Matthew Turner | On 08, Jun 2023

Director: Guillaume Cane
Cast: Guillaume Canet, Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Cassel, Jonathan Cohen, Marion Cotillard, Jason Chicandier, Ramzy Bedia, Leanna Chea, Julie Chen, Linh-Dan Pham, Jose Garcia, Bun Hay Mean, Pierre Richard, Philippe Katerine, Jerome Commandeur, Angele
Certificate: PG

The latest live-action Asterix movie – based on the popular French comic book characters created by Goscinny and Uderzo – is the first of the series to be based on an original idea, rather than on one of the books. Asterix fans can praise Toutatis for Netflix stepping up to distribute the film in the UK, because the previous live-action film – Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia (2012) – never received a UK release, despite being set in Britain.

The relative box office disappointment of both God Save Britannia and Asterix and the Olympic Games (2008) led to a creative reboot on the series. Consequently, Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom is the first of the live-action films not to feature Gerard Depardieu in the role of Obelix, while the part of Asterix is played by director Guillaume Canet.

The story is relatively simple, even by the standards of the other Asterix books. After Princess Sa See (Julie Chen) arrives in their village and asks for help, indomitable Gauls Asterix and Obelix (Gilles Lellouche) travel to China to help defend her kingdom against rogue prince Deng Tsin Qin (Bun Hay Mean). Meanwhile, Julius Caesar (Vincent Cassel) decides to bring his army regiments to China to fight on the side of Deng Tsin Qin, thinking that he might get to conquer China while he’s at it.

Even if he wasn’t also playing the lead character, it’s immediately clear that Guillaume Canet has a lot of affection for the Asterix books, because the film stays extremely faithful to the characters, particularly with regards to both the production design and the distinctive costumes. To that end, the film does justice to several beloved characters who’ve previously received short shrift in the live-action movies, notably fishmonger Unhygienix (Jason Chicandier), blacksmith Fulliautomatix (André Kalmes) and petite battle-axe Impedimenta (Audrey Lamey), the wife of Chief Vitalstatistix (Jerome Commandeur).

In addition, there are lots of nice little touches for Asterix fans, such as a sequence involving the perpetually unlucky pirates and an appearance from Panacea (Angele), whose status as Obelix’s unrequited crush gets a nice little update. In addition, some effort has gone into the characterisation of village bard Cacofonix (Philippe Katerine), whose musical ability here is, for once, every bit as bad as the books have been insisting all these years.

The performances are great fun across the board. Lellouche proves more than capable of stepping into Depardieu’s shoes, hitting all the required comic notes and making the part his own, while Cassel is clearly enjoying himself as Caesar, although an equally brilliantly cast Marion Cotillard is sadly underused as Cleopatra. Canet plays Asterix as a slightly softer, less confident figure than we’re used to seeing, in part because one of the subplots involves him trying to manage without magic potion, as part of a commitment to healthy living.

The script understands that the unshakeable friendship between Asterix and Obelix is the most important part of any of the Asterix books, which is why so many of them involve the central duo falling out and making up again. Accordingly, that happens here, though the reasons for their falling out are somewhat underwritten, so it lacks the emotional impact it should have had.

The script also understands that Asterix books are essentially a constant stream of clever puns and gags, punctuated with punch-ups. To that end, there is, indeed, a steady stream of decent gags, although many of them get lost in translation – whoever did the excellent translation job on Asterix and Cleopatra clearly wasn’t available this time round – and a fair few of them fall painfully flat.

There are a couple of other script issues too, most notably a somewhat anti-climactic ending and an unnecessary partial retcon of Obelix’s origin story. On the plus side, the action sequences are enjoyable throughout, with Canet taking the opportunity afforded by the setting to include some fun martial arts and wu xia sequences.

In short, a few minor niggles aside, this is an enjoyable Asterix adventure that does justice to the characters and the spirit of the books, despite being an original story. So, Netflix, is there any chance of you also picking up God Save Britannia?

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