Captain Haddock | the m0vie blog

Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald (Review)

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Darren

In the lead-up to the release of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, I’m going to be taking a look at Hergé’s celebrated comic book character, from his humble beginnings through to the incomplete post-modern finale. I hope you enjoy the ride.

The Castafiore Emerald is famous as an example of Hergé playing with the reader’s expectations of a Tintin book. It’s essentially an exercise in creating suspense out of nothing, with the mystery of the eponymous jewel ultimately turning out to be a rather mundane affair, and instead allowing for all sorts of hilariously mundane hijinks to befall Hergé’s cast with relatively little point to it all. Then, after all, this is fiction, as Tintin seems coyly aware of on the cover, staring our at us with his finger on his lips, smiling like he knows something none of his castmates do. If you can embrace the central pointlessness of it all, and enjoy it as a collection of wryly observed scenes, The Castafiore Emerald is another rewarding addition to a series growing gradually more experimental.

That engagement's news to Haddock!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Hergé, Jamie Bell, Nestor, peter jackson, Simon Pegg, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald, The Castafiore Emerald, Tintin and The Castafiore Emerald | 4 Comments »

Tintin in Tibet (Review)

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Darren

Tintin in Tibet is a highly regarded book. In fact, it’s arguably the most highly regarded book in the entire Adventures of Tintin collection, and it’s easy to see why. While I could recall the events of some of the stories I’d read as a child almost word-for-word, and while I harbour a deep affection for particular adventures in the series, I don’t think I was looking forward to revisiting any of the classic Tintin stories nearly as much as I was anticipating flicking through Tintin in Tibet. I remember the book filling me with a tremendous sense of optimism and hope as a child, a story of faith and hope against impossible odds, deeply moving because of its relative intimacy.

I was not disappointed.

Whiteout...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, blue lotus, Captain Haddock, Hergé, himalayas, snowy, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in Tibet, Tibet, tintin, Tintin in Tibet | Leave a comment »

Tintin: The Red Sea Sharks (Review)

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Darren

The Red Sea Sharks is, I suppose, a fine adventure tale, even if it’s not an entry in Hergé’s canon that I’m particularly fond of. The nineteenth instalment in the series, the author uses the opportunity to tie a whole slew of open story threads together and anchor the long-term continuity of the series, but he also decides to deal with the issue of modern slavery – a controversial and topical issue, to be sure. However, while I have no doubt the author’s intentions were true, the story reads more than a little awkwardly in dealing with the topic.

Calculus gets his skates on...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: adventures of tintin: red sea sharks, Captain Haddock, Castafiore Emerald, Flight 714, Hergé, List of The Adventures of Tintin characters, red sea sharks, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the red sea sharks, the red sea sharks, tintin and the red sea sharks, Tintin in the Congo, tintin: the red sea sharks | Leave a comment »

Tintin: The Calculus Affair (Review)

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Darren

The Calculus Affair is an interesting little story that is one part suspense thriller, and another part mystery. In short, it’s almost the perfect cocktail to brew up a Cold War espionage thriller, which was exactly what Hergé was going for. It wouldn’t be too difficult to rework the adventure as a James Bond movie (in fact, it even features a sequence with our lead piloting a tank), but Hergé does a lot of work to ensure that the story never gets too heavily bogged down. Much like King Ottokar’s Sceptre, the story stands quite well as an examination of the time when it was written.

Another fine mess!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Cold War, Comics, espionage, Hergé, Jamie Bell, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the calculus affair, The Calculus Affair, the cold war, tintin and the calculus affair, tintin: the calculus affair, world war ii | Leave a comment »

“You Shiver In Such An-tici-pation”: Upcoming Releases and the Waiting Game…

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Darren

It’s a bit of a defunct popular witticism that the actual purpose of the internet is not to increase global communication or facilitate and encourage the development and spread of ideas, but exists solely for pornography. I don’t think that’s necessarily true (in fact, it only accounts for 1% of the internet). Instead, I’d argue that the internet exists primarily to provide spoilers, casting calls, plot summaries, set pictures and gossip around all the upcoming releases. In an era where even fictitious characters have facebook and twitter accounts, it sometimes feels like information overload, with constant updates about the status of a given project and director and cast.

