The Adventures of Tintin/The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011) - Affinities for Tintin, earlier Spielberg and film will decide your experience of this 3D mo-cap adventure

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The contours of the well-known cartoon characters stand out on this adventurous poster for Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin

Tintin buys a model ship at a market, which is instantly coveted by the sinister, reckless Ivan Sakharine. Our young journalist hero and his dog Snowy will get to the bottom of the mystery!

The Adventures of Tintin is written by Steven Moffat (Coupling (2000-04)), Edgar Wright (Baby Driver (2017)) and Joe Cornish (Ant-Man (2015)), based on Belgian artist Hergé's (Fred and Mile (1931)) Tintin comics The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941), The Secret of the Unicorn  (1943) and Red Rackham's Treasure (1944), and directed by Ohioan master filmmaker Steven Spielberg (Hook (1991)).
The film is made as a motion capture animation, which means that actors have acted in special suits and had their performances captured for use for animators, who have created the characters and film with inspiration from these performances.
The film moves a bit too fast for us to really fathom the logic behind the fantastic plot; the filmmakers have focused too much on the incredible action sequences to enable this. Some of these, however, are rousing, funny and impressive, - with a 'camera' that leads one more to think of video games than films. - But they are allowed to drown out some of the stage that should have been used for storytelling.
Best in the film is, without a doubt, Captain Haddock whom Andy Serkis (War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)) gives fine life and his wonderful voice. The other characters are brought to life with varying degrees of luck, - some simply seem to lack just that; life. I couldn't help but miss Tintin actor Jamie Bell's (Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017)) real physical presence.
Some older audiences will not be able to watch The Adventures of Tintin without dreaming themselves back to the good old days of Indiana Jones (the memorable first three films were made by Spielberg in 1981, 1984 and 1989), as the movie icon Spielberg really walks the opposite, modern CGI plank all out here. The Adventures of Tintin is a mixed experience.

Related posts:

Steven Spielberg: War Horse (2011) - Spielberg visits WWI with problematic horse drama Super 8 (2011) - Abrams' nostalgic family crowdpleaser (producer)
Band of Brothers - TV mini-series (2001) - WWII-sacrifice and -comradeship portrayed with skill and integrity (producer)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - A robot fairy tale with both heart and mind
Amistad (1997) or, Must... Free... Slaves! 
Empire of the Sun (1987) - Spielberg's grand production of boy-in-China-during-WWII is a misfire
Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - Spielberg's greatest accomplishment
1941 (1979) - Spielberg's bizarre 'comedy spectacular' sinks like a rock  
Top 10: Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Duel (1971) - Spielberg's truck terror is ideal afternoon fare

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 135 mil. $
Box office: 373.9 mil. $
= Box office success
[The Adventures of Tintin premiered 23 October (Brussels, Belgium and Paris, France) and runs 107 minutes. Spielberg discovered Tintin and Hergé during his making Raiders of the Last Ark (1981), the first Indiana Jones movie. Hergé also became a Spielberg fan and wanted him to get the film rights but passed away before the two had met. Jack Nicholson and Roman Polanski were in talks to make Tintin movies in the following years, before Spielberg announced an animated Tintin film and partnered with fellow Tintin fan Peter Jackson (who acted as one of the first film's producers) on a mo-cap (motion capture) version, the first film to be directed by Spielberg, the second by Jackson and a possible third film co-directed by the two. Filming took place from January - March 2009 in New Zealand. The film opened #5, behind Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the only other new release in the top 5) and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, to a disappointing 9.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it earned more in the following week but left the top 5 and ended up grossing a slight 77.5 mil. $ (20.7 %), undoubtedly influenced by Americans' lesser familiarity with the Hergé source material than, especially, Europeans. The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 53.9 mil. $ (14.4 %) and the UK with 25.9 mil. $ (6.9 %). The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Score (John Williams, who was also nominated for Spielberg's other 2011 disappointment, War Horse), which it lost to Ludovic Bource for The Artist. It also won a Golden Globe, was nominated for two BAFTAs, a Grammy and many other honors. The sequel plans have sat on the backburner since the good but not impressive performance of Spielberg's first film. The Adventures of Tintin is certified fresh at 75 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Adventures of Tintin?

