The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec

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Lanfranco C The comic chatacter was better Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 09/06/24 Full Review Audience Member A wonderful surprise. An old fashioned, witty adventure yarn with a great leading lady and supporting cast. It's been discribed as a hyprid between Amelie and Indiana Jones, and I have to agree. But there is a lower budget charm in this tale. It has a self awareness about it's self that makes it a fun time where the characters seem to be totally in on the absurdness that the film abounds in, much to the viewers benefit. Fun and entertaining in it's own eccentric, but enchanting way. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Loved every minute of it! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Louise Bourgoin is both charming and captivating, and it's a lot of fun watching a female adventuress swashbuckle her way around the world. The story is odd, but I found it charmingly odd and lots of fun, with a lot of equally entertaining side characters. I really wish Adele had gotten a few further adventures in the form of sequels. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member Not my taste at all, but okay for what it was. Far fetched French fantasy with plucky likeable heroine. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Considered one of Luc Besson's better films from recent years, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec sounded like a stylish venture The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec opens like a film from the Indiana Jones series. The setting, the characters and much of the imagery is all reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). However, this is a shot-lived notion as soon after the film changes paths into being an odd sort of comedy. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec seems to walk an uneasy line between being an adventure film and a French farce at times, but overall it appears to have little interest in being much of an adventure. Quickly, the film turns its focus into being a ludicrous fantasy-comedy with an overblown nature to it. I'm not a viewer familiar with the subject matter that The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec is said to be loosely based on so I cannot verify its fidelity or make a case as a fan, but I can certainly say the film feels very French. Luc Besson's pre-established obsession with style over substance works very much in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec as there is little to offer in the way of story substance considering that the film is a tale of a female writer and explorer who ends up on a hunt for the pterosaur responsible for terrorizing her homeland. It is a no-brainer that viewers will have to sacrifice disbelief and rational thought if they are to enjoy such a narrative, but that is a demand that comes with essentially any Luc Besson piece. Unlike many Luc Besson films, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec appears to cater to his native market. It is respectable of the man to break away from his obsession with mimicking the Hollywood style for the first time in many years, but he is still not a director incapable of flaws. As a prominent figure in the cinema du look movement, Luc Besson has been long-established as a visionary director and little else. This is clear in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, for better and for worse. Like when the man made Arthur and the Minimoys (2006), when the CGI characters in this film are placed next to the live-action actors it becomes clearer that they are artificial products of animation. Perhaps this is played off for comic benefit in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec as there are many elements to the film which seem to be a satirical send-up of B-movies and particularly those of the 1950's in a contemporary age, so there is definetely a sense that it is intentional and can succeed with fun underlying virtues. However, it does no favours to the credibility of Luc Besson as a legitimate filmmaker and could very well just be repeating the same flaws he was panned for with treatment of CGI on Arthur and the Minimoys. Either way, the visual effects in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec are not of the highest quality. Still, those who can look past it or excuse it will be able to pick up on the charms in the film. And there are other technical aspects of the film which are of certified high quality such as the production values of the film and the manner in which they are all captured by beautiful cinematography which is able to capture the large scope of the story and all the scenery. Visually, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec has a lot to boast about one way or another. For me, I got a kick out of the cheesy visuals often enough so that I could look past their artificiality and have a fun time. In actuality, the flaws in the film come from a tonal imbalance. Despite the film's ridiculous premise and its pursuit in being a farce, there is an oddly serious tone that comes from the dramatic dynamics in the story which weigh down on the potential for it to all be goofy fun. With all the silliness within the film, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec takes itself too seriously too often and as a result ends up dragging on which makes it feel like it runs for a lot longer than it actually does. The resulting fun in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec is limited, saved sporadically by enough moments of random humour to sufficiently carry the film all the way to the end. The one thing in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec which is solid with consistent strength is the leading performance from Louise Bourgoin. Regardless of my lack of knowledge regarding the source material, Louise Bourgoin is truly a perfect actress to represent the image created by this film. She has no problem making the drama in the film seem genuine because she embodies the titular character with such rich heart while pursuing the other genre themes excellently well. She has the appropriate cheesy charisma to capture the female Indiana Jones-type of adventurer represented in the intro and the sophisticated intelligence to make for a strong protagonist, but it doesn't mean she is incapable of having some fun moments along the way. Her energetic charm is packed full of glee and she delivers a lot of the more lighthearted material with easy comic zing, ensuring that she is always an engaging presence for every moment of the film. Louisa Bourgoin's performance alone is enough to justify witnessing The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec because she effectively takes another strong stand in adding to Luc Besson's long line of empowered female protagonists with enough edge to succeed on many levels. So The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec's visual effects are likely to evoke a mixed response across the globe and the tonal inconsistencies tend to stretch the simplistic narrative beyond its capabilities, but the genuine themes of silliness and excellent leading effort from Louise Bourgoin effectively carry the film far enough to entertain. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec

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