Only a true fan could have made this film and director Steven Spielberg completely indulges himself in the world of Tintin and Herge. He often keeps the shot wide or medium which lets the audience view and admire the beautifully animated landscapes and locations. Spielberg must have known the weight of expectation on his shoulders when making the movie, and he never diverts from Herge’s original M.O; adventure, mystery and thrilling action. If you’ve read our interview with Tintinologist Michael Farr, then you’ll know Herge (back in the day) named Spielberg as the man to bring Tintin to the big screen, and it’s done with a huge amount of love and passion.

The Adventures of Tintin is surely the pinnacle of motion capture, and Spielberg treats the technology like an over-excited child with a super 8 camera and a toy set; he fluidly moves the action across scenes and locations and the action set pieces are pure spectacle. In a scene in which Captain Haddock recounts the story of the Unicorn, Spielberg cuts the action between Haddock recounting the story and the actual events in the past. The frame whizzes around at high speeds and cuts effortlessly between both locations, it’s stunning, and the action sequences on board the Unicorn are truly magical, I was in effing awe.

Screenwriters Moffat, Wright and Cornish have freely taken story points from across the Tintin volumes and have created a patchwork quilt of a script, which perfectly matches up to any Herge story. The cast all fill their roles well, and the animators have done a great job re-creating the characters on screen. When it comes to Tintin himself, considering that Herge’s drawings of the boy hero lacked any great amount of detail surrounding his facial features, I thought he looked pretty good in the film. Pegg and Frost also shine as Thompson and Thomson, and Andy Serkis is brilliant barging his way across the scene as Captain Haddock (even if his accent does sometimes drop).

The Adventures of Tintin starts not with a shot of the hero himself, but brilliantly begins with a shot of his creator Herge drawing a portrait of Tintin in a busy market square. The film is littered with little in jokes and trivia, and I will need to see the film again to catch them all. Tintin is pure old school fun, full off adventure, mystery and action. I already know when I will be seeing the film again upon its release, and I cannot wait.

Will Pond.

It suits Serge Gainsbourg well that director Joann Sfar chooses not to just follow the usual plodding linier line of events that create the narrative structure of most musical biopics, but opts to instead make his debut directorial feature as unique, eccentric and unusual as the man it is inspired by. Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is an ambitious film; as Sfar attempts to blur the line between myth and fact and reality and imagination, and in doing so creates a well-formed portrait of the man behind an icon.

Sfar strings together a fractured narrative drawn from important and influential moments from Gainsbourg’s life, using the women and relationships in his life as tent poles upon which the rest of the film hangs (You may notice on the poster Gainsbourg is framed by his two great loves, Bridgett Bardot and Jane Birkin). Sfar skilfully paints Gainsbourg at times both boastful and full of confidence but also manages to give the character a hidden shyness and shows an internal conflict between his natural urges and artistic desire. Sfar ingeniously does this by creating a physical representation off Gainsbourg’s own mind, which follows him throughout the film, changing its appearance reflecting the protagonist’s emotional state. Genius.

As a child hiding from Nazi’s in the French countryside (Gainsbourg was Jewish) he is followed by a huge round figure twice his size and at least three times his width, impossible not to see! As an adult a stick thin Ghoul with large ears and a long nose advises and, well quite frankly berates him into decisions. Doug Jones playing the Ghoul almost wraps his thin body around Gainsbourg’s and exaggerates his movements for full creepiness! Sfar draws upon his own graphic novel (which served as the source text for the screenplay) and blurs the line between reality and imagination, having characters talk to both Gainsbourg and the Ghoul at once, its mind-boggling!

The is a great film to look at; the particularly fine lighting and camera work perfectly compliment the production design, I can’t think of a single frame that wouldn’t look beautiful as a framed photograph. Of course Gainsbourg was a musician and Sfar is obviously a big fan of his music, often when a song plays the film stops dead in its tracks and just admires the musicianship. Eric Elmosnino gives one of those ‘throw yourself completely in’ performances as Gainsbourg; apart from closely resembling the musician, his performance is incredibly well judged, a scene in a police van after his Father’s death is particularly fine.

