Tintin and Haddock ponder their migration from book to
screen.
Tintin: What would Hergé have thought of us?
Haddock: Turning in his
grave likely.
Tintin: Wish we had better
lines to speak.
Haddock: Too right! It’s
getting boring saying “Billions of blue blistering barnacles” over and over
again.
Tintin: Think we should have
stayed home in the comic. Everybody applauded us there.
______________
Voice-over
What’s not to applaud? Why
did the movie drag for so many people? Why did so many of us get restless and
not even grin? The movie begins well, it looks good. Give it 50% for looks?
The flaw. Pragmatically, the
dialogue is stilted and wooden. Sure, a movie should be action, and too much
talk will slow it down and clutter it up. But in TinTin and the Secret of the
Unicorn, too much action clutters it up, and talk drags it down (e.g. when
Thompson and Thomson stumble on the wallet pickpocket). Hergé’s light lilt
doesn’t migrate across the media.
Action movies can be elevated
by decent dialogue. Some comics should stay comics. At least until a dialogue doctor checks out the lines. Sorry.
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2 comments:
I agree. A good dialogue makes you think. In life. In a film. Even in a cartoon like Tintin. Words teach.
Gratifying to hear from someone else who shares the view that "words teach." Even in a visually-driven and feeling-focused medium like film.
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