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After almost 5 years since its release, I
have finally been able to sit down and watch Mission Cleopatra.
Was it worth the wait? Yes and No. I was able to view it with
little expectations and came out thoroughly enjoying it. But
if I had watched it a few years ago I would have been able
to appreciate this movie for longer!
By all accounts this is the best Asterix live-action
movie so far (and I would even rate it the best Asterix movie
full stop) and is a big step up from its predecessor, the
first live action movie Asterix
and Obelix take on Caesar.
Before we launch into the full review, it
is important to note that I am in fact reviewing not Asterix
and Obelix Mission Cleopatra but Asterix and Obelix Mission
Cleopatra - the english dub. I can easily enjoy watching foriegn
films with subtitles and perhaps would have preferred it this
way, but the DVD I rented was the english dub only. In any
case this colours my opinion of the film. Obviously the mismatch
of the moving mouths and the dialogue coming out is jarring
at first (they even make a joke about this - the scribe Otis
wishing he could "I want to move my lips in french
and have it come out in english") but you soon learn
to not let it bother. The english voice cast as a whole are
very average and seem rather subdued. Most of the cast speak
in American accents which doesn't particularily suit - Cleopatra
does not sound as dramatic or sensual as you'd think she should
be and Edifis is given some sort of Indianesque accent. For
this fact it is hard to review the performances of the french
actors, but their body language at least suits the characters.
The english version, transcribed by Susan
Marque (disapointingly Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge are
not involved) has been given quite a bit of work. There are
gags that appear to be added just for english language audiences
(as indeed happens in the comic series with untranslatable
French gags) and english songs are added such as James Brown's
"I feel Good" memorably played after the Egyptians
are given the Magic Potion. And while we are on music, the
title song "Mission Cleopatra" is co-performed by
Snoop Dog of all people!
Whereas much of the humour in the Asterix
comic book series is timeless, Mission Cleopatra's jokes rely
heavily on contemporary references (and can be compared as
such to the Shrek films). Many anachronisms are employed -
Artifis (or Athritis as he is called here) using his hands
as binoculars, an Egyptian Female worker Cellularsevic who
talks like, well, a cellular service and the invention of
an elevator complete with elevator music and farting jokes.
Noticably there are the movie spoofs... a Matrix/Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon between the rival architects, Obelix
goes all "Dirty Harry" and the Centurion Gluteus
Maximus (Caius Ceplus in French) goes all Star Wars on us
- wearing a Darth Vader style helmet he says "Attack
the Empire and the Empire strikes back" as the "Imperial
March" plays. Most of these jokes are funny and quite
clever (if perhaps some a little laboured) but it does raise
questions over how well the movie will age.
The movie was suprisingly faithful to the
book and followed its plot quite closely. We have some subplots
added - the character Crustacis who confronts Edifis about
never finishing his house and the "love affair"
between Asterix and Cleopatra's Handmaiden Givemeakis. "Crush"
would be a more appropiate name for it, and it is handled
quite subtly and humourously. Caesar's spy (which in the book
is a simple Egyptian man who joins the workers) is now a woman
who can become invisible when she closes her eyes (strongly
echoing the spy in the cartoon version of Asterix and Cleopatra
which can blend into his backgrounds). Some perfectly good
jokes from the book were left out - I missed seeing all the
Sphinx souvenir sellers tapping off the nose of their mini-sphinxes
after Obelix destroys it, the sequence where Asterix and Obelix
confront Artifis and (most suprisingly!) there is no reference
made to Cleopatra's nose (though Getafix does refer to Cleopatra
as "she's hot"!
UPDATE: I now am the proud owner of
the Asterix and Obelix Mission Cleopatra DVD, since they have
started invading the New Zealand shops! I was able to watch
the french version this time. And thank Tautatis, because
the Miramax English language version had chopped a whole 21
minutes of the running time! Upon reviewing the french version,
none of this seemed to matter. We loose more of Gerard's excellent
peformance as Obelix, and we loose two further excellent scenes
with the Pirates (complete with the Raft of Medusa gag from
Asterix and the Legionary). But best of all, the many references
to Cleopatra's nose are reinserted! I don't think too much
of the humour is lost by having subtitles, and the film does
make use of some excellent visual humour.
Overall this is film is bright, funny and
attractive and at 107 minutes not long enough! Lets hope its
sequel Asterix and Obelix
at the Olympic Games will be as good if not better!
 
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