A feature film adaptation of the comic book character by Jacques Tardi. Movie is written/directed by Luc Besson (The Professional, Transporter, Taken)
The story: a female adventurer must steal a and ressurect a mummy, the doctor to an ancient pharoah, to try to save her sister's life, but in doing so will unleash other dark forces.
Was it good?
Kind of. It's a slightly odd sort of film. There are things that I loved about the film -- the protagonist, a smart young female adventurer ala Indiana Jones. And there with all the adventuring there is a strange whimsy to it that I liked a lot too. They throw a lot of weird stuff in here, but it all fits together.
However there were things that didn't help the film. The first is the sister's injury, which maybe in the comic came off as lighter (it's a strange tennis related injury with a hat pin) but on film, when you are actually watching it happen, it was a bit more gruesome than fit in the film.
Also, there is no actual antagonist. The basic story has Adele trying to ressurect a mummy to help her sister and to do that she needs a certain mesmerist who is sentenced to death so she has to save him. Except I'm not exactly sure why he is sentenced to die. It's hard to believe it's because he is using his mind to bring to life a prehistoric monster. So why? So the story becomes about her trying to rescue this man, but even that doesn't seem to be a big deal. She tries to break him out of prison several times and when the guards discover her they simply throw her out of jail to allow her to return the next day and try again. So again there's no real antagonistic force, so instead of the movie getting more thrilling, it instead is oddly thrill-less.
Also the pterodactyl is strange. Everyone knows it is flying around but they also seem oddly unable to see it. It will fly down amid a crowd and grab someone (or some pet) and yet no one will see it. Maybe it's being played for laughs and it just didn't translate for me. I don't know.
But even with all of that there was a lot that I liked. I just wish they had found a way to make it work so the second half didn't seem to fall oddly flat. Still, I'm glad I watched it and might even rewatch it sometime soon.
*** RENTAL ***
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