They have been making the French coat of arms shine for so long. Best ambassadors of their country, these Gauls created by Uderzo and Goscinny. Born to laugh among friends at the end of the 1950s in front of a drawing board, then adopted and celebrated as urbi et orbi hexagonal heroes. The tandems of the Auguste and the white clown make you laugh. We are grateful to these two, in winged helmets or striped breeches, for knocking out the cohorts of Caesar with laughter. Avenging by ricochet all the little ones and the rankless of the earth.
And how could Quebecers, in their English-speaking North American sea, not have identified with this village of indomitable Gauls resisting the invader? Popular here as much as in their homeland, Asterix and Obelix, from one album, from one film to another, good vintages, bad vintages, fellows even after the death of their authors.
They have a good game of flaying some historical realities. Long live fiction! So funny, so crazy, these beer drinkers and magic potion drinkers, with their clan spirit, their druids, their baffles, their rotten fish, their menhirs, their cursed artist to muzzle. In its broth of caricature in perpetual anachronistic mutation, the franchise offers the spirit of the times some ingredients that are less sexist, less colonialist than originally. That’s what humor is for.
But success makes you drunk, potion or not. From now on, a new perilous mission falls to them: to save French cinema in bad shape in its theaters and abroad. Heavy burden on the frail shoulders of Guillaume Canet. The filmmaker-actor has just launched here and elsewhere Asterix and Obelix. The middle Empire. Going to see this house mega-production would be equivalent, according to its project manager, to flying to the aid of the statue of Marianne. Something to sharpen the fangs of so murderous French criticism…
Expected like the Messiah or like the jester, this fifth feature film (excluding cartoons) devoted to the two heroes. After Claude Zidi’s popular opus (1999), many moviegoers savored the formidable Mission Cleopatra by Alain Chabat in 2002. We denounced in 2008 the failure ofAsterix at the Olympics by Thomas Langmann and Frédéric Forestier, tasted the finesse ofAsterix and Obelix in the service of Her Majesty by Laurent Tirard (2012), yet shunned by the public. Experience assures us: no one knows if Toutatis will bless a film of this lineage or if the sky will fall on his head.
The adventures of the duo in the Middle Kingdom have inherited an astronomical budget (65 million euros), faced a pandemic postponement, brought together a bouquet garni of stars in flash appearances, adapted to the screen for the first time a original script not taken from an album, very badly woven. The jokes lose finesse and the puns are in keeping. Caesar speaking of Caesar salad…
Ouch! This film intends to reach a large audience less fond of historical references than the first target audience. The current Chinese regime is not a pastiche of it. Its huge network of theaters must be involved… Each guest star, including singer Angèle as Falbala, footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic as César’s right arm (stiff and ridiculous), is entitled to his quarter of an hour of glory. Next ! Don’t turn into an actor who wants…
The action takes place partly in China (shot in France due to strict sanitary measures there), with an exotic princess who only likes blondes (!!!) and slips away with close guard in Gaul, history of shopping galore for clothes and allies. Here she is later transformed without warning into the liberator of her people. Martial arts, ubiquitous of course, combine with bad special effects.
The film should be a family public success, but without glory. The large-scale work, with neat costumes and sets, a sort of local Marvel product, has its good sides. Gilles Lellouche gracefully succeeds Depardieu in the clothes of Obélix. It’s a pity that the profile of the character loses its candor in the scenario at the end of the race. Vincent Cassel has everything to play Julius Caesar, alas! served by infantile replicas. Marion Cotillard takes on the role of a hysterical Cleopatra. Guillaume Canet portrays a faint Asterix, full of doubts, half-vegan, in love with a beautiful Chinese woman as his sidekick with another. The sentimentality of old friends (and Caesar) spoils the sauce. It moans. It’s fading away.
France is losing confidence in its own merits. Being colonized is also that: imitating Hollywood in its bill as in its essence by aiming for its receipts. We wish the mother country to develop successful original formulas without losing its rebellious spirit and its sense of repartee which honor it. Without denying himself, in short.