As I am writing this review I am listening to the best of Serge Gainsbourg, which I bought within about 10 mins of finishing the film. Sfar’s direction is impressive for a debut feature and I feel his cinematic career may be one to watch, the leap from comic book artist/writer to film director has proven tricky in the past (hello Frank Miller!) but he has managed it successfully. Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life paints both paints a vivid portrait of the French legend, and at the same time is loads of fun.

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life currently has a limited North American Release, and is available on DVD elsewhere.

Will Pond.

He’s a much more difficult character to handle because unlike someone like Batman (billionaire playboy by day, brooding one-man-army by night) he isn’t cool. He’s a big blue boy scout and proud of it, but unfortunately for him, since Han Solo came around all the kids want to be Wolverine, not Cyclops. So what can you do? The solution most writers and artists found was to emphasize his god-like power. This meant gigantic alien fistfights and virtually no character development. Yes they’ve killed him, brought him back to life and turned him electric blue, but have we seen these creators truly push the limits of the man of tomorrow? Has anyone tapped his true potential? I didn’t think so until I read All Star Superman.

The series doesn’t really run along a singular narrative (something that the recent animated adaptation suffered from trying to force) but sufficient to say it features a super powered Lois Lane, an encounter with Black Kryptonite, an interview with an imprisoned Lex Luthor, an excursion to Bizarro World, an altercation with Kryptonian explorers and a sun eater among other things. The scale of the series is at once epic and intimate and it succeeds in crossing many subgenres within the realm of science fiction. Presumably taking his lead from Alan Moore, Morrison is hugely respectful of the character’s rich history and revels in the opportunity to turn many of the sillier or ‘goofy’ ideas from the Silver Age into some brilliantly cool components.

This is helped in no small part by the outstanding artwork of Frank Quitely whose style transcends decades of mythology to capture the essence of the character. His depiction of Superman perfectly encapsulates his power and humility; tall, broad and a little bit clumsy. Unlike Bill of Kill Bill fame, I don’t think that Clark Kent is Superman’s critique of the human race. To me they are one in the same sharing strengths and insecurities. Quitely finds the overlap and brings it out for all to see. Together this artist and writer have found the vulnerability in a seemingly indestructible character and proceed to strip him bare with each new adventure.

In the ninth issue, Superman describes himself as ‘a scientist’s son. It’s in my nature to observe and learn…’ This is a quality in the character that helps to anchor the tone of the series. It’s a celebration of life, the universe and everything. He is not humanity’s resident strong man, more a scatterbrained genius with one hundred plates spinning at once. He is an inspiration, a symbol of human potential. This comic put a fresh spin on an already iconic character and in my opinion it is the greatest Superman story ever told. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Joe Read.

Batman Live is defiantly more Batman Forever than Batman Begins (fun fact: I stole this line from Joe Innes, don’t tell him!) so don’t go expecting any broodiness or soul searching, and no murky brown colour scheme; Batman Live is bright and loud, the stage is vibrant and full of movement, particularly helped by a large animated screen behind the performers (one of the stars of the show). The acting is completely hammy and over the top, I didn’t think anyone could ever be as plucky as the guy who played Robin is; also, look out for the faces that Batman makes in the shows final bows, looking tough dude.

Batman Live contains a vast array of entertainment from acrobatics and trapeze to dance and high flying action sequences, and although this is all very entertaining I did feel the performance was limited to just the stage and a small amount of space surrounding it, which sometimes made the action feel quite distant in such a large venue. Screens relaying the show live (like in music gigs) or bringing some of the performance out into the audience would have helped here and made some parts even more thrilling. The show has a high technical standard; all scenes ran fast one into the other, with actors appearing from behind the back curtain, up through hidden trap doors and even down from the ceiling.

Batman Live bears no resemblance to either of Christopher Nolan’s films, and I did hear some disappointed comments being thrown around as everyone left, but if the production team had gone in a ‘Nolan’ direction, half of the audience at the I attended would have been too young to even get in! It’s an awful marketing phrase, but Batman Live really is family fun, the show has some great acrobatics and lots of inventive ideas. The production has just embarked on a world tour, so go and see it when it comes to a city near you… and if you don’t have a child to take then steal one.

Will Pond.

