Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom 4K 2023 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

50 B.C. A coup takes place in China, causing Princess Xuan Di, the emperor's only daughter, to flee to Gaul, where she asks Asterix and Obelix to help free her country. They leave for China, unaware that Julius Caesar is heading there as well.

Review 4K Movie

Since the release of the failed Asterix & Obelix in Britain, it's been no less than 11 years. In that timeframe the excellent Land of the Gods and Mystery Potion have been released - truly great Asterix cartoons, captivating with their plots, humor and updated style, because 3D has been good for Asterix. But what is the situation with live-action films?

Alas, as the practice shows, any successful franchise, which brings fame and money to its creators, sooner or later is met with a total creative crisis, and the creators are forced to experiment, and not always these experiments do the franchise good. And if the franchise is made in France, the creators do anything to bury the franchise deeper and never remember it. This happened with the "Taxi" franchise, and now they're getting to Asterix.

The plot tells us how the Chinese princess Fu-yi, fleeing a coup d'état in her country, goes to Gaul for help. And arrives (where do you think?) in the very village where Asterix and Obelix live, who in a burst of altruism (or maybe because they're tired of being bullshit in the village) agree to help the princess. But no such luck: Julius Caesar also goes to China ostensibly to help the rebels, but in fact to take over the country and become the new emperor of China. Moral: do not trust the West - only you will be worse off!

Of course, chasing Asterix and Obelix around Asia is quite an interesting idea. Yes, and could have sent the Gauls immediately to Japan, where they would have met Naruto, fought Godzilla and made out with chicks (just a digression). But for that they used a rather hackneyed concept used in "Mission Cleopatra" and "Britannia": an obscure devil from another country comes to Gaul, asks for help, and the Gauls are happy to help. And the very idea of sending the Gauls to China looks less like a new Asterix story and more like an attempt by the French to suck up to the Chinese audience and make more dough.

Actors. Remember how everyone berated the last two Asterix movies, where Clovis Cornillac and Edouard Baer played the role of Gall instead of the brilliant Christian Clavier, respectively? I think I won't surprise you if I tell you that Asterix is played by a different actor again in the new film. Now he is played by Guillaume Canet, who is also the director of the new "Asterix". And in my opinion, he played him relatively well, with a little bit of zeal and a little bit of charm. It was definitely better than Baer and Corneliak, but not quite up to Clavier's level. Obelix was played by Gilles Lellouche, and at first I rejected this actor, because I got used to the fact that Obelix is always played by Gerard Depardieu (duckling syndrome triggers to the full). But as I watched it, I realized that Lellouche plays Obelix very well. Obelix, as played by him, also likes to eat, fight with the Romans, and have a beef with Asterix, and it's pretty darn cute.

Now the secondary characters. I was insanely pleased to see the great Pierre Richard (albeit old, but still) as the druid Panoramix. But he has no role at all: he just hands Asterix a flask of magic potion and that's it. To me, Richard deserves better. Vincent Cassel as Caesar was excellent, moderately commanding, moderately majestic and moderately sentimental (mind you, not melancholic like Fabrice Luchini, but sentimental). For once we are shown Caesar who knows how to feel, who takes the parting with Cleopatra hard (he nearly drank himself to death because of it) and who goes to conquer China not because he has to but to get back Cleopatra's favor. I was also extremely pleased with the Antiviral played by footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovich. His character is brutal, cool, moderately charismatic and not without his charm.

And here we seamlessly move on to the main problem of this movie: absolutely everything there is built on love lines. No, I don't mind if there is love in a comedy, but there should be one, maximum two, but not four, where Asterix falls in love with the princess, Obelix with her bodyguard, Caesar with Cleopatra and the princess herself with the Chinese prince who has obviously escaped from BTS, he looks so kawaii.

The jokes aren't without their problems. No, the jokes here are great, and they made me not just laugh, but literally burst out laughing. But here I don't understand how a vegetarian Asterix, a Roman dancer fighting for women's rights (were the feminism jokes ordered?) and pigeons that fly in with the sound of a message sent on iPhones can coexist in the local setting? Thank you that at least the narrative isn't there, along with gays, lesbians, and so forth.

A couple of words about the action. This is the most action-driven Asterix movie ever. The Gauls are still great at beating the Romans, and it looks great. Plus, since the action is set in China, there's no kung fu (sorry, no Mulan, Panda Po, Liu Kang or Jackie Chan). The battle scenes are also staged magnificently, on the level of Sergei Bondarchuk's films.

Bottom line: "Asterix and Obelix: Celestial" is a driving, moderately funny film, even if it is not perfect. But the film's problems make it hard to watch, even if not as trashy as "Taxi 5." For me, the characters of Gossini and Uderzo deserve better.