Eleven years after the release of the last film in the saga asterix, actor and director Guillaume Canet seeks to reboot the popular franchise by offering a new cinematic epic based on an original screenplay and a new cast of actors. If he manages to entertain, be Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom disappoints with its lack of madness and bite.
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In France there is no more puzzling project than shooting an Asterix film. The last filmmakers who tried it (Laurent Tirard for Asterix and Obelix: At Her Majesty’s Service, and Thomas Langmann and Frédéric Forestier for Asterix at the Olympic Games) broke their teeth there and the adventures of the irreducible Gauls stopped there retouched.
Since the release of the cult comedy Mission Cléopâtre, directed by Alain Chabat in 2002, no live-action Asterix has managed to win unanimous acclaim from audiences and critics alike.
Based on an original scenario (and therefore not adapted from an existing comic book), Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom takes us back to the famous little Gaulish village in 50 BC.
While the villagers still resist the Roman invader, the Empress of China is imprisoned after a coup orchestrated by an enemy prince. With the help of a Phoenician merchant, Princess Fu-Yi, the empress’s only daughter, flees to Gaul to enlist the help of the brave Gallic warriors, who are endowed with superhuman strength thanks to their famous magic potion. The two friends Asterix and Obelix will not hesitate to devote themselves to an adventure in China to help the princess to free her mother.
A new band
Let’s put it bluntly: Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom doesn’t come close to Mission Cleopatra. This new opus directed by Guillaume Canet (Les petits mouchoirs) with a colossal budget (about 93 million US dollars) nevertheless has many qualities, including bringing to the fore the friendship between the characters of Asterix and Obelix. These are also interpreted with contagious joy by Canet and Gilles Lellouche, two good friends in life. Lellouche even manages to make us forget the great Depardieu who portrayed Obélix so well in the four previous films.
Canet also hit the nail on the head by giving Marion Cotillard the role of an emancipated Cleopatra and Vincent Cassel of a depressed Julius Caesar. A nice nod, too, to have offered Pierre Richard the character of Panoramix and the pop singer Angèle that of the beautiful Falbala.
While he had the bright idea of using Asterix to address some current issues and many of our times (feminism, veganism, etc.), Canet failed to build a plot that lasted two hours. . His film occasionally features some effective gags and puns, but to please everyone he’s dreamed up a way too nice Asterix.
Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom ★★★★★
A film by Guillaume Canet
With Guillaume Canet, Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Cassel and Marion Cotillard. On the screen.