ASTERIX AND OBELIX: MISSION CLEOPATRA (2002)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

This, the second live-action ASTERIX movie, adapted the comics album ASTERIX AND CLEOPATRA. The album was adapted into a 1968 animated film, reviewed here, and since I summed up the plot there, I won't repeat it here.

Like the albums, and like the previous live-action entry, the plot is kept thin so as to work in more jokes. The heroes, dull witted Obelix and clever Asterix, are once again essayed by Gerard Depardieu and Christian Clavier, although Clavier would be replaced by another actor for the third live-action outing. New writer-director Alain Chabat (who also essays the role of Julius Caesar) replaces the writer and the director from the first film, and if anything he piles on the jokes even more extravagantly than his predecessors. In fact, though in my review of the animated CLEOPATRA I said it was funnier than the album thanks to the use of animated action. But Chabat doesn't let live-action stand in the way of a gag. A notable scene (not in the album or cartoon) pits a hulking male warrior against a petite young girl who's taken the Gauls' magic strength-potion. The result is that she slams her opponent around and spins him over her head just like Popeye vanquishing Bluto.

That said, Asterix and Obelix are a bit like guest-stars in their own movie. Their "mission" is to help the Egyptian architect Edifis build in record time a grand new palace for Cleopatra, (Monica Bellucci). Yet this time the guys don't have any character-arcs of their own, aside from a very minor romantic dalliance for Asterix. (Perhaps this was to make up for Obelix getting a doomed romance in the first film.) The heroes' other main function is to protect the construction site against both the enemy of Edifis (rival architect Artifis) and the Gauls' usual antagonist Caesar. Even the most extensive fight-scene belongs to Edifis and Artifis, who both take the strength-potion and have a bout like something out of DRAGONBALL. I didn't follow how Edifis got hold of the potion, but the fight is one of the movie's high points.

One curious thing about the subtitled version of MISSION that I saw on streaming is that sometimes one can make out the French actors uttering different proper names than the names used by the captions. In one sense this sort of thing happened when the first albums were translated into English, where the French name for the Gauls' druid friend, Panoramix, was changed to "Getafix" for the English speaking audience. Similarly, both Edifis and Artifis have different names in French than in the English subtitles. This quirk isn't bad in itself, but sometimes it makes it hard to look up what actor played what character, going purely by subtitles.

I also commented in my review of the cartoon film that both album and animated flick avoided the adult relationship of the historical Caesar and Cleopatra. But MISSION, though it's mostly clean fun, throws in a quick shot of the two rulers starting to get in on in Cleo's new palace, which was also a pleasant, and reasonably funny, surprise.