom with Tintin imprisoned in there?
Just another scene they changed because they needed to incorporate The Crab with the Golden Claws.

Why did Tintin not mention it was an “old chapel” as in the books?
I don't know. Why does a movie adaptation have to follow it's source material to the letter? I think you're being a bit picky.

What the hell was that Omar Ben Salad sequence in the movie for?
Don't swear. Also, it was there to tie the two albums together and show more of Baggar.

Castafiore never appeared in those sequences in the books. It was unnecessary and a time waster
No, she didn't. I don't feel it was unnecessary or a time-waster but it was a bit odd.

The ending was entirely wrong.
The cut and pasted the ending of Red Rackham's Treasure and incorporated it into the end of The Secret of the Unicorn. Yes, they didn't find all of the treasure but they found some. It's likely that the sequel will continue their quest for the rest of the treasure - ala Red Rackham's Treasure.

There was a major injustice of making Haddock a fool. I know he was drunk sometimes more in the early books but they made him look stupid, come on, give the guy some credit. The guy is related to a long line of seafaring men that were very confident and it was degrading after a while.
Captain Haddock is pretty much a drunken fool in The Crab with the Golden Claws, but it's true he's more loyal and wise in the following books (but still a drunkard). I do wish they'd included more of his angry and creative curses though.

Personally, I felt the movie was true to the spirit of the characters and true to the tone of the books. Yes. the last third was over-the-top, action-packed and ridiculous but it was true to the tone of something like Soviets or America (both still Tintin books).

I'm not saying the movie was perfect, there's something things I'd change or add but overall I thought it was respectful of Herge's creations and an enjoyable movie to boot.