Baby Driver (2017) - Wright's coky Elgort love letter is mostly for excited teens

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A stylized and cool-to-look-at poster for Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, - but don't the speed stripes in front of the red car indicate that it's speeding backwards, and soon right into at least two other cars? - What's going on?

Baby is a uniquely skilled driver, who is driving for a serious crime kingpin to work off his debt, as he falls for a young waitress and comes to realize that his chances of leaving the criminal path he is on might be very small.

Baby Driver is a hip and happening film this summer according to many critics and audiences, (though their number isn't up there with the tentpole monsters it competes against.) It is written and directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead (2004)). As a fan of good heist, car and action movies, I enjoyed some of the car chases in the film, especially one after a heist in which an incensed army veteran takes after the criminals and tries to stop them. The action and chases are well-done, though with no chance of going down in cinema history as something extraordinary.
Through the film, - which to me seems youth-eschewed to the point where I'd label it a youth movie (besides a romance, action, heist and car movie), - I felt strongly that Wright must have been on drugs while doing it, likely cocaine. The exhaustive pace, shallow playfulness and incredible love the film seems to have for itself throughout, coupled with its technical astuteness, were what made me jump to this personal conclusion, (I have no way of knowing if it's in any way true.)
The film revolves around Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars (2014)), whom Wright and his camera seems positively infatuated with. Elgort does fine, I think; I just felt too old to really get into this fantasy, where someone who mostly looks like an average teenager is a key player for a band of hardened criminals. I might have swallowed it whole, if I were one myself, but what exactly is supposed to be the attraction in this for adults? Perhaps Wright knows something I don't see; or perhaps he is just a teenager at heart still, and I am not. Elgort falls for Lily James (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)), who is pretty but fast forgotten here in a movie romance that recalls countless past movie romances in a pretty self-satisfied, referential style and is very neat and didn't succeed in raising my heartbeat for even a second.
Jon Hamm (Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016)), Jamie Foxx (Stealth (2005)) and Kevin Spacey (Shrink (2009)) are all excellently cast heavies here, but they function mostly as adult eye candy in a universe so stylized and far off that unless the very combination of them here in this dazzles you, or you're an enthusiastic younger movie lover (aged 12 - 19), it may feel like a distant revisitation of the Quentin Tarantino-ruled 1990s school of filmmaking.
The film is hailed for its artist-filled soundtrack, just as Tarantino's works often, and in some cases rightly, have been and are, but it isn't all that it's cranked up to be, and many of the songs are only dropped very briefly in the rushed narrative.
Baby Driver is a gimmicky ride from a talented filmmaker who seems intent on his own juvenile fixations (and might be doing tons of coke.) Maybe it will be more for you than it was for me.

Related posts:

Edgar Wright: Ant-Man (2015) - Reed and Rudd succeed with light, refreshing, FX-driven 3D spectacle (writer) 
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) - Wright's comic book nonsense is a terrible and costly studio misstep

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 34 mil. $
Box office: 70.8 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Baby Driver premiered 11 March (SXSW Film Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 113 minutes. Wright conceived the idea for the film in 1994, when he was 20 years old (!), and managed to get backing for this 20-year-old dream after leaving directing Ant-Man (2015), - which was then directed by Peyton Reed. Michael Douglas and Emma Stone were in talks for parts eventually filled by others. Filming took place in New Orleans, Louisiana and in Georgia, including in Atlanta from February - May 2016. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Despicable Me 3, to a 20.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it has now in its second week fallen to #3 and already grossed 56.8 mil. $. It will open in several large foreign markets from now until September and is likely to gross way past 100 mil. $, perhaps ending as high as 150. A sequel is already proposed. Baby Driver is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Baby Driver?

Ant-Man (2015) - Reed and Rudd succeed with light, refreshing, FX-driven 3D spectacle

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+ Best Superhero Movie of the Year

 

The handsomely designed, almost popcorn-smelling poster for Peyton Reed's Ant-Man

Hank Pym is an alienated business pioneer in the field of minimizing the human being for military purposes. He now wants to protect his company by making an ant-man out of an unsuccessful petty criminal.

