Still waiting...

Updated: 2011-11-26 06:57

By Elizabeth Kerr(HK Edition)

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Still waiting...

Still waiting...

Spielberg and Jackson create a handsome but needlessly 3D feature aimed squarely at their fanbase. Elizabeth Kerr reports.

The next few months might see the raging debate over the long-term viability and necessity of modern 3D filmmaking. Since Avatar (there it is again) a scant 2 years ago, the highly advanced format as we know it, now unintentionally plotted a heightened, ultra-fast love-in and backlash trajectory. The wonder of it quickly wore off for Western audiences that just as quickly learned to spot a cheap conversion perceived as a sneaky cash grab. Then, when films actually shot in 3D finally hit screens, so much ill will had been generated, audiences simply opted for the 2D version - and it rarely made a difference to the viewing experience, a huge problem in itself. The only film to incorporate 3D into its narrative smartly was TRON: Legacy, and sadly that was a weak film at its very best. Lots of schlock flooded cinemas and moviegoers who often forked over hundreds of dollars for a night out (in any currency) have started to turn their backs in all territories.

But wait. A savior for the form is on the way. The savior? "Real" filmmakers. Whether you love or hate Michael Bay (Transformers: Dark of the Moon), Rob Marshall (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Joe Johnston (Captain America: The First Avenger) or Paul W. S. Anderson (The Three Musketeers), none of them are James Cameron. Nor are they Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Joss Whedon or Peter Jackson, all of whom have 3D films set for release within the next few weeks or months. Sure, Tim Burton could be considered the first "real" filmmaker to take on the technology during this renaissance (Alice in Wonderland), but Burton hasn't made a new film since Ed Wood, so he doesn't count. Also set for early 2012 are conversions of Titanic and The Phantom Menace, though there's still no word on the heavily rumored Lord of the Rings conversion.

So as far as PR goes, there's a lot riding on The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, this year's holiday family offering from Spielberg and produced by Jackson. It really doesn't get more niche than a film based on the beloved comic by Belgian artist Herg. Specifically because the source material has little traction in North America - Tintin is the European equivalent of Superman, but it never crossed the pond. The Adventures of Tintin has been rolling out overseas ahead of its "domestic" release. A built-in audience overseas is likely to make the film a hit, and good word of mouth is going to be necessary for its life as a franchise. So can two of the world's greatest movie maestros working with arguably fresh material give 3D the kind of cache that has quickly eroded in the public mind?

Spielberg is complemented by his usual cabal of pros: John Williams does the sprightly score, photography comes courtesy of Janusz Kaminski (almost all Spielberg films since Schindler's List), it was edited by Oscar winner Michael Kahn (almost all Spielberg films since Close Encounters), and Jackson's WETA Digital is responsible for the bulk of the effects, motion capture and animation. The pedigree on this film is astounding. The Adventures of Tintin is an old-fashioned family adventure in the vein of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with all the hallmarks of Spielbergian storytelling to go with it. Tintin (Jamie Bell, forever Billy Elliot), an ambiguously aged journalist and adventurer, and his mutt Snowy get mixed up in a whirlwind mystery surrounding a sunken 17th century ship, the Unicorn, when Tintin buys a model in an undetermined European flea market. Also after the model is Sakharine (obviously Daniel Craig, as the character never smiles), whose ancestor, Red Rackham, was involved in the sinking. Tintin teams up with Sakharine's prisoner Captain Haddock (motion capture master Andy Serkis), who as it happens is the descendant of Rackham's nemesis. Together they hop around the globe, one step ahead of Sakharine, collecting the clues that will solve the mystery.

Tintin features some of the strongest 3D to hit screens in ages. The motion capture is flawless and art is impeccable. Background details and naturalistic character creations lend the whole film a nearly photo-realistic edge that puts it near the top of the current 3D heap. There are oodles of visual flourishes and, in what may be the film's strongest single sequence Spielberg displays the kind of imagination and creativity that make him, well, Spielberg. Haddock's hallucinogenic recollection of the Unicorn's fate seamlessly blends the sands of the Sahara with the waters of the Atlantic in a brilliant and beautiful feat of visual storytelling. The film never wears out its welcome at a lean 100 minutes, and there is something to be said for the innocent fun that defines Tintin. And television writer Steven Moffat (Dr. Who, Sherlock), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) do inject a few welcome smart alecky moments into the script among the long-winded exposition disguised as Tintin "thinking out loud." Please.

But like most other Spielberg films, and everything he touches (Super 8, TV's Terra Nova), there's a sappy, aggressively wholesome undercurrent that will make Tintin hard to swallow for the non-fan. Once again, the child-hero is at the center of the story, even though Tintin isn't all that compelling a character and he frequently flirts with simply stupid. Would you repeatedly entrust important information to an unapologetically reprobate drunk? Neither would I, but Tintin does. Of course, if he didn't there would be no uplifting betterment speech, a Spielberg specialty.

So when all is said and done, is The Adventures of Tintin going to solve 3D's image problems? Not likely. This is superior filmmaking to be sure, but it didn't need to be in 3D and little is gained by the added dimension; there's nothing here that a director with Spielberg's resources couldn't accomplish without it. It's no more immersive as a film in the 3D format, and a filmmaker using Orson Welles' old deep focus could easily approximate Tintin's level of depth of image. In the end, the audiences will still be waiting for someone to do something, anything, with the technology to change the way we experience movies. Let's hope Martin Scorsese can do better with Hugo.

The Adventures of Tintin opened in Hong Kong on Thursday.

 Still waiting...

Tintin (Jamie Bell) meets the louche reprobate Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), a prisoner on his own ship and finds an ally in The Adventures of Tintin.

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Sakharine (voiced by Daniel Craig, left) wants to know where Tintin has gone and how his inept henchmen lost him in the latest family-friendly actioner by Steven Spielberg.

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Captain Haddock and the intrepid maybe-teenaged journalist Tintin chase the bad guys in Morocco in the old-fashioned 3D adventure The Adventures of Tintin.

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Jamie Bell provides the voice of Tintin in Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's adaptation of the beloved European comic. Tintin finds the second of three model ships, each a clue to a lost treasure.

(HK Edition 11/26/2011 page4)