“Additional greetings and salutations from Texas. I was able to escape for one of my Dawn Dawn double features yesterday. That’s really the only way for me to maintain any shred of sanity while in the Lone Star State. What was annoying is that neither of the two viable theaters (wasn’t counting the dollar theater since they’re second run so none of my choices were there) had times that were particularly conducive to a double. I seriously sat staring at my Droid for twenty minutes trying to figure out the best plan of attack. My only options involved later movies than I’d originally anticpated (although that turned out to line up with my mom’s plans quite well), and either I was gonna dash from one auditorium to the next and hope I didnt miss any previews or have a long break in between. I finally decided on the latter option, and figured I’d choose the theater at the mall so I could at least grab Chic-Fil-A (a decision I still have mixed feelings about, but at least I know they only get about 7 bucks of my money once a year) in between. I realized it also meant I could grab a Sprite before the first movie, freshen it up by pouring in my dinner drink, and then bring it back in to the second. Yay being cheap! Speaking of cheap, 10 bucks for a 3D matinee and then 12.50 for an evening matinee. I’d have easily spent another 10 or so back in Boston.
Kicked off the double with The Adventures of Tin Tin. Went into it with some fairly high hopes running off a friend’s recommendation. Those hopes ended up quite dashed. While the visual for the movie was stunning, I just couldnt quite get into it.
I feel that one major upside of reading up on current movies is that I know what to watch for and pay attention to when I’m at the theater. I’d seen something where Spielberg talked about how doing this as an animated motion capture film meant that the action sequences could be more fluid, meaning long tracking shots without having to cut. So when I saw those play out, I could really appreciate them. And yeah, they did look amazing. But the pretty was a bit hit or miss. There were times when the animated people looked almost real and others where they looked kinda scary.
Actually my favorite part of the whole film was the opening credits. Had a very strong Catch Me If You Can vibe, down to the music (and reading all those credits confirmed that it was John Williams). Of course, the big difference between this and Catch Me is that Catch Me starts off with one of the best credit sequences this side of James Bond (or David Fincher) and then procedes with an even better movie. Tin Tin started with a fantastic title sequence and then it was all downhill.
Again, I just couldnt get into the story at all. I was sitting in my chair falling asleep (which I thought didnt bode well for the later movie I had planned, but I was alert and into that one…more later). I found a lot of it predictable. I was picking up on even the slightest visual clues for all of their foreshadowing. Took all of the mystery and fun out of it. And the little bits of mystery that were left, I didnt so much care about. Also Tin Tin himself annoyed me a little bit, with his lack of inner monologue, narrating his every move and thought. Got just a wee bit old.
With Pixar pretty much outta the Oscar running this year (Cars 2 was nowhere near their former glory) the animated feature race is wide open. I’ve heard some talk of Tin Tin having a shot. While I’d give it props for the pretty, I certainly do not think it’s enough of the full package to merit some gold.
The Adventures of Tin Tin – \m/ \m/