One of the biggest question marks of the year has been Steven Spielberg‘s “The Adventures of Tintin.” The director’s coming off the worst film of his career, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” and tackling a comic book that few in the U.S. have heard of, in the performance capture manner that’s seen the undoing of Robert Zemeckis in recent years, seemed like a fairly risky move, all things considered. And it doesn’t help that the film’s been mostly shrouded in mystery.
But yesterday, some terrific teaser posters arrived, and now they’re joined by the first trailer for the film, which debuted over at Empire and, while we’re not totally out of the woods yet, things are looking fairly promising. The clip emphasizes atmosphere over anything else — perhaps not the best way to introduce the character to American audiences, but backing up what we’ve heard about the film being a noirish homage, at least in its first half.
For the most part, it looks gorgeous, a definite step up from Zemeckis’ work, although it’s not entirely surprising considering that Peter Jackson‘s WETA Digital, who picked up the Oscar for “Avatar,” are behind the effects. While we don’t get many clear looks at the characters in close-up, presumably because work still continues apace, it seems as though the dead-eyed uncanny valley look has been avoided, but it’ll take some more footage before we breath totally easy on that front. Spielberg’s usual keen eye is fully in play, however — we love the detail on the visual gag of detectives Thomson and Thompson spying through the newspaper, for instance.
It’s really too early to make a judgment here, but considering Spielberg’s track record, as well — as we said yesterday — as the screenwriting dream team of Steven Moffat (“Doctor Who,” “Sherlock“), Edgar Wright (“Hot Fuzz“) and Joe Cornish (“Attack The Block“), we’re prepared to give the project the benefit of the doubt for the moment. “The Adventures of Tintin,” which seems to have officially dropped its subtitle “The Secret of the Unicorn,” stars Jamie Bell (here mo-capped into a terrifyingly close replica of “Michael Clayton” Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton, or, if you prefer, British pop star La Roux), Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Toby Jones, among others, and hits Europe on October 26th, before getting a U.S. release on December 23rd. Watch it below, or head to Apple to see it in HD.
If you love Indy – you must hate \”Skull\”. It\’s an ANTI-Indiana Jones-Movie.
I love the worldwide hate against this embarrassing movie.
razzie
not even an oscarnomination
the south park-episode
lousy imdb and RT-ranking against the real Indy-Movies
Ford and shias\’s opinion about \”Skull\”
and-and-and…
Glad tthat, at least, I\’ll be able to watch the dubbed version without being affected by it. Having grown up with the cartoon is strange to hear him be called with the english pronunciation. And Milou looks great!
Also, do everyone a favor and find out what the JOB OF DIRECTOR actually is.
Man, some of you are just a bunch of underserving hateful little bastatds. You honestly don\’t even deserve the genius and love you are getting from a man who has done nothing but shared the best with the world.
What gets me every time is the extent of the hatred I am reading. Where is it coming from? I swear, far, far lesser filmmakers are not getting this scrutinzed for far, far lesser looking projects. Is it THAT difficult to comprehend that Spielberg is THAT good and THAT accomplished at the same time? Is it that hard to fucking wrap your brain around that.
That it is possible to make JAWS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS AND RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, ET, MUNICH, MINORITY REPORT, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and SHINDLER\’S LIST to name just a fraction of his work? That it all came from the same man?
If nothing else, show some fucking respect. No other filmmaker deserves it more and no other filmmaker inspired more of every filling in anyone. Just fucking show some basic respect.
You many not love every film he\’s done but then again, not every film is made for every single person in his vast fanabase. What\’s far more likely is that Spielberg\’s range far eclipses your own!
And by the way, Color Purple is a fucking masterpiece. Not an attempt at anything other than impressive filmmaking. It is a DAMN fine film and a damn deep one.
And if you don\’t think Tintin looks amazing, pretend it came from Pixar because it sure as heck doesn\’t look motion captrued in theaters.
Sounds like your grandmother would have an immensely successful film blog. I can\’t wait for the launch, please make sure to include link here.
My grandma used to say, if you don\’t have anything nice to say, don\’t say anything…
People people.
Can\’t we just agree that Jurassic Park: The Lost World is Spielberg\’s worst film?
Looks like a lot of people are forgetting the meaning of opinion…1941 was terrible and forgettable so you can\’t really blame the writer if he forgot about it. Crystal Skull is by far Spielberg\’s worst film in quiet some time.
