Et of five! Not to mention the versions in the form of cartoons, Asterix and Obelix return for the fifth time on the big screen in the guise of Guillaume Canet and Gilles Lellouche, in Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom. Only one lesson to be learned from this very uneven cinematographic saga: the adventures of the village of irreducible Gauls are not so easy to adapt. Do not disappoint first-day lovers while satisfying new generations less driven by nostalgia… There is no druid who wills: the recipe for the magic potion is not within the reach of just any master chef of the 7e art.
So yes, to perform this palmarix, we immersed ourselves in each of these adaptations, without erasing the impressions they had left us at the time of their release. And we’ve ranked them, from worst to best. To attack !
5. Asterix at the Olympics (2008)
Few debates on this point: Asterix at the Olympicsthe 3e film adaptation of the adventures of the Gallic warrior is the biggest failure of the saga. A turnip that cost the whopping 78 million euros, one of the most expensive films in French cinema. In this opus produced by the duo Frédéric Forestier and Thomas Langmann, Asterix and Obelix almost take second place: the main character here is rather Brutus, the son of Caesar who is trying to kill his father. And the whole plot revolves around a love rivalry, the Gauls coming to help Alafolix “conquer” the heart of Irina, also coveted by Brutus. And what about the addition of the mad scientist Docteurmabus (Santiago Segura)…
On the casting side, it must be admitted, Clovis Cornillac in Asterix does not sparkle, even if Gérard Depardieu remains a touching Obélix. Only Benoît Poelvoorde, as Brutus as stupid as he is brutal, manages to get a few laughs out of us. For the rest, even if we did not skimp on the means, no one manages to pull the toga to him. And especially not Alain Delon, bewildered in a pathetic caricature of himself, decked out in the aura of Julius Caesar. His antics prove pointless when they’re not merely embarrassing. Around him, Stéphane Rousseau, Jean-Pierre Cassel, José Garcia, Alexandre Astier or Élie Semoun seem to have been hired only to add a line to the credits. Not to mention the irritating Franck Dubosc stuck somewhere between the lira of Assurancetourix, the famous bard with the rattling voice, and the underpants of Patrick Chirac from Camping.
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The dish is intended to be hearty – the last quarter of an hour of the film looks like a bonus DVD in which Zinédine Zidane, Amélie Mauresmo and Tony Parker suddenly appear – but ends up becoming indigestible, which is to say that it does not boil in the pot. . Apart from a spectacular chariot race (in which figure Michael Schumacher doubled way Flames of love), the gags often fall flat, the scenes follow one another too quickly, drowned in the special effects. In short, despite their 6.7 million spectators, these Olympic Games are not on the podium.
The rating of Point : 3,6 / 10
Intrigue : 2,5 / 10
Humour : 3 / 10
Casting : 3 / 10
Decorations: 6 / 10
4. Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom (2023)
Here again, we come close to an overdose with a cast piling up more stars than Obélix can swallow wild boars (that is to say). For the 5e opus of the saga, released on 1is February, Guillaume Canet casts a wide net: from the unpayable César by Vincent Cassel to the pale Cléopâtre by Marion Cotillard (meet us Monica Bellucci!) via Jonathan Cohen’s Graindemaïs, Pierre Richard’s Panoramix, Manu Payet’s Ri Qi Qi , and, while we’re at it, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Angèle, Bigflo and Oli… Guillaume Canet is not very convincing in Asterix, only Gilles Lellouche surprises with his touching interpretation of Obélix, he who had the heavy responsibility of succeeding the genius Depardieu.
In this new adventure, it is a question of saving the Empress of China imprisoned by a felon prince. Everything is a pretext for a few gags and a lot of special effects that hide a laborious plot, without surprise. It’s not easy to invent a new Asterix without an original comic strip, even less when the film is above all a series of sketches where everyone comes to recite their part without worrying about the consistency of the whole. At 65 million euros, further proof that money isn’t everything… Except perhaps the sets, which are beautifully cared for.
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The rating of Point : 4,9 / 10
Intrigue : 5 / 10
Humour : 3 / 10
Casting : 2,5 / 10
Decorations: 9 / 10
3. Asterix and Obelix: at the service of Her Majesty (2012)
The Queen of England has instructed Jolitorax to bring her the magic potion of Asterix and Obelix, to save her kingdom which has fallen under the territorial ambitions of Julius Caesar. To achieve this fourth part of the adventures of the little Gaul, Laurent Tirard skilfully combines the plots of two albums, Asterix among the Bretons et Asterix among the Normans – we love the encounter between the Viking barbarians and the stuck-up British.
