FILM

USA 2011 107 mins Dir: Steven Spielberg Starring: Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Andy Serkis

The purists, the nostalgics, and - worst of all - the nostalgic purists have all got their knives in early. So with expectations duly lowered, it's a moderate pleasure to report that the Spielberg/Peter Jackson (producing) Tintin is… okay-ish. The good? A terrific, Saul Bass-ish opening credits sequence, making a promise that is never fulfilled, and several splendid animated set-pieces: Tintin's Chaplin-esque attempt to retrieve a set of keys from a cabin full of dozing cutthroats, who slide back and forth as their ship bobs up and down on the waves; Captain Haddock's in-flight refuelling of a single prop plane using only the alcoholic fumes from his breath; a typically Spielbergian climactic chase sequence, and so on. The bad? That bloody 'motion capture' process, which still looks unsettling and fake when applied to human characters. Compare, if you will, Andy Serkis's brilliantly nuanced performance as Caesar in 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' with his comparatively inexpressive Haddock. And this is the best character. They could have hired just about anyone as bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson; it's only by consulting the credits that you'll learn they're played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost

Still, all our favourite non-sweary exclamations ("Great snakes!" "Blistering barnacles!" "Thundering typhoons!") are here, and there are sly references to other adventures ('Cigars of the Pharaoh', etc), while the main story by the Brit scripting dream team of Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish cheekily lifts bits from the likes of 'The Crab with the Golden Claws' as Jamie Bell's bland boy reporter and his faithful hound Snowy embark on a globe-trotting adventure that brings them into contact with bibulous seafarer Haddock for the first time, while Daniel Craig gets the villain role.

As one might expect, the whole thing proceeds at a pace more suited to a child experiencing terminal sugar rush than a connoisseur gently turning the pages of a dog-eared Herge hardback, soaking up all that subtlety and wit. But - hey! - what did you expect? And there are compensations in the form of some terrific flourishes by the animators charged with helping Spielberg spend his $130m budget, such as rough seas morphing into desert dunes, even if the sequel set-up at the end seems a tad presumptuous. (Robin Askew)

Copyright Robin Askew 2011