2011 as a movie year

'twas all right.

I can't help but be underwhelmed by a year that didn't supply anything to my list of favourite films of all time. 2009 gave me The Princess and the Frog and 2010 introduced me to Scott Pilgrim. This year didn't really have a definite stand-out best film for my tastes.

As far as drama goes, Drive and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo were the best that I saw, representing the opposite virtues of minimalism and... blockbuster-ism.

In action, Tintin was the best. Captain America gets a honourable mention for managing to do well worldwide, while apparently North America couldn't care less for Tintin.

Even my more optimistic movienut friend was willing to admit that this was a poor year for comedy. Paul was the best that comes to mind, and though it's a pretty good film, the general level of humour was low. Midnight in Paris gets the honourable mention for Adrien Brody as Salvador Dalí, the best one-scene performance of the year by far.

Immortals was the shittiest film I saw. Transformers 3 was really bad too, but somehow I can't really get emotional about a Transformers movie being bad anymore at this point.

I don't really care that much for Oscars, myself, so no comments about my guesses or bets regarding the nominations and victories there.

Well, that's it for 2011. Let's see what 2012 has in store! Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit and Prometheus seem to hold a lot of promise.

PS. 13 Assassins was left unmentioned in this post because it saw its original Japanese release in 2010. If it was a 2011 movie, it'd be the best one.

The Adventures of Tintin

Hey! Finland got a cameo in this picture.

AT LAST! Us Europeans get a movie almost two months before the North Americans do! I feel so vindicated for having to wait half a year for Princess and the Frog to come out. I guess it figures. After all, The Adventures of Tintin is based on an European comic. In fact, this film redeems Franco-Belgian comics in Hollywood from the wake of the lame live-action Asterix films. Let us never bring those things up again.

Tintin is a reporter of ambiguous nationality who has a tendency to get into an adventure pretty much any time he opens his front door. While browsing a flea market, he buys the miniature of an old wooden ship. This causes him and his helpful dog Milou (I refuse to use translated names for these characters, by the way) to be dragged into danger's way. He eventually teams up with Captain Archibald Haddock in a race to find all the clues to a fabulous treasure before the bad guys do.

I was at first pretty sceptical about this movie. Not because it's CG (though a cartoon movie could have worked better), but because I thought they might try to alter the premise to sell it better to audiences who are used to "comic book movies" like The Dark Knight. However, I should have put my trust on Steven Spielberg; Tintin is perfectly in tune with its adventurous roots, and captures the feeling of a children's comic book almost spot-on. And as for those who are sceptical of the CGI, I think that the film looks pretty good. The characters' skins are a bit too unsmooth and blemished for my liking, but it wasn't really distacting. As far as stylished CGI goes, I prefer Tangled, but this is a not-so-close second.

There are so many big names attached to this picture, and most of their individual little touches can be felt throughout. Tintin is a Spielberg producation throughout, complete with music by John Williams. I might be bold enough to call it Indiana Jones 5. Peter Jackson is the producer, will direct the sequel if one is made, and brought along Andy Serkis (Gollum from The Lord of the Rings trilogy) to play Haddock. Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) co-wrote the script, and his BFFs Simon Pegg and Nick Frost voice bumbling detectives Dupont and Dupond. I can't help but get this funny image of Spielberg inviting people to the pre-production table and yelling: "And bring your friends too!"

The action scenes in Tintin are great, with really imaginative scenarios and a damn good balance of serious and silly to them. They get a little cluttered at times, but never descend to incomprehensibility. I think that near the end, the action focuses too much on Haddock and too little on Tintin, but it's all well and good because Haddock is damn entertaining. He's like that character we've all seen a million times, the one who always screws everything up, but he still manages to be endearing and funny when he messes around. However, one thing that I really didn't expect to amuse me so much as the slapstick. I don't think I've ever seen such well-executed physical humour in a motion picture. This isn't your Disney movie where for every punchline the comedy foil says he also has to get hit in the head once, so that audience members with no sense of humour can also find something to laugh at. Here, the slapstick is an end to itself, and the hurt is set up and handled with excellence.

I'm not going to criticise Tintin for having an overly convoluted plot and contrived action scenes. It's an adventure story: people in these things can't file taxes without having to solve five riddles. fight off eight henchmen and escape three death traps. What I am going to criticise it for is having a weak pacing. This is probably a result of the comic adaptation, but that's not an excuse. There's too little rest between action scenes, and at times the plot is unveiled too quick for my taste. At one hour and fifty minutes, this is already a pretty long animated movie, but I think the script needed some work to make it more balanced and less exhausting.

That's... pretty much it. It's a solid adventure film with good humour, and lots of talented people behind the scenes. I didn't really read Tintin as a kid, but I read Uncle Scrooge comics, and the feeling of adventure in this movie makes me tingle with nostalgia.