The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Review

Luc Besson directs his first live action film since 2005’s Angel-A with this adaptation of Jacques Tardi’s quaint seventies comic strip, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec. To be simplistic, it’s easiest to think of this film as a French, female version of Indiana Jones with an odd streak a mile wide. Adèle is an intrepid and resourceful young journalist who travels the world exploring its wonders. We find our heroine in Egypt, recovering the lost sarcophagus of an Ancient Egyptian doctor, whom Adèle believes can impart vital lost knowledge that can revive her sister who has been incapacitated in a freak accident; that is, if the Egyptian can be resurrected by a local scientist who has learned to do so by hatching a pterodactyl egg whose ancient occupant is now flying around terrorising gay Paris. Did you get all that?

The film should be a total mess and it’s a credit to Besson that the thing actually manages to hang together quite well. Besson demonstrates his eye for beautiful and talented leading ladies in Louise Bourgoin, who carries the film admirably. She is a charismatic and charming presence as Adèle and the film’s pace noticeably lags when she is off screen.

The film is close in spirit to that other luminary of French quirkiness, Amelie, as well as the wild invention of Terry Gilliam; never afraid to allow such trifling matters as sensibility and restraint get in the way of telling a rollicking good story.

A little annoying were some of the subtitles, which while generally fine, on occasion seemed to be omitting something, though perhaps this is just a routine problem of translation. Also jarring was the single scene Adèle spends in her birthday suit, which was an odd and largely unnecessary addition in what would otherwise be a rather fun family film (it received a 12a rating). That said, there’s probably much worse things kids could be seeing than a pretty French woman in the bath with her norks out, such as the unrelentingly brutal (if mechanical) violence of the similarly ratedTransformers films. There are also a couple of moments of dodgy CGI, which does bring you out of the action somewhat, but it’s quite easy to ignore this and other flaws given the quality of the film overall.

All told, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec is a fun, exciting feature, filled with joie de vivre. There are numerous amusing set pieces, a host of likable characters (even the baddies), some great moments of creativity, plenty of humour and a wonderful leading actress playing a lovely character. One hopes further adventures aren’t too far away.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec is in cinemas across the UK