A Movie A Week - Week 1: The Adventures of TinTin

I have decided that I want to make an effort to see more movies in the theater in 2012. I was inspired by the comments of one of the hosts of the iFanboy podcast who had set a similar goal for himself last year. I feel like I've been getting a bit lazy about going to the movies. Oh sure, I'll be going to see "The Dark Knight Rises," "The Avengers," and "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" in theaters, but every year there are great movies that pass me by because I can't get myself out to the theater to see them and I forget about them by the time they come to Netflix. So, I've set myself the challenge of seeing at least one movie a week in a theater in 2012 (because, really, the theater experience is a different, and I think better, experience than the home viewing experience). Without further ado, on to week one:


Movie: The Adventures of TinTin
Theater: AMC Discover Mills 18
Snacks: M&Ms and a Coke

I have no preexisting connection to the TinTin comics to drive me to see this movie. It was the creators involved that made this movie so enticing. The behind the scenes creative talent links this film to such greatness as The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, producer), the Indiana Jones films (Steven Spielberg, director), Doctor Who (Steven Moffat, writer), and Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, writer). With that kind of pedigree, how could I not want to see this movie. Fortunately, I feel like the movie lived up to the expectation of excellence this creative team inspired.

I do have a complaint, and that is with the animation style. I am not a fan. Specifically, I do not particularly like the strange merge of animation and live-action that has been scene previously in films like "The Polar Express" and the Jim Carrey-filled version of "A Christmas Carol" from a few years ago. There's just something vaguely creepy about the look of the characters. It's not all the time, but every so often it pops up and is really distracting, particularly when you see the realistic hands and cartoony face on a character. I think I would have preferred a more purely animated approach to this uncomfortable hybrid. That said, this all bothered me less and less as the movie went on and I got caught up in the story, which was a lot of fun. There is not a wasted frame of film and the story moves along at a brisk pace with some truly inventive action sequences. I found "The Adventures of TinTin" to be a great time at the movies and well worth the effort to see in a theater.