'The Adventures Of Tintin:' Sample John Williams' Score And The First Review

Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin premieres in Paris next weekend, and on October 26 will start to hit theaters in the UK and Europe. But you don't have to wait two more weeks for some elements of the film. Previews of John Williams' score have hit the internet, so you can hear a few seconds of his classic-sounding adventure themes.

The first review of Tintin has hit, as well. It is generally quite positive; check out pullquotes from that, below.

The score samples are at CinemaMusica (via Film Music Reporter and Geeks of Doom) and will give you a taste of the eighteen tracks that will comprise the official score release. I haven't listened to all the samples, as I'd prefer to hear most of the score in the context of the film, but what I did hear is very recognizably Williams, and suggests the Tintin score might be some of his standout work for the past few years. As befits a movie like Tintin, it sounds like very big, approachable stuff; there might be a couple memorable/hummable themes in there.

And then there is the review, at Empire. The mag rates Tintin four stars out of five. Selections from the review follow, but beware that there could be spoilers. If you need one pullquote, it might be the mention of "a joyful play of opposites: the romance of old-school cinema, conjured by the slick synthesis of CG wizardry."

Empire praises the stylish opening credits ("Nouvelle Vague flourish... featuring Tintin in silhouette dashing past giant typewriters and former foes") and Andy Serkis' performance as Captain Haddock ("Serkis gives the movie its rich, flawed, bountiful heart") while noting that the script by Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, and Stephen Moffat "struggles to be out-and-out funny" when not engaging with Haddock.

And if Empire is correct, Tintin is a tremendous framework in which Spielberg can simply play:

In an exalted midsection, in which Haddock, stricken by sobriety, relays his family history, we flow with unceasing movement between his telling and a titanic sea battle of old. Here, finally, is what the medium offers a filmmaker. Spielberg reaches a delirium of creativity through match cuts and dissolves: reflections in blades, bubbles, the bottom of a whiskey bottle transformed into a telescope, and a desert morphing into a squalling ocean.

The Adventures of Tintin hits the US on December 21.