The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010) Movie Review, Trailer and Poster

France 2010
Director: Luc Besson
Cast: Louise Bourgoin, Mathieu Amalric, Gilles Lellouche, Jean-Paul Rouve, Jacky Nercessian
Rating: Not Rated
Language: French
Release Date: 14 April 2010
Running Time: 1 hour 47 minutes

The Movie Review

When I watched this French flick, I was quite surprised to see there were two studios playing Adèle. Whow, there must be so many people that were interested with this one. "Should I watch it too?" But that has proofed to be a futile question, since I came to the movie with my girlfriend (Ups... Sorry My Wife! Yeahhh We're married!!) hehehe excuse me for that sudden burst of happiness :-D, anyways, since I came with my wife, for most of the time I just watch what she wishes, and since she has this thing about France, it's an absolute thing for me to watch Adèle. I just hope for the best.


The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

Adèle Blanc-Sec revolves around the adventure of a vigorous young female journalist named Adèle Blanc-Sec. On her latest assignment, she's sent to go to a certain country but she instead goes to Egypt. Not for a holiday but for a certain bewildering mission of her own. What mission? To bring back the dead. And to achieve her goal, Adèle decides to break into a Pharaoh tomb to "borrow" the mummy of Pharaoh's personal doctor. Actually Adèle is not trying to master some occult practices or something, but she simple wants to revive her poor sister from a comma.

Meanwhile, Adèle's best friend who is a prominent scientist, Professor Espérandieu (Jacky Nercessian), is hatching a 136-million-year-old Pterodactyl egg which was located inside the Museum of Natural History in Paris. The hungry Pterodactyl is flying all over Paris searching for food and eventually killing 3 people before it finally reaches Professor Espérandieu's apartment. However this incredible phenomenon is not such an achievement for the police, thus making Professor a near distant victim of the infamous Guillotine.

Adèle, realizing that "borrowing" the mummy alone is not enough and noticing how good the professor is with his telepathic power, Adèle rushes to save the Professor with all her witty plans. Including one that involves the Pterodactyl itself. Could Adèle save him before the guillotine falls down on the professor's neck? And what will happen Adèle's sister and the mummy?

It was Saturday nite, and the mall was crowded with so many people, kids and grown ups alike, there's even a fashion show on the ground floor. The cinema was also quite full of people, but the studio where I watched Adèle wasn't that crowded. But I can sense that some people do have some fun watching Adèle. As for myself, I was rather disappointed actually. Most of the elements are seemingly half-baked...

Adèle Blanc-Sec is based on a Franco-Belgian comics series written back in the 70s by Jacques Tardi. I was and still am a great fan of Franco-Belgian comic books, especially Agent 212, Asterix, Lucky Luke and Yakari. But unfortunately, Adèle Blanc Sec was something very alien to me. All I can say is purely based on something I saw on the movie theatre, and I'm not very contented with the contents.

For starter, the Pterodactyl looks really out-of-place, it feels that the prehistoric bird was put only for shock value. I wish there are many of them, instead of just one, but then again, how is it possible for a museum to store dozens of dinosaur eggs while finding one is already a tremendous achievement, right? And then the Egypt adventure, where Adèle is confronting her enemies inside the pyramid. The chasing scene is a ok but we've seen too many of that before, plus the villain is too weird-looking. But I'm giving credits for the colorful characters in this movie, and most of all the editing and the fast pacing. The truth is, I didn't have much time to complain, because the movie moves rather rapidly and it presents you with something new (and bizarre).

It's such a loss that the comedy is a hit and miss. I heard quite many laughter but mostly those were just chuckles. The comedy is too forced and childish. A combination of half-baked adventure and forced comedy did make me feel rather bored for several times. But even so the performance of Louise Bourgoin is praiseworthy. In Adèle, she looks so witty, fun and high-spirited as if she was blessed with a sunny disposition. And I do think I need to tell you this matter, that for parents who are planning to take their kids this weekend, that you will see Louise Bourgoin bathing naked! Well topless actually. Critically speaking, the nude scene feels out of place too, even though she was absolutely gorgeous in that scene.

I really consider Adèle is more suitable as family movie, aside from the nudity. And I also think I would have enjoyed this adventure film much much more if I had seen it on DVD on my laptop or TV instead of on Cinema. If you got the original French-language version of Adèle Blanc-Sec, then you're lucky, I didn't, I watched the English-dubbed version, although the dubbing was excellent, I still prefer to hear the original French script. Anyways, Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec is kinda like The Mummy (1999) but is much more inferior in the adventure and comedy but somehow Adèle Blanc-Sec is much much more Fresh! If there's gonna be a sequel, I hope it would be a lot more "well-done". And last but not least, in case you decide to watch the movie, there's a "bonus" scene after the end credits :-) Happy Weekend mates!

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
posted: Saturday, 30 April 2011 10:52 pm