Adèle and the Mystery of the Pharaoh

After twice chasing "Arthur and the Minimoys" through family-friendly animated adventures, Luc Besson now presents another great adventure film for the whole family. Based on the popular comics by Jaques Tardi, he lets amateur archaeologist and wily reporter Adèle Blanc-Sec have her first cinematic adventure.

The year is 1912, and Adèle (Louise Borgoin) is in Egypt in search of a very special mummy that she must bring to Paris to the famous Professor Resperandieu (Jacky Nercessian). For he has found a way to breathe life back into dead matter. And only this mummified personal physician of Ramses II knows the secret that could restore Adèle's comatose sister to health. But not only does the unscrupulous Professor Dieuleveult (Mathieu Amalric) do everything in his power to prevent Adèle's plan from succeeding, Resperandieu's experiments also have unexpected consequences. And so it comes to pass that soon not only a prehistoric pterosaur is making Paris unsafe, but also a horde of mummies is roaming the city of love...

"Adèle and the Pharaoh's Secret" has some really successful aspects to show. The humor is refreshingly quirky at times and Louise Borgoin, known from "The Girl from Monaco", is a convincing Adèle: persistent, seductive, cunning and extremely tough. With some well-done ideas and nice effects, the film has decent show value as well as good entertainment value. But unfortunately, the film also has a major weakness that weighs quite heavily. Because it seems again and again that Besson could not really decide whether now children or nevertheless rather older spectators are his target group.

So there are particularly two scenes, which are really not suitable for children. These scenes are not bad in terms of quality, but have not really lost something in a children's film. This is contrasted by many moments of rather infantile humor that probably only smaller moviegoers will be able to laugh at, but which are just embarrassing and completely unfunny for adult audiences. The result is a half-baked overall picture that makes light-hearted enjoyment of the film all but impossible.

Sure, Luc Besson continues to prove he has a knack for fast-paced action, for wry wit, and for keeping his attractive leading lady perfectly poised at all times. But the overloaded, at times arguably episodic story and the unbalanced staging prevent "Adèle and the Mystery of the Pharaoh" from really becoming the successful debut for an adequate Indiana Jones successor. Therefore: worth seeing with reservations!

Original title:

Directed by Luc Besson

Length: approx. 107 min.

FSK: age 6+

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp