4 out of 5

Director: Steven Spielberg

What a combo.  Although it tips uncomfortably into the uncanny valley of animation at moments and definitely slips into overkill for its last section, ‘Tintin’ is everything the individual cogs in the machine do wonderfully when spinning about on their own films, syncing up successfully for an incredibly momentous, exciting flick.  Edgar Wright and crew’s busy writing style ups the complexity of the gags and humor and overall dialogue intelligence effectively.  Combined with the source material – the gun-totin’ journalist Tintin, always ready for adventure and using his head along with his knuckles when eagerly jumping into a scuffle – guarantees, despite having a cute dog sidekick and a young principle character, that this will not be a fluffy kids movie, but something a notch braver.  The line between Jackson and Spielberg can be debated all over the design of the film, but it results in a fully realized world where all of the sets breathe and seem to exist in real space.  The plot is, at a high level, standard adventure stuff – Tintin buying a model boat that contains a secret that ends up getting him involved in an ages old search for treasure – but what makes this enjoyable is that we’re in it, realistically, from page one.  Tintin is figuring things out as we are, and so we join in the pursuit at the same pace.  The animation might make or break for many, as this leans toward the Polar Express style of uber realism, but it was an appropriate choice, and gives the action sequences a tense sense of truth that doesn’t occur in standard CGI.  However, perhaps in an attempt to keep Tintin as clean-faced as his drawn counterpart, there are moments where the responses seem off or delayed, but this only distracts if you’re scrabbling over ever detail (though the lushness of the scenes begs you to do that…).  Maybe there’s one belch joke too many and, as mentioned, the overkill end sequence -which butts up right against an AMAZING chase – really burdens the end of the film and made my eyes glaze over.  But these knocks aside, it’s really a stunning picture that grabs your attention at every moment (and seemed to encourage John Williams to write the most exciting score from him I’ve heard in years..!) and most complimentary – makes me want to check out the original books.