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The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec Movie Review

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec is a 2010 French fantasy adventure film directed by Luc Besson and starring Louise Bourgoin. It’s such a charming genre flick.

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“Death is the only path that leads to birth“

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An adventurer and novelist, Adele Blanc-Sec, tries to cure her comatose sister. Her hopes lie on an eccentric professor, but things go wrong when he accidentally turns an egg into a pterodactyl. Based on the eponymous comic-book series, this is one of the rare fantasy adventure films in recent times, which is a big reason why I’ve had a wonderful time watching it. I miss these movies dearly as they are so much fun.

Clearly inspired by the comics from Europe (Belgium and France in particular), but also by ‘Indiana Jones’, the movie trumps the latter franchise due to a bigger emphasis on adventure than on tiresome action, which is more my cup of tea. There is a lot of action here and most of it is exceedingly silly, but the adventurous and fantastical elements remain the most abundant, which was refreshing to witness.

The visual effects are quite good as the pterodactyl looks great while the Ancient Egyptian elements are fantastic. I wished there were more scenes set in Egypt, but the one that we got was super fun and gorgeously shot. The scenes with the pharaohs were exceptional. Once you accept that this is a silly comedy along with being an adventure, you will have a blast as I did. The many humorous lines with the pharaohs were hilarious and their setting out to explore the streets of Paris was very amusing.

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This wouldn’t be a comic-book film without a set of colorful characters, and surely we’ve got those in spades here. The main figure, Adele, is absolutely amazing. This is by far the best adventure hero since the days of Harrison Ford as she channels not only bravado charisma and fun attitude, but also a genuine sense of excitement and even a lot of heart at her core. Her backstory with her sister was quite moving and it gave her character a lot of agency while the performance from Louise Bourgoin is simply terrific. She should be a much bigger name due to this role alone as she steals the show from everybody else and is just a joy to watch. Her line reading and facial expressions also made her a comedic talent to be admired.

The inspector character is quite funny in his food obsession while the professor character is suitably goofy and eccentric. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec has too much of that typical French humor throughout that rendered it somewhat clichéd and predictable, but most of it definitely worked and even made me chuckle. The cinematography is gorgeous as is the costume design while the production design is the technical highlight.

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The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec is a wonderful 2010 fantasy adventure the likes of which we have rarely seen in this century. It channels European comic-books as well as the Indiana Jones movies, but done better than the latter due to a refreshingly lesser emphasis on frenetic action. It has gorgeous sets, costumes and locations while the humor is also surprisingly good. It’s such an enjoyable flick that was elevated to greater heights thanks to a stupendous performance from Louise Bourgoin as the plucky, funny and immensely charming heroine.

My Rating – 4