All at sea?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bloggers, Captain Haddock, Crab With the Golden Claws, critics, film discussion, green lantern, Hergé, internet, Red Rackham's Treasure, review, Secret of the Unicorn, spoilers, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin | 6 Comments »

Tintin: Explorers on the Moon (Review)

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Darren

The one thing I really admire about Explorers on the Moon is the fact that – for an adventure that takes the iconic boy reporter off te surface of the planet and launches him into outer space – it’s a remarkably low key affair. In fact, most of the book is devoted to nice character moments for the ensemble, and to explore some of the wonderful research Hergé did to put his story together. There’s no great mystery on the moon, none of the aliens that would later appear in Flight 714. Instead, Hergé seems to accept that launching his cast out of the planet’s atmosphere was enough of a radical deviation from the norm as it was. So what we get is a strange situation where Explorers on the Moon feels like one of the more grounded adventures in the series.

"Can you hear me, Major Tom?"

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Captain Haddock, Cold War, Comics, explorers on moon, Explorers on the Moon, Hergé, King Ottokar's Sceptre, lunar, moon, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin: explorers on the moon, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Calculus Affair, tint: explorers on the moon, tintin and the explorers on the moon | Leave a comment »

Tintin: Destination Moon (Review)

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Darren

Destination Moon is an interesting entry in the Tintin canon, in that it really feels like Hergé’s relaxing just a bit. Since around about The Broken Ear (or even Tintin in America), most of Hergé’s stories have been relatively plot-driven, with a central mystery and a story built around solving that mystery. Destination Moon, on the other hand, is an adventure that feels far more episodic in nature, with Hergé taking a central plot (the race to land a man on a moon) and then building a variety of small adventures around it, from attempts to hijack a test rocket through to Professor Calculus’ amnesia and beyond. The story is somewhat leisurely plotted, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The author is clearly enjoying having a little bit more narrative freedom than he’s used to, and also having a great deal of fun taking a fantastical core concept and demonstrating how much research he’s put in.

It's out of this world...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Broken Ear, Captain Haddock, Comics, Destination Moon, Hergé, King Ottokar's Sceptre, Land of Black Gold, moon, rockets, Shooting Star, space flight, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin: destination moon, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Calculus Affair, tintin: destination moon, world war ii | 3 Comments »

Tintin: Land of Black Gold (Review)

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Darren

Land of Black Gold is certainly an interesting Tintin story. It was begun during the Second World War, but suspended while Hergé’s paper, Le Soir, was investigated under suspicion of collaboration. Following the war, the author returned to complete the work, updating the adventure to remove some of the more obvious political elements, and to retroactively insert some of the more modern characters into the tale (Captain Haddock has a small role, and Cuthbert Calculus appears only via letter). However, despite all this interesting shuffling around, and the fact the story was begun in one political climate and finished in another, it’s surprising how relevent Hergé’s exploration of Middle Eastern politics remains.

Thompson and Thomson get their just deserts, eh?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Black Island, Captain Haddock, Hergé, Land of Black Gold, nazis, oil, second world war, Shooting Star, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin: land of black gold, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the land of black gold, tintin and the land of black gold, tintin: land of black gold, world war ii | Leave a comment »

Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun (Review)

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Darren

I have to admit to really liking the two-part Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun adventure, to the extent that I’m actually eagerly anticipating Peter Jackson’s adaptation that may never materialise. The two-parter really just takes the best aspects of Hergé’s Tintin mythos, brewing up a pop culture stew that can be served as a mystery story or an adventure into a mystical and unknown world. The idea of discovering a long-lost tribe of ancient Inca is certainly an appealing one, and would make for a gripping turn-of-the-century adventure. Using that premise as a starting point, Hergé leads us and Tintin in the heart of Amazon, filled with excitement and danger and mystery.

Tintin, why don't you come Inca?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock, edgar wright, Hergé, indiana jones, Jamie Bell, peter jackson, Prisoner of the Sun, prisoners of the sun, Red Rackham's Treasure, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin: prisoners of the sun, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the prisoners of the sun, the prisoners of the sun, tintin and the prisoners of the sun, Tintin in the Congo | Leave a comment »

Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls (Review)

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Darren

Apparently, if Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is a success, Peter Jackson will be directing a sequel that will be based on the two-part story directly following The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure. I’m already anticipating that, seen as The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun are probably among my favourite Tintin stories, and I can actually see the rather wonderful conflict between mysticism and rationality playing out really well on the big-screen. It’s pure unadulterated pulp fiction, and it’s pulp fiction done exceptionally well.