Michael Douglas (The China Syndrome (1979)) makes an impressive comeback in this his highest-grossing pic to date, and he works well as the person that the film's protagonist ant-man Paul Rudd (The Simpsons (2011-14)) plays up against. Rudd's three friends in the film, played by Michael Peña (Cesar Chavez (2014)), T.I. (Get Hard (2015)) and David Dastmalchian (Chronic (2015)), add to the fresh sense of fun that this self-ironic movie benefits from, - Peña especially.
Ant-Man is truly a spectacular special effects film, and so watching it without the 3D element some of the point of the film evaporates, and especially in that case, some adult audiences might have to really force themselves to stick with its naturally loony plot. It is phallocentric but done with an infectious energy and a lightness to it. The film also boasts a tremendous climax. It is written by Joe Cornish (The Adventures of Tintin (2011)), Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz (2007)), Rudd and Adam McKay (The Other Guys (2010)) and directed by Peyton Reed (Yes Man (2008)).

Related posts:

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 130 mil $

Box office: 519.3 mil. $

= Big hit

[Ant-Man premiered June 29 (Hollywood's Dolby Theatre) and runs 117 minutes. The film had been in development since the late 1980s. Wright was hired as director and shot footage before he was replaced by Reed, reportedly because Wright's vision was too removed from the overall Marvel cinematic universe. Filming took place from August - December 2014 in Georgia and California. The film opened #1 with a 57.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for another week and spent a total of 4 weeks in the top 5 and grossed 180.2 mil. $ (34.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 105.3 mil. $ (20.3 %) and the UK with 25.1 mil. $ (4.8 %). The film was nominated for a BAFTA for its visual effects. Deadline.com have calculated the film's profits to 103.9 mil. $, figuring in most all costs and profits, making it the 14th most valuable movie of the year. A sequel, with Rudd, Peña and Reed already signed on, is set for a 2018 summer release. Ant-Man is certified fresh at 81 % with a 6.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Ant-Man?

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) - Wright's comic book nonsense is a terrible and costly studio misstep

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+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

 

Michael Cera appears on this poster for Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World to be a rock guitar-loving kid (in a mysterious movie that promises 'epicness')

 

Scott is a lazy teenager who is dating another lazy teenager, but to win her over, he must beat her seven evil exes.

 

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is an adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's (Lost at Sea (2003)) first five (2004-09) Scott Pilgrim comic books, which very quickly grows very tiring. It appears to have been created for the more irksome segment of emo youths as a busy, speed-talking explosion of colors, graphics and chop-chop editing, which is all over the place and nowhere at all at the same time. The film is not fundamentally about anything and what's worse, it isn't exciting, romantic or funny.

Michael Cera (Juno (2007)) has lots of fight scenes (...!), but most of all I felt like punching him in the throat during Scott Pilgrim. Quite a few talented actors have been attracted to the film's nonsense material, (probably by handsome studio paychecks and co-writer-director Edgar Wright's (Shaun of the dead (2004)) previous films.

Wright co-wrote the script with Michael Bacall (21 Jump Street (2012)). From watching Scott Pilgrim, you'd think the two must be as immature as their awful teen-pandering turkey.

Piece of advice: The outtakes on the DVD last less than 10 minutes and are a lot more fun than the film itself.

 

Related posts:

 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Around 60 mil. $ (down from 85-90 mil. $ through Canadian tax rebates)

Box office: 47.6 mil. $

= Huge flop

[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World premiered July 27 (Fantasia Festival) and runs 112 minutes. Filming took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from March - August 2009, reportedly the biggest film identifiably set in Toronto to date. The film opened #5 to a 10.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, behind The Expendables, Eat Pray Love, The Other Guys and Inception, dropping to #10 in its second week and grossing 31.5 mil. $ (66.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 8.4 mil. $ (17.6 %) and Australia with 2.8 mil. $ (5.9 %). Strangely for a film that is a US/UK/Canadian/Japanese co-production, the film has no Japanese gross listed on Box Office Mojo. The film made in excess of 27.3 mil. $ on DVDs and Blu-rays in North America, which, if taken into account, changes the film's status to big flop only. Although the film was lambasted by several critics, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World?