The Adventures of Tintin, The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)

When Tintin buys a toy ship (The Unicorn) at a market, he soon discovers that he has stumbled into a mystery that traces back hundreds of years. The original Unicorn was deliberately destroyed by its captain, rather than let pirates capture the extraordinary amount of gold that he was transporting. The pirate captain was known as Red Rackham, and now his descendant, Ivanovich Sakharine (Daniel Craig), is trying to solve the riddle of the Unicorn to finally recover the lost treasure. However, Tintin (Jamie Bell), and his faithful dog Snowy, become acquainted with Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), who just happens to the last descendant Sir Francis Haddock, captain of the Unicorn, and together try to stop Sakharine from recovering the lost treasure.

I have never read any of the Tintin stories before, but that didn’t stop me absolutely loving the film. I thought that it was pure Spielberg, and put me very much in mind of Raiders. Perhaps the plot wasn’t as crazy as Indy, but some of the action sequences, particularly that involving a motorbike, a tank and a falcon were absolutely outrageous; and I just sat that with a big grin on my face, loving every minute of it!

Of course essentially being a cartoon, there were several editing devices that were possible that wouldn’t be in live action (yet - based on this I’ll be interested to see how PJ interprets The Hobbit), including several inspired transitions between scenes/flashbacks etc. Of course great animation doesn’t make a good film, but it was phenomenal; lip syncing, and details around the eyes and hands was all tremendous. What does make a good film is a plot with excitement and intrigue, but without being completely ridiculous, and great characters. Clearly we should thank Hergé for the great characters, and the story; but the combined efforts of Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish and Steven Moffat should not be forgotten. I had feared that too many great cooks may spoil the broth, but that fear was unfounded; the scenes progressed naturally and nothing seemed contrived; well perhaps except for the mention of the Sumatran rat (monkey), which PJ manages to shoehorn in whenever he can. The voice cast are all perfect too; Jamie Bell as Tintin works really well, Daniel Craig is spot on as the smooth Sakharine, and of course only Andy Serkis could be the inebriated and enthusiastic Captain Haddock. A supporting cast featuring Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, all add to the scope of the film. Oh, and the 3D was fine, though I’d be interested to see it in 2D to see how much it really mattered.

Great adventure, amazing graphics, interesting story, the whole thing can really be summed up in two words: pure Spielberg! Now why wouldn’t you want to see that!

Attack The Block

A young woman is mugged by a group of hoodies. However, their world is shattered when an alien lands in a car right next to the mugging. Taking advantage of a now open car to try and nick the stereo, the leader, Moses, climbs in; but is scratched by the alien before it runs off. Taking offense at the assault, Moses gives chase and gives the alien a kicking! However, this alien seems to be a female (I guess) scout alien, and now several members of the hoodie gang (most of all Moses) are covered in alien scent. So when the really nasty male aliens land, they try to track down the female, killing everyone in their way and particularly those who smell like her.

A very enjoyable film with a novel twist on the alien invasion story (Outer Space vs Inner City!). It’s more thriller than horror; there are tense moments that make you jump and it’s not particularly gory. So I think that it was slightly mis-marketed; advertised as being "From the Producers of Shaun of the Dead", Attack the Block is definitely not a comedy. Sure there are a few funny moments in the trailer (adding to the Shaun of the Dead angle), but these are about the only funny bits in it. OK there are a few more, but not so many.

The Aliens are very cool. I don’t think that the budget was massive for this film, and instead of going for some over-the-top sci-fi creatures, the aliens are gorilla-esque, but completely matt black! There is no definition to them at all; when you see a dead one close up it’s like a hole in the screen! The only discernible feature is the teeth when the mouth is open! Very novel, very scary, very cool. The only bit that made me doubt them was a slow motion shot of several aliens chasing Moses down a corridor, and I couldn’t help but think of the old Kia-ora adverts as the crows lolloped along behind the kid with the Kia-ora!

The cast are good; John Boyega plays main character Moses very well; arrogant at the start of the film but rather more humble by the end. Nick Frost is fairly underused as Ron; a small-time marijuana dealer (but then it’s not that kind of film); and Luke Treadaway is good as the resident stoner. Jodie Whittaker is good as Sam, the poor girl at the sharp end of the mugging in the films opening scenes, but is actually a neighbour of the “hoodies” in the block. And therein lies perhaps the only problem with the film. As these hoodies are a gang whose entertainment is mugging people and generally being aggressive, it’s hard to empathise with them at all. Consequently when they are in danger I found myself not caring whether they died or not (though there is one character I definitely wanted to die; so I guess he was written well). 

Still, that is only a fairly minor niggle, and given that this is his first feature film, director Joe Cornish has made a damn fine alien thriller. Novel idea, cool aliens, some interesting camera work at times; funky film, and I think we can perhaps expect more of Mr Cornish in the future.