Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin, the long-awaited onscreen version of the beloved graphic novels, merges three of the most popular books into one brisk, charming, enjoyable romp. As someone who hasn’t read the graphic novels since I was 5 or 6, I can’t speak for how diehard admirers might react to the film, but for me, The Adventures of Tintin has the exact same feel as Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can from 2002—an expertly paced, light flick that’s essentially well-executed across the board, but never aims too high. While there’s absolutely nothing to actively dislike about The Adventures of Tintin, there very little to deeply admire either, aside from easily the best motion-capture animation that’s I’ve seen to date. It’s polished and smooth, and helps make Tintin’s world much more realistic than we’re accustomed to from the genre. Otherwise, though, everything falls under the umbrella of “good.” The (voice) acting, the script, the story itself…it’s all fine, but nothing to write home about. Of course, this is a large part of modern-day Spielberg—he rarely swings for the fences anymore, like he did with Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1975) or Schindler’s List (1993), and it seems unlikely that War Horse, his other 2011 release, will buck that trend. Still, we can be thankful that we still have a director who can give us consistent, blockbuster goodness without morphing into Michael Bay, and Spielberg certainly fits that bill: there’s more than enough magic left in his directorial chair to keep The Adventures of Tintin entertaining. I just wish he’d pushed the envelope a bit further…but maybe he did more than enough to satisfy the legions of Tintin fans out there. I’m eager to find out.

64/100