On the casting side, it’s solid: Édouard Baer ex-scribe of Mission Cleopatra, offers a spirited Asterix although a little talkative, Depardieu always provides Obélix with a good complexion, touching as desired. Around them, all the actors with a view to this year 2012 happily give their counterparts, without displeasure but without much conviction, in tailor-made roles allowing them to navigate on autopilot: Vincent Lacoste as Goudurix, a rough-hewn teenager not so far from beautiful kids, Valérie Lemercier as Miss Macintosh, a lady patroness no less uptight than Lady Palace, Guillaume Gallienne, as an elegant British courtier, Dany Boon in the role of Têtedepiaf, a not shrewd Norman, Catherine Deneuve as Queen of the Bretons, close to the monarch of Palais Royal and Fabrice Luchini as Julius Caesar megalomaniac and pooch power 1000.
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Nothing very new therefore under the Gallic sun, but a good-natured comedy, often in natural settings, which revives the universe of Uderzo and Goscinny, calming a little the indigestible one-upmanship of the previous opus (Asterix at the Olympics). On the menu: fights and slaps on the chain, pretty feelings and humor to make the little ones laugh (perhaps forgetting their parents a little too much). A Asterix friendly but which, by wanting too much to combine admiring respect and marketing, gets lost a little, especially with a useless and very average 3D.
The rating of Point : 5,9 / 10
Intrigue : 6 / 10
Humour : 5,5 / 10
Casting : 5,5 / 10
Decorations: 6.5 / 10
2. Asterix and Obelix versus Caesar (1999)
Call us Gauls resistant to change, but yes: Asterix, it was better before ! The first adaptation of the adventures of Goscinny and Uderzo to the cinema is a big challenge for the efficient Claude Zidi, who mixes no less than seven albums to build a rhythmic plot that is rather faithful to the spirit of the comic strip. A good introduction to the live-action franchise.
The cast is five stars. The nervous Christian Clavier is perfect in Asterix, just like the henaurme Gérard Depardieu in the blue and white pants of Obélix. Joining our two Gauls is a merry band: Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Michel Galabru, Daniel Prévost, Claude Piéplu, Roberto Benigni and Lætitia Casta. All set to an epic soundtrack.
The rating of Point : 6,4 / 10
Intrigue : 6,5 / 10
Humour : 6,5 / 10
Casting : 6,5 / 10
Decorations: 6 / 10
1. Asterix and Obelix: Cleopatra Mission (2002)
We will not surprise you so much the cult adaptation by Alain Chabat is venerated by the French. At the end of January, more than 20 years after its release, the film still gathered 5 million viewers on TF1. The pitch? In Egypt, a modest architect (Jamel Debbouze) is commissioned by Cleopatra (Monica Bellucci) to build a sumptuous palace for Caesar (Alain Chabat) in less than three months. If he fails, he will be thrown to the crocodiles… Distraught, he leaves for Gaul, to ask for help from the Druid Panoramix (Claude Rich). Rather than trying to twist the story, we stay true to the album and focus on the gags, with success!
This big production at more than 50 million euros (it will bring in 115), built on a parody scenario, seduced by tasty dialogues, full of puns and hilarious anachronisms. The replicas fuse and mark the spirits, continuing to feed the dinners between friends. Alain Chabat portrays a demented César and puts his stamp on this new adaptation of a cult comic strip. Result: a clever mix of action, humor and exoticism. With his gang, Jamel Debbouze, Gérard Darmon, Édouard Baer, joined by Jean Benguigui, Jean-Paul Rouve, Marina Foïs, Chantal Lauby (the Cartapus spy), Isabelle Nanty (the incredible trade unionist Itinéris), the spirit and the humor of Dummies triumph. An Asterix totaling more than 14.5 million admissions considered by its fans as the best of the series, and rightly so. Mission accomplished.
The rating of Point : 8,4 / 10
Intrigue : 9 / 10
Humour : 9,5 / 10
Casting : 8,5 / 10
Decorations: 6.5 / 10