The art is the driving force behind this adventure, dizzying and dazzling while keeping the reader fixed in another world. In fact I sometimes felt overwhelmed by some of the visual effects and distracted from a fairly simple story. If I have a problem it’s that this installment felt like Batman Inc just showing off another weapon in their arsenal.

By #6, Grant Morrison had convinced me that the operation was fully established and expanding by the second. I was impressed. But one of the biggest appeals of Morrison’s Batman has been watching the risks he is willing to take with the character. With no real challenge or depth a series can become as formulaic as a 3D CGI cartoon. However this is all very unlikely given the journey we’ve been on to get here.

I believe in Grant Morrison. You can’t argue with someone who writes villainous dialogue like, ‘Die, Batman! Die, Batman! Die, Batman! Die!’ Overall this was an enjoyable escapade, if a little light. It was fun to see Barbara and Bruce fighting side by side again and the reference to the return of an old flame was a great note to pause the series on. I might not be buzzing over the new 52 but this title will keep me coming back for many months to come.

Joe Read.

The plot that runs across both stories is surprisingly sophisticated, comprising of multiple narrative strands across a wide group of characters. Whilst this meant the book was never boring it did sometimes get a little confusing, one dodgy looking French guy looks the same as another in dark shades and a moustache! The plot often takes a sharp turn towards the absurd and down right crazy, but eventually the story always come back to our heroine. Adele Blanc-Sec takes no crap, her most used facial expression would most likely be rolling her eyes from irritation at the stupidity of others. It’s really nice to see such a strong female character at the centre of all this mayhem, and her character really pulls the book together.

Abele Blanc-Sec’s cynicism is perfectly matched by an ensemble cast of supporting characters that are at times crazy, love sick, deluded and best of all totally insane! Inspector Caponi and love struck museum worker Andrej Zborowski really stand out from among the crowd; Caponi can rarely put a foot right (as evidenced by the leg cast he gains in the second story) and manages to continually get himself into a muddle, his appearance is more than a little reminiscent of Thompson and Thomson from Tintin, although Caponi manages to make trouble all on his own.

Tardi’s artwork is great to look at; his panels are vibrant and full of life. In his hands Paris 1911 is a busy metropolitan city still hanging on to its 18^th century spirit and facade. His drawing style is very angular and cartoony, from just a quick flip through the book Joe Innes (other GCB guy) commented upon its resemblance to Kevin O’Neil’s work on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which I would say is a fair comparison. Adele Blanc-Sec herself wears her hair up tight and very rarely smiles; in fact I don’t think I spotted one in the whole thing! This book really is great to look at, and even when I had to go back over the previous pages to piece events together, I never minded since I got to look at the panels one more time.

The first volume of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec left me with more questions than answers, and volume 2’s release date of November seems all to far away! I look forward to reading more of Adele Blanc-Sec’s adventures.

Will Pond

The comparisons between Super and last years Kick-Ass are pretty obvious and have already been explored by a plethora of reviewers, I’m sure Gunn must have been more than a little cheesed off that Miller and Vaughn got there first. The differences between the films though are pretty big, whilst Kick-Ass still embraced the Hollywood aesthetic, Super completely throws it off and bears a much larger resemblance to reality. Gunn cleverly plays with the basic concept of what is right and wrong, and although Frank does everything with the best of intentions there is a huge sense of naivety to the character, and his actions would still mostly be deemed as criminal in the eyes of the law.

This film is proper Indie cinema; I would loosely describe Super as a black comedy, although the black far outweighs the comedy, by like, a metric ton. The film is incredibly violent and quite often I found myself wincing, for instance before hitting the streets Frank researches super heroes without powers and the weapons they use but eventually he just settles on hitting people very hard with a wrench.

Rainn Wilson really makes this film work, and it’s pretty difficult not to feel sympathy for him even as he is seriously hurting people for often trivial reasons. He is funny without ever cracking a joke or changing his facial expression from a resigned melancholy stare, and he really provides an emotional centre for the film. Kevin Bacon is great as the evil drug lord and Ellen Page is a load of fun as The Crimson Bolt’s sidekick Boltie, although we do not get to see enough of each.

There’s a really touching story in Super, but you just have to get past a huge amount of often-horrific violence to get to it!

Will Pond

Super is available on DVD and Blu-Ray now.

