The Adventures of Tintin (2011) Movie Review

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish
Starring: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig
Story: Intrepid reporter Tintin and Captain Haddock set off on a treasure hunt for a sunken ship commanded by Haddock's ancestor.

Honestly… this is my new favourite movie. There was not a point throughout the entire runtime of this movie when there was not a goofy smile slapped right across my face.

For me, this is a rather difficult movie to review I simply think it is the best thing to have existed in recent memory. The first thing that strikes you when watching the movie is the art style. I can see how this style could possibly turn some people off. These people are probably just too obsessed with the style of Pixar to appreciate this utter CGI masterpiece. I’m almost ashamed to say that I thought a live-action section was about to start halfway through the movie.

With any adventure movie, the most important thing is the story and Tintin brings a fun and original story to the somewhat sparse adventure genre table. I couldn’t help but feel that the writer of this movie played through Uncharted 3 before writing this. The similarities are pretty striking. For instance, there is a rusty old boat bit, there is a bit on a plane and there is a bit in a Middle Eastern country. I was captivated the whole time. This is one of the strongest aspects of the movie. A lot of movies I want to hate because of things that happen early in the film. I am totally on board with this movie throughout.

The soundtrack also stands out. The magical music man John Williams lends his genius to this movie and it is a treat. It enhances the tension and pacing of the movie to cosmic levels and the action sequences really jump out with this great score behind them.

I cannot recommend it more. If you want to watch one of the most enjoyable experiences of the 21^st century then you certainly cannot miss TInitn. I give it a 10/10

Frozen (2013) Movie Review

Directors: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
Writers: Jennifer Lee, Hans Christian Andersen
Starring: Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Idina Menzel
Story: Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.

The amount of fame this movie received is nothing short of outstanding but can Frozen make good on its promise and bring the hype?

Overall, I feel that this movie was mediocre. It's definitely leaning further in the direction of me liking it than disliking it but it was no apex of modern cinema. I feel like I would have enjoyed this movie far more if everyone and their mothers wasn’t talking about constantly.

My biggest complaint with the movie is the ending. This really refers to the whole movie but is in part caused by the ending. It felt a lot smaller than it really should have been. The potential this movie brought built the plot up and ultimately led to nothing. It felt like they were going to go on a massive adventure across this mysterious and potentially incredible world that the movie created. There’s probably going to be a sequel anyway judging by the fact they could probably buy a small country with the amount of profit from this movie.

On the positive side however, the main characters (while rather predictable) were fantastic to watch. Not only were the songs brilliant but also you could really relate to the characters even though one of them was basically Iceman from X-Men. The acting was about as good as it gets without seeing the actor’s real face.

The animation was great as well. You can really witness how 3D animation is evolving through time. This movie is filled with incredible body language that simply couldn’t be found in earlier 3D animations like Toy Story. While it still resides firmly in the uncanny valley, it is a delight to look at. I think that the animator may have had some sort of crush on the colour blue while making the movie though. (Which is still brilliant).

Frozen is an absolutely amazing movie to stare at for its entire run-time and it features songs that would make your mama say ‘hot diggity, that’s a toe tappin’ tune. It really needed to reach its potential far better and just be bigger. I give Frozen a 7/10