THE SATYA: November 2011

Storyline

Having bought a model ship,the Unicorn,for a pound off a market stall Tintin is initially puzzled that the sinister Mr. Sakharine should be so eager to buy it from him,resorting to murder and kidnapping Tintin - accompanied by his marvellous dog Snowy - to join him and his gang as they sail to Morocco on an old cargo ship. Sakharine has bribed the crew to revolt against the ship's master,drunken Captain Haddock,but Tintin,Snowy and Haddock escape,arriving in Morocco at the court of a sheikh,who also has a model of the Unicorn. Haddock tells Tintin that over three hundred years earlier his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock was forced to scuttle the original Unicorn when attacked by a piratical forebear of Sakharine but he managed to save his treasure and provide clues to its location in three separate scrolls,all of which were secreted in models of the Unicorn. Tintin and Sakharine have one...

Review

Riding and Remembering the shivers of an adventurous childhood.

When about a year ago, at the supermarket, I saw on the Empire magazine's cover the 3D reproduction of one of my childhood's toon-idols my eyes popped out. 'WHO is directing WHAT???' - the question that echoed in my mind: It was a bit of shock finding out that one of my favorite directors was working on a movie from a character I considered buried under the dusts of time. The astonishment was soon replaced by excitement and I made the way back home from the supermarket hopping and smiling.

Today I decided to take an adventurous break from my dull academic life and went to the cinema to watch it. No wonder the room was almost full, despite the fact that the movie will be officially released tomorrow. As soon as the opening credits appeared on the screen I felt a shiver of excitement running through my spine as I was visually meeting an old friend from my childhood again; to my pleasure I felt the same sensations I would feel when I was a child. That's one of the VERY good points of this production: the spirit of Herge's Tintin, in Spielberg's movie, remains UNALTERED. There are some cases, though, in which the characters are even better and more deeply characterized than in the comic strips.

OK, let's release now all the excitement about this movie. If I had just five short seconds to say how I think this movie is I'd chose 7 words: Mesmerising from the beginning to the end. That's quite true if you consider that even the opening credits are little shining pearls of direction and creativity.

The general impression you get from this movie, talking about direction, is that nothing could have been better. Spielberg's direction is, in this case as well, a real warranty of general great quality. Three things I particularly appreciated: -The movie flows perfectly; it is kind of a pleasure for your eyes and for your brain to follow the adventure. -There's literally a STORM of brain-waves (and here comes the Spielberg's touch); especially, in the connection phases between one scene and the other the director totally expresses his genius, turning the open ocean into a pond, making two shaking hands become dunes in the desert and so on (you'll understand what I mean when you'll watch the movie) -The 'camera's movements' literally pull you into the movie and you can't help feeling excited or scared according to the situation.

You can tell it's a Spielberg's movie even just looking at these things.

Although all the things I have listed until now are enough to candidate the movie as the best movie of the year (in my opinion) there's still something I must remember: The quality of animation. I really could not find a proper term to define my astonishment when my eyes approached the beautiful places and landscapes shown in the movie. They look perfect, shining and bursting with emotions, sensations; they almost look like paintings: For instance, there's a sunset in the movie that I will hardly forget. It's the same with the CGI models: you can see the wrinkles on the character's faces, even their sweat.

Furthermore, some words about the actors: Bells and Serkis are maybe the sole two living beings who could have given birth to the cinematographic version of the two main characters. The first succeeds in the hard challenge to provide the audience with a convincing and faithful interpretation of the beloved protagonist (he did A GREAT job indeed), the second is a delightful surprise again, with a funny Scottish accent and a very good interpretation.

One last word goes to one of the best composer alive: Sir John Williams. There's nothing to do, every piece of music he creates is able to touch the deepest strings of our hearts. With a soundtrack (already bought at the HMV store) that ranges from the epic tones to the mysterious ones he gives us another example of his limitless genius, because he still remains one of those composers able to make us cry.

Finally, Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn, is one of the greatest surprises of the year. Another great adventure in the archive of the most spectacular stories of humanity, told by a MASTER story-teller (Spielberg). A movie you will hardly forget.

Cast

Daniel Craig	...	Ivanovich Sakharine
Jamie Bell	...	Tintin
Simon Pegg	...	Inspector Thompson
Andy Serkis	...	Captain Haddock
Cary Elwes	...	Pilot
Toby Jones	...	Silk
Nick Frost	...	Thomson
Sebastian Roché	...	Pedro
Tony Curran	...	Lt. Delcourt
Mackenzie Crook	...	Tom
Kim Stengel	...	Bianca Castafiore
Daniel Mays	...	Allan
Gad Elmaleh	...	Ben Salaad
Mark Ivanir	...	Afgar Outpost Soldier
Phillip Rhys	...	Co-pilot