Sure, there where some good things about it :
- It wonderful visually and they did a marvels job re-creating ancient/comic book world in this one.
- They have some great actors, who give some out-standing performance (to me Alain Delon is best Cesar)
- Nice to see the sports start cameo’s.
- The final chariot race, was pretty cool
But the whole script… It’s just felt very poor!
I would love if they stick to the original book, but instead they cut-out the whole part about villagers going to see the game’s, and add a whole love story, between some new guy Alafolix (Romantix in Polish), who honestly wasn’t very interesting, and they made Brutus a main villain… And most of the time he was just annoying.
Some of his moments with Cesar where a bit funny (Actually it was suggested, that Brutus is in fact Cesars Biological son, in this movie!!!), but the whole sub plot about him plotting to kill Cesar, got old very, very fast. In fact Brutus and his minions (some like the inventor Scapus, where even more annoying) got way to much screen time, and I got tired of him after first half hour.
Humor was weak, most of the time. Jokes either felt too-slapstick or forced (like the “Star Wars” reference), and some where even tasteless (the scene of Romans forcing judges to eat the beetles). There where few good jokes, but by saying few I mean, I laugh about two-three times while watching this movie (not much for a over hour and a half comedy). One good moment I liked was the balcony scene, with involve a Dogmatix romance moment, which I found a cute accent.
One of the main let-downs of the movie was how they represented the main heroes. While Gerard Depardieu Obelix was Ok, Clovis Carnillac Asterix
felt very needles to the story… For the first half of hour he’s hardly in the movie – What he did in the entire film?
- Teas a roman in the forest (the only full scene out-of the book)
- Give two-or three speeches that somehow save the day (like how he figure out that as Ghouls they can start in the games)
- Got into a argument with Obelix one or two times
- Throw a disc in the games
- Ride a chariot during the final race, for about 20 seconds…
Well, that’s all...
Getafix felt even more useless (BTW -> They re-use the “Romans kidnapping Getafix from druid meeting” sub-plot, which already was used in “Asterix & Obelix” take on Cesar… Talk about script writers running out of ideas…)
Cacofonix, who actually got a bigger part in this film (he was the only one from the village who came along for the Games with Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix), and I must say eldest they did him a bit interesting, and fresh. Cacofonix is a character who easily can be done as “the same joke over, and over again”, and they handle him pretty well (honestly, better then Asterix and Obelix).
The other villagers only appeared in the beginning of the film, and made cameo during the final feast. Vitalstatistix (bad costume and actor choice btw) got only about five lines, Geriatrix and Fulliautomatix one or two, and that’s all (not much comparing to the part, they got in the comic book).
The ending (after the main plot was over) felt over-stretch, and I found it very forced, just to include some cameos, which they could somehow add in the middle of the movie.
I usually not trying to be to harsh on this sort of comic book adaptations, but I expected way more, after this one, end even do I found some aspects better then the previous movies, over all it felt very disappointing.
Kids will like this movie, but compeering to “Asterix and Obelix : Mission Cleopatra” was, it simply poor. It’s a shame they didn’t pay as much the script writers, as they pay the visual effects guys.
If you like movies for good visuals/special effects/stenography, you will love this one. As for humor don’t expect much… 5/10 ["Rental" as they put it on "Spill com."]