Much less funny than “Mission Cleopatra” by Alain Chabat, “Asterix at the Olympic Games”, co-directed by Thomas Langmann and Frédéric Forestier, hits 1,074 theaters in France on Wednesday, a record.
When it was released in 2002, “Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cléopâtre” won over 14.5 million spectators in France with its absurd humor, based on an avalanche of anachronisms and on the verbal delirium of the actor and comedian Jamel Debbouze, irresistible in “Numérobis”, the architect of Cleopatra.
This third opus taken from an eponymous comic book album signed by Goscinny and Uderzo is intended to be more faithful to the original work, as was already “Asterix and Obelix against Caesar” directed by Claude Zidi in 1999 – not as funny but better exportable, because less based on French references.
Here, Asterix – for the first time played by Clovis Cornillac, who succeeds Christian Clavier – and Obélix alias Gérard Depardieu, try to foil the wiles of Brutus (Benoît Poelvoorde), the son of the Roman emperor Caesar (Alain Delon).
He wants to marry Princess Irina, promised to the winner of the Olympics and coveted by Alafolix, a romantic young Gaul (Stéphane Rousseau).
Highly awaited by the general public – partly thanks to a vast four-month advertising campaign – it is no less eagerly awaited by cinema operators, to revive rather sluggish attendance in recent months.
But if the financial resources deployed (78 million euros) are obvious from the first shots – vast forward tracking shot filmed with a helicopter, image peppered with digital effects… – the film quickly lacks fantasy.
Within a cast bloated with stars, some actors seem lost – in particular José Garcia alias “Couverdepus”, decked out in a false jaw and enormous square glasses which anesthetize his comic power.
Poorly endowed with funny lines, the two heroes Gérard Depardieu and Clovis Cornillac look pale, eclipsed by Benoît Poelvoorde who engages in a real “one man show” beyond histrionics.
For his part, as Roman emperor Delon engages in a stunning act of self-parody where he becomes his own puppet – “Caesar is a + Cheetah +, a + Samurai +, he owes nothing to anyone, neither to + Rocco nor to his brothers +, nor to the Sicilian Clan +”, he says, in a wink to all his past successes.
The production of this “Asterix at the Olympic Games” often fails, giving priority to the wild rhythm of the action, and the settings seem curiously devoid of humorous winks.
At the end, Jamel Debbouze – followed by a procession of athletes Zinedine Zidane, Tony Parker… – appears for a few sequences: with him the film finally slides towards the delirium long awaited throughout “Asterix at the Olympic Games”.