Some of you posters have a nasty way of getting your point accross
Uh, no, the blathering idiots are the people posting comments calling A.I. garbage and Crystal Skull the worst film of Spielberg\’s career.
A.I. is a remarkable film. Crystal Skull is the second best Indiana Jones film. Color Purple is a terribly edited, staggeringly tone-deaf, cliched mess based on an even worse book. I mean, at least Hook and 1941 and Always are close to Spielberg\’s heart. Airplanes, fairy tales, WWII, dumb jokes–it\’s stuff he loves. Color Purple is just a blatant attempt at Oscar-season respectability: it\’s Spielberg struggling to make what he thought a grown-up, important, serious movie was.
Give it a rest, would you? Grow up. First it was Phantom Menace, now it\’s Crystal Skull, you people just wanna scream about how Lucas sucks.
It still boggles my mind that so many people liked a film that ends with the pearl that \”Their treasure was knowledge\”, features a villain who never hurts or kills anyone, has eleventy-zillion goofy cartoonish elements (the kid swinging on the vine, the waterfalls, the prairie gods), Spielberg\’s most disinterested camera work ever, and some of the most tedious, exposition-heavy dialogue known to man.
It especially floors me that people persist in saying it\’s better than a deliciously clever film chock full of Tom Stoppard pearls like \”I\’m as human as the next man\” \”I was the next man\”, or \”How did you know she was a Nazi?\” \”She talks in her sleep\”.
Sigh.
WHAT. I thought maybe there were people that liked KOTCS, but to actually prefer it to Temple of Doom and Last Crusade is Armond White-ish at best, and at worst the mark of a blathering idiot who doesn\’t know the first thing about quality film.
\”The director’s coming off the worst film of his career, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull\”
Complete and utter rubbish. Everyone knows it\’s 1941 and that\’s indisputable. (Even with the great Dumbo scene) KOTCS is the best Indy sequel
Crystal Skull is definitely Spielberg\’s worst film. The brilliant Southpark episode comes to mind and for those who know it will understand this: that\’s exactly what Spielberg and Lucas did to Indy in Crystal Skull.
Tintin looks gorgeous no doubt, but I was a fan of Tintin up until the age of 8. So I\’m very meh when it comes to Tintin.
Looking forward to War Horse and the Lincoln film way, way more than this. Way.
Do they tease out showing has face till the very end because it looks so bad? or because it reminds us of Polar fucking express?
Anyway uncanny valley etc.
I still want it work.
@JD-I\’ll give you 1941, even though it\’s a guilty pleasure. But COLOR PURPLE?!? The fact that you put that in his \”trash bin\”, really makes me wonder at your criteria for bad films. If anything, A.I. should be put in that place, because COLOR PURPLE is a great film. Is it because you don\’t like the subject matter? Or it isn\’t masculine enough? I\’m just really wondering if you\’re confusing \”not for me\” & \”poorly made\”
And yes, as much as I LOVE Indy, CRYSTAL SKULL is as shitty as a sack full of spoiled diapers.
Crystal Skull is sooo bad it\’s unwatchable. Def his worst film and one of the worst of all time!
I always thought Hook was a great family movie, but that\’s just me.
This teaser was weak, but it hasn\’t lessened my excitement for the film. It looks uber-fun and Spielberg has a rich sense of visual dynamism that\’s perfect for this material.
Oh, and even if \”few in the U.S.\” had heard of Tintin, which is not true–Tintin was and is known to many, MANY avid fans here in America–it IS a household name to, oh, all of Europe? Which hardly qualifies as a risk….
America may be A country, but it\’s not the ONLY country.
\”The worst film of his career\”? Really? Worse then 1941? The Color Purple? Always? Hook? I mean, worse then Hook?
There\’s actually a lot to like about 1941. And no Spielberg film is entirely worthless. But he\’s made some bad ones. Some truly dreadful movies. \”Crystal Skull\” is not one of them: \”Crystal Skull\” is better then \”Last Crusade\” for heaven\’s sake. Please, grow up….
\”The director’s coming off the worst film of his career,\”
According to who? Some overcompensating typist with online access or critics who made the film a certified fresh success on Rotten Tomaotes and millions of fans who loved it?
Indy 4 was a great success moving Indy from the realm of the 30\’s style serials and into the world of 50\’s sometime cheesy (in a very knowing way) soviet-and-nuclear inspired sci-fi flicks. I dug every minute of it.
\’Tintin\’ looks stunning though and I cannot wait to see it.