Actors: Louise Bourgoin, Mathieu Amalric, Gilles Lellouche
Directors: Luc Besson
Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Shout! Factory
DVD Release Date: August 13, 2013
Run Time: 107 minutes
Film: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 2.5 out of 5 stars
When I see the name of Luc Besson (“Taken”, “The Fifth Element”, “Le Femme Nikita”) behind a film my radar immediately goes off. The French filmmaker knows how to deliver entertaining action films, though this film doesn’t fall into that category. “The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec” starts off like a French copy of “Indiana Jones” and shows promise but loses all its steam very quickly. The film is based on a comic from the 70’s. I must say that the film does with some pretty impressive visual effects as is the cinematography Thierry Arbogast, who worked with Besson as well on “The Fifth Element”. Unfortunately it doesn’t save the film.
Official Premise: The year is 1912. A 136 million-year old pterodactyl egg, housed on a shelf in the Natural History Museum, has mysteriously hatched, unleashing a prehistoric monster onto the Parisian streets. But nothing fazes Adele, when she finds a connection with the ancient bird and reveals many more extraordinary surprises. Based on the acclaimed historical fantasy books by Jacques Tardi, The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec follows this intrepid adventurer as she uncovers mysterious Egyptian treasures, attempts to tame a wild pterodactyl, eludes dangerous enemies and braves a formidable phenomenon to save her ailing sister.
This film would definitely benefit from a Blu-ray release for sure to showcase those visuals. The DVD comes with the original French audio in 5.1 Dolby Digital, as well as the terribly dubbed English track. The special features are ok but not spectacular. The best feature on the DVD is “The Making of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-sec” which is a solid nearly 30 minute behind-the-scenes look at this production. There a few short deleted scenes but are not even worth checking out. Lastly there is a brief music featurette, which I did love the score but this is way too short. Personally if you are interested in this film, I would wait until October 1st when Shout! Factory releases this film with a Director’s Cut on Blu-ray combo pack with Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Copy.