It all sounds like a great idea, but Besson somehow manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with this half-hearted attempt at humorous, mainstream blockbuster. The paper thin plot surrounds the search for a cure for Adele's sick sister. She encounters Indiana Jones style archaeology, reanimated mummies and a computer generated pterodactyl on the way, but the whole thing plays out like a tribute band's interpretation of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Even the main villain looks exactly like the little German fellow in Spielberg's epic.
It's not a terrible film, it's just dull and not funny. However if you like badly rendered computer generated animals then the pterodactyl is up there with the all time classics. It's more convincing than the deer in the Ring 2, but so much worse than the big cats in I am Legend. It blatantly can't act either and I have my doubts whether it was constructed around the French version of Andy Serkis. In reality it was probably knocked up on Bamzooki.
The main problem in the film centres around the casting of Louise Bourgoin as our heroine. Admittedly she's attractive but doesn't provide any of the quirks or feistiness that the character needs. Clearly she's not French, but I'm sure Zooey Deschanel would have jumped at the chance. Only the hapless sister, (Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre) resplendent with knitting needle stuck in head, comes out of this caper with any credit at all.
It's a disappointing execution of a promising idea and to be honest it was a struggle to sit through all of it. Probably best avoided in favour of watching Bamzooki instead for more realistic creatures.
2/10
(Average rating for the season so far = 2)
If you like this you could also try:
Angel-A, The City of Lost Children.
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