Besson, a director who cut his teeth on the hyper-stylized violence of La Femme Nikita and Léon: The Professional, here pivots to a tone that is almost frothy—but never frivolous. The film moves at the pace of a silent serial, with abrupt cuts, irises, and title cards that feel like affectionate winks. But Besson’s true genius is in how he stacks absurdities.
Consider the plot: a pterodactyl hatches from a prehistoric egg in the Museum of Natural History and terrorizes 1912 Paris. Meanwhile, a mad scientist (played with deliciously droopy-eyed despair by Jacky Nercessian) attempts to revive a mummified Egyptian pharaoh’s doctor using psychic energy. Adèle’s primary goal? To resurrect a dead professor so he can heal her sister from a freak accident caused by a hatpin. That the resurrection involves a second mummy, a corrupt police chief, a preening marksman, and a very confused taxidermist is simply Tuesday. The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-sec -2010
Besson directs with the confidence of a filmmaker who knows the genre’s clichés are its greatest strength. The CGI pterodactyl is cartoonish, not terrifying. The mummies (led by the deadpan, scene-stealing Moussa Maaskri as the resurrected Ramses II’s personal physician) shuffle with arthritic dignity. The violence is bloodless, the stakes are low, and the humor is bone-dry. It’s a film that believes joy is more valuable than tension. Besson, a director who cut his teeth on
Set in Belle Époque Paris, the film follows Adèle Blanc-Sec (Louise Bourgoin), a bestselling adventure novelist who is far more competent than any police officer or professor she meets. When her sister becomes comatose after a freak accident involving a mummy’s thorn, Adèle travels to Egypt to rob a tomb for the only cure: a mummified doctor. The plot zigzags between Egypt, Paris, and a
Meanwhile, back in Paris:
The plot zigzags between Egypt, Paris, and a laboratory full of resurrected mummies who just want to smoke cigars and go home.
The film interweaves two distinct storylines that eventually collide.