Winter Blockbusters: Spielberg and Cruise Reign

As the original blockbuster season, December is prime time for studios to deliver their major tentpole releases to drooling audiences. And last month, two particular releases showcased some of the finest thrills of the year – Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and The Adventures of Tintin. This pair of Paramount films stood out above most of the month’s biggest movies, but are they truly must-see material?

Beginning with the latest installment in the Tom Cruise-starring, director-rotating franchise, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol follows IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his teammates (Simon Pegg reprising his role from MI3, as well as newcomers Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner), who are all disavowed after being blamed for a bombing in the Kremlin. The group unites to scour the globe for the true terrorists with Russian authorities and the impending threat of nuclear war creeping ever nearer.

Ghost Protocol is the most thrilling film of the year. Crafting a smooth, fast-paced, and intelligently assembled action film, director Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Iron Giant) has proved himself a valued asset to the genre in his live-action directorial debut.  Bird wisely refrains from letting intrusive style (see John Woo’s grimy MI2) and nauseating handheld shots (see JJ Abrams flawed-but-decent MI3) get in the way of the action.  His decision to shoot key scenes in the IMAX format was well-made - every dive, punch, and crash is felt in full.

A solid, clever script from TV writers Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec blends classic MI tropes and gadgets with cutting edge action sequences and set pieces.  It’s also the most team-driven, character-conscious MI script to date. The film’s defining moment comes from Tom Cruise, who himself scaled the Burj Khalifa (world’s tallest building) in Dubai with no stuntmen.  Shot in IMAX, the sequence is nothing short of astounding.  Overall, Ghost Protocol may very well be the best in the series, and is recommended for fans and newcomers alike.  I can only hope that Paramount doesn’t wait another five years to greenlight the next installment.

In The Adventures of Tintin, based on the popular foreign comic series by Hergé, an adventurous boy journalist (Jamie Bell) purchases a seemingly cheap model ship from a street vendor on a whim.  After being accosted by an interested buyer, Tintin realizes that the ship may hold more significance than he may have thought.  Within the model, he soon discovers a clue hinting at the prospect of a lost treasure. Accompanied by his faithful canine companion Snowy, and later the drunken, eccentric Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), Tintin sets sail on a quest to recover the treasure and solve the mystery, with another interested party (Daniel Craig) hot on his tail.

Spielberg’s first directorial work since 2008’s hugely disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Tintin is an infinitely more satisfying return to the director’s pre-Schindler’s List blockbuster roots.  Spielberg was born to make classic adventure films of this kind, and even longtime collaborator John Williams seems to be getting back into fighting shape, delivering his most whimsical and memorable score in years.

Tintin shines especially bright in its technical prowess.  Utilizing motion capture technology, effects company WETA Digital bends the real-life performances of Bell, Serkis, Craig, and others to look like a merge between reality and Hergé’s original comics. The creepy uncanny valley (“dead eyes”) effect that plagued Robert Zemeckis’ Polar Express, among other films, is all but a memory.  In Tintin, eyes move, objects have weight, textures are tangible, and the overall environment appears real and lifelike.  It’s this happy medium between live action and animation that allows Spielberg to employ new and different techniques. Such is the case with a particularly impressive action sequence involving a back-and-forth mad dash for three lost scrolls through an Egyptian marketplace, taking place all in one complete shot.  An impressive feat, and practically impossible to capture in live action.

Sadly, the film is held back just enough from being one of Spielberg’s finest films of the last decade.  Its script is based on three separate Tintin comics, and they don’t quite all fit together into a cohesive, singular narrative. The second and third acts are far too quick and overstuffed, lacking sufficient quiet moments of character-building and effectively leaving the audience exhausted long before the climax is reached. Tintin occupies itself with Haddock’s drunken antics and piling action sequences to the point where even its title protagonist gets sidelined.

Taken as a whole, Tintin is an imaginative, thrilling adventure flick with plenty of technical “wow” factor and recommended for audiences of all ages.  As producer and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson takes over directorial duties on the announced follow-up, I’d like to see Spielberg helm more adventure films like this in the future. He is fast approaching the heights he once reached in his prime and may very well produce the next Jaws or Raiders of the Lost Ark soon. Here’s hoping.