The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

[Beate]

The film wasn't as good as I expected it to be. The animation was amazing, it looked almost real, but the story was nothing to write home about, and I thought the best character was Snowy the dog. The chases were all a bit over the top, and I hadn't expected so many guns and violent scenes in a kid's film! It also wasn't all that funny so I'll give it a 6.5/10.

We ran out afterwards and straight into Pizza Express where we had a lovely meal. When we came out the queue for the restaurant was a mile long! I briefly toyed with the idea of doing a hattrick with Contagion (starting 4.50pm at Cineworld Greenwich) but OH had had enough for the day.

So I am watching the live streaming of the Tintin Premiere here right now:
http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/10/23/wa ... ve-stream/

[moggers]

We seen this at the Glasgow showcase, DD and I really enjoyed it. Many thanks to MGellatly who kindly gave us the tickets. Captain Haddock and Snowy were the best characters. I think they should have explained Tin Tin's history a bit more before jumping in with the story. The facial expressions were amazing but the 3D was a bit pointless.

[canadian_turtle]

So we ran out of the Greenwich PH at 5 to 1pm and missed the DLR by a second which caused me to get into a big "f**k it!" tantrum as I felt those 5 minutes would be the difference between balcony or no balcony seats. Little did I know! We were joined by a_person and MrG but somehow managed to lose them again on the way into the Jubilee Line. So we practically ran into the Cineworld Greenwich, ignored the masses going into the superscreen downstairs and raced up the escalator to the balcony. Strangely, there was no usher around so I yanked open the door - and stopped dead.

There was no one around. No seat was occupied. It was totally empty.

So we gingerly sat down in our favourite seats and started phoning people. Turns out everyone else had gone into the downstairs bit, and I didn't want to risk going all the way down for popcorn again, somehow sensing that something was amiss. After 10 minutes finally another family came in and sat down. A few more people turned up and suddenly one or two officials came in and we were told that, actually, the balcony was closed today. Didn't we notice that there were no ushers around taking our tickets? "Erm, yes, but we didn't think anything of it." Well, he'd have to ask us to leave please. I said, "but why is it closed, it's always part of the screening and if we go down there now, we will only get rubbish seats which is unfair considering how long we'd been here already." He thought for a moment, and then said "ok, on this occasion I will let you stay here but in future you have to have your tickets checked first by someone. Enjoy the space". And went out. PHEW. It filled up a bit more but not too much, and then all of a sudden I saw two big, burly black guys come towards us, looking official. Uh-oh, I thought, we are going to be thrown out after all. But they just said they were security and could we make sure our phones were turned off please. No problem, sir!

Haha The Adventures of Beate: The Secret of the Balcony Seats, more like!

[Sunny Saver]

Beate: you sound like you did a lot of running today, running out of Greenwich PH, running into Cineworld Greenwhich, running to Pizza Express!

[brettie]

thanks everyone, will see in 2d

[David]

The guy from Paramount was really funny today. He made about 4 announcements before the screening telling people to turn their phones off (quite rightly) but kept saying how he will be watching to make sure there are no flashes of light or he will assume there has been a breach of copyright and you will be ejected IMMEDIATELY. It was like having a very strict schoolmaster (although with the age of the audience that might have been handy). Honestly, I don't think people recording a 3D film on their blackberry is a very likely infringement of copyright as I imagine the quality would be pointless and terrible. But he took his job extremely seriously so at least it meant no one took their phone out mid-film! I think the real problem of copyright is how DVD quality rips of films end up online while they're only just released. That's want Paramount should be tackling.

[Rainey]

I ventured up to the O2 to watch this today, hoped to meet a few people and had some numbers so was going to text before the film...but got told to turn my phone off at 1.10pm. I was sitting to the left off the back row, there were a group of people who I suspected may have been some of you in the centre of the row as everyone seemed to know each other! I have to say what a lovely big screen with nice seats and lots of leg room, only thing to spoil it was the kids in front of us throwing popcorn all over the place, after the second bit hit us I did get up and asked them to stop, mother seemed oblivious though and the odd bit still went flying (should have seen the state of their seats on the way out - would of made my kids clean it up in fact I would have crucified them!) and they chatted quite a lot through the film too.

As for the film, I quite enjoyed it but it was nothing special, the 3D was a waste of time and it made the picture quite dark. I also thought the animation was amazing and very life like at times, my daughter loved Snowy the dog and thought the Thompson twin policemen very funny. The drunk Captain Haddock was also very funny.

[charanjitw]

I really enjoyed this, was surprised that the o2 was not completely packed! The animation was great and made the characters look really life-like. I loved the storyline and the characters and am really looking forward to the next one now! My only criticism is that it went on a little too long for me, I think they could have chopped off 10 mins at the end.

Much better than expected, would recommend people go see it! :)

[opas]

I might be in the minority here but I really didn't enjoy this. I can't help but feel that since the last Indy movie, Spielberg has really lost his magical storytelling abilities, focusing instead on thrilling action sequences rather than character development. The TinTin character was bland as hell and the story ridiculously contrived bordering on Looney Tunes insanity. However, it did look good. DAMN f**king good! This could possibly be the best looking animated movie I've ever seen. Just amazing! Pity there was nothing there of substance beneath the brilliant visuals.

I have to agree with jramjee on this. Was quite disappointed but maybe I was expecting a lot. Think the delayed start with all the adverts/trailers didn't help. I was getting quite impatient.

I noticed my sky ticket said it was a U rating but when it was shown on screen it said PG. There were many young children there (under 7/8) and I'm not sure if they would have found it easy to follow. In fact the story telling did feel quite clunky. The intricacies of the mysteries and the way it is solved bit by bit is one of the reasons I like Tin Tin so that did disappoint me. 6.5/10.

Did like the later time of the screening though, didn't lose my Sunday morning lie in .

[prettyxcool]

I really enjoyed this, was surprised that the o2 was not completely packed! The animation was great and made the characters look really life-like. I loved the storyline and the characters and am really looking forward to the next one now! My only criticism is that it went on a little too long for me, I think they could have chopped off 10 mins at the end.

Much better than expected, would recommend people go see it! :)

I really enjoyed this too! Agree with you charanjitw - loved the really life-like animation. I love the TinTin comic books and grew up with them, so it really came to life for me! It is actually an adaption of three stories, and TinTin has always been quite a bland character in the comics, just a good guy, a reporter, but it is his adventures and scrapes he gets into that I enjoy and Snowy! Didn't think the 3D did much for the film, made it too dark, and I too felt the film was slightly too long, perhaps, it was hard to wear 3D glasses for such a long length of time. It was really tiring.

It was worth rushing from PH Greenwich for this though. When Ides of March finished, I turned around, and all the FMUKers were gone! When I got to O2 at 1.30pm, saw MrG and a_person and weirdy in the queue. We all managed to sit together, thankfully, as my friend got there early and saved us seats, and weirdy saved Mr G and a _person seats. We were in the centre of the back row, and they were in the row in front, so rainylb, such a shame, I must have walked past you several times!!

The queues for the popcorn was horrendous, managed to get ours at 1.55pm, after about 15 minutes wait! What was funny was that obviously, a_person had been to the same till before us, as she left the stickers that I just gave to her on the counter (I picked them up for her at Disney). I thought it looked familier! But what was the chances of that, so I managed to give them back to her!

It was really hard to find any other FMUKer, as security was out in force, shouting at people to turn their phones off. I stealthily tried to get in touch with Beate, but she was up on the balcony and it was too late and too cumbersome to look for her. Sorry, Beate, as I had your popcorn voucher!

8/10