THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADELE BLANC-SEC

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)
Directed by: Luc Besson
Written by: Jacques Tardi, Luc Besson
Starring: Gilles Lellouche, Louise Bourgoin, Mathieu Amalric

THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADELE BLANC-SEC

RUNNING TIME: 103 mins

DISTRIBUTED BY:Optimum Releasing

REVIEWED BY:Dr Lenera, Official HCF Critic

In Paris 1911, the eccentric Professor Esperandieu has used his mind to hatch a Pterodactyl from an egg in his possession, but the creature escapes and Esperandieu has trouble keeping it under control. Meanwhile, intrepid journalist Adele Blanc-Sec is in an Egyptian tomb, trying to locate the mummy of a doctor. She succeeds but only just about escapes with her life after an encounter with her arch-enemy, the evil Dieuleveult. Back in Paris, she plans to use Esperandieu to revive the mummy so he can cure her catatonic sister, but he is imprisoned by the police and the Pterodactyl is still loose…..

Luc Besson used to be one of my favourite directors with films like The Big Blue, Nikita and his masterpiece Leon, but I reckon many fans would feel he’s slipped a bit since those glory days [though the films are still always worth a look], and The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec for this critic is his weakest film yet. You may have heard that this is something of a French Indiana Jones movie, but apart from one sequence near the beginning, it isn’t anything like one at all. It’s a very strange, light-hearted quirky fantasy that undoubtably has a bit of charm but is nowhere near as funny as it thinks it is and may end up annoying the viewer. I found the film frustrating viewing, because it looks great and has quite an original feel about it, but doesn’t seem to know what to do with neither its’ plot nor its’ heroine and actually borders on being dull at times. It always seems on the verge of getting good and never really succeeds.

We open with a narrator introducing us to the various characters and this may put you off immediately. With the exception of some film noir and for some reason the films of Terence Malick [where the narration is part of the ‘art’ of the films], I’ve never been a fan of narration in movies, it seems lazy and takes me out of what I’m watching. For some reason, French cinema often resorts to narration and it annoys the hell out of me; I certainly appreciate classics like Jules et Jim, but I’d like them a whole lot more if the bloody narrator would shut up once in a while! In The Extroardinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec, there is something like twenty minutes of virtually non-stop narration to set everything up, but then it thankfully goes away. We soon go into the brief Indiana Jones-like bit with Adele in the Egyptian tomb, replete with a foe who seems to play a similar role to Bellocq in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and a rather short but cool escape from him and some flames. After this, though, the film returns to Paris and mostly consists of all the film’s characters trying to catch this Pterodactyl. It’s extremely frustrating that the movie has this wonderful heroine and totally wastes her in a stupid and boring plot about a bloody Pterodactyl which doesn’t really do much anyway. Towards the end the subplot about Adele’s sister takes over and there are some wonderfully surreal scenes involving mummies walking around Paris and talking in French, though nothing is really done with them. Yes it’s a refreshing change not to have them as menaces, but just having them wander about for a couple of minutes and then presumably head back to Egypt is such a waste.

Much of the film’s humour revolves around two characters, Inspector Albert Caponi and the big game hunter Andrej Zborowski out to catch the Pterodactl. Caponi comes across as almost a variation on Inspector Clouseau with his incompetence and his mishaps, which include having the Pterodactyl shit on him, but after a while the silliness wears thin, chiefly because the humour is never actually hiliarious [the longest reoccurring joke involves the Inspector being unable to say the word Pterodactyl right], it’s just a bit amusing, so the constant use of it begins to grate after a while. The sight of Caponi and Zborowski dressed partially as sheep as part of a plan to catch the flying menace is undoubtably funny, but their scenes become more tedious as the movie goes on. I did, though, really like the lengthy section where Adele uses a variety of disguises to break Esperandieu out of prison, it’s both very funny and very clever. Of course this emphasis on only-occasionally successful humour means that there is no urgency whatsoever to the story except for Adele wanting to cure her sister, which is handled well enough for you to care. For the most part though, despite the occasional randomness and imaginative touch, the film just doesn’t really work, and what’s with that cruel black joke at the end? It’s really out of place. The whole movie was based on a comic strip and was apparently taken specifically from two specific stories, but I would say it just doesn’t translate to the screen and they should have left it well alone. At least visually the film looks pretty, and by and large the CG effects do the job.

The film’s real saving grace, the thing that makes it watchable and sometimes enjoyable, is its’ heroine. Adele is adorable, sweet and very cool, from her casual attitude to everything from bringing a dead person to life to riding the Pterodactyl, to the charming way she gets sidetracked, to her total determination to succeed. The lovely Louise Bourgoin does a really great job here, the trouble is that it’s almost painful to watch how such a great character and performance can be so badly used in a film. Then again, you could say that about most of the cast, who all do a great job, though second billed Matthieu Amalric is hardly in it. The score by Besson’s usual collaborator Eric Serra is disappointngly bland and uninteresting. It’s possible that The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec was made primarily for French people; we all know that humour doesn’t always travel well between countries, but considering it was a commercial failure in France, I don’t think it’s any excuse for the movie being so lame. There have been far worse film so far this year, and I’m sure there will be far worse films to come, but for me this ranks as one of the year’s biggest disappointments. Luc Besson, wherever you are, please come back to us.

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