The cast is great; Chris Evans somehow manages to dominate the screen equally as the muscle bound super soldier and as the small, physically weak kid from Brooklyn. Stepping into the role can’t have been an easy task, but to his credit Evans keeps it simple and plays Cap’ just how he should be, his performance is engaging and the CGI used to reduce his body at the beginning is amazing. Hugo Weaving is always a complete pleasure to watch, and here is no different; it’s obvious he is having loads of fun playing Schmidt/The Red Skull. The accent is very ‘German’ and his mere presence on screen creates an ominous mood of tension and dread. Also, Tommy Lee Jones and Toby Jones are great.

The film does slightly loose its way somewhere in the second act, a completely miss-timed montage cuts through what could have been a nice scene of Cap’ and his team working together, and we would have been able to see Cap’ and Bucky together in the battlefield a little bit more. Also, the film’s final scene does really feel like a post credits sequence bumped up to the main feature to make way for The Avengers trailer, which by the way, looks awesome sauce.

Early in his career director Joe Johnston worked at Industrial Light & Magic on features that included Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and he has brought all of that blockbuster flare to Captain America. Johnston also directed the film adaptation of The Rocketeer in the early 1990’s, which Joe Innes loves (YEP – Ed)… Worth a mention! One of the best moments in the film is strangely enough during the credits. In the final few names; Ed Brubaker, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon all get a thank-you, among others. It’s great to see the filmmakers giving the comic writers and creators their dues.

Go and see Captain America: The First Avenger, and that’s an order soldier!

Will Pond.

To say Kevin O’Neill’s artwork contains a fair amount of sexual imagery would be an understatement; hardly a frame goes by without a quick nipple slip or worse. This is then equally reflected in Moore’s writing; who else would have made the 3 principle members of the League a love triangle? Both of the creators also take full advantage of the late 1960’s setting; the book is vibrant and full of colour, the detail in the panels is exceptional and sometimes it feels as if O’Neill’s landscapes stretch off into infinity. In the books out of body conclusion, I almost had to check that nothing had slipped into my own drink, O’Neill warps and distorts the usually geometric panels and basically displays an out of body experience as one long acid trip, it’s nuts!

Moore nicely sets up a number of different narrative strands which slowly come together as the plot progresses. I particularly liked Carter from Get Carter tracking down the satanic sect at the same time as the League, played completely for laughs with a hammy Michael Caine-esque cockney accent. The characters have moved on and developed in the 59 years since we last met them, Mina is now very different from the Victorian prude of the first two volumes, her hair has been cut short and the skirt she wears really leaves nothing to the imagination.

In the book’s final few pages, a particular character (I’m not giving anything away here!) walks through a wall next to platform ten in London’s King’s Cross Station, could this possibly mean there will be a bespectacled new member in the League’s next incarnation? Although as ace as this does sound, I can only imagine how JK Rowling would feel about it… and what Alan Moore would do with Harry’s magic wand!

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969 is released on 28/07/2011

Will Pond.

When? Whenever!

The Red Wing is the newest creator owned project by fan favourite Johnathan Hickman, and involves a load of high concept time travelling! Cadets from the 23rd century prepare to follow in their father’s footsteps as fighter pilots in a war across time in The Red Wing squadron.

Flying TAC (Temporal attack craft) pilots sneak up on enemies by flying through space in a different time period, before jumping back through time to attack or retreat, it’s all rather clever really! This produces some excellent chase/dogfight scenes as the scenery changes constantly when the pilots attempt to outmanoeuvre each other through both space and time. We fly with dinosaurs in the Tithonian Age and even dogfight over roman amphitheatres.

The dialogue is as slick as the flying, and the narrative contains backstory that feels necessary to the plot rather than forced expositional flashbacks. The characters too are very convincing.

The artwork is spaceship-tastic and makes everything feel like the best bits of every science fiction film all squeezed together into something that becomes it’s own animal entirely. It’s like George Lucas, H.G Wells, Stan Winston and James Cameron sat down together and decided to write a comic called The Red Wing.

Overall it feels like a film of epic proportions, the first few pages would make the best five minute introduction to a film ever. This is a triumphant introduction to a hopefully incredible four part story, Jonathan Hickman makes Dr. Emmet Brown proud.

John Paul de Quay.