Movie Review: Asterix & Obelix: L'Empire du Milieu (2023)

Asterix & Obelix: L'Empire du Milieu (2023) directed by Guillaume Canet, based on the comics by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo

Chinese Princess Sas Sa (Julie Chen) has fled from China where her mother the Empress (Linh-Dan Pham) has been imprisoned by Deng Tsin Qin (Bun-Hay Mean) who wants to marry the princess and rule all of China. Sas Sa travels to Gaul, where she's always wanted to visit, and enlists the aid of Asterix (Guillaume Canet) and Obelix (Giles Lellouche) to free her mom and restore the kingdom to its rightful ruler. Asterix has decided he eats too much meat so he's gone vegetarian, creating a rift between him and Obelix (who loves to eat boar for every meal). He's also sworn off using the village potion that gives him super-strength though he takes a bottle with him "just in case."

Meanwhile, Deng Tsin Qin visits Julius Caesar (Vincent Cassel) to get extra troops to finish the conquest of China. At first Caesar is reluctant but merciless mocking by his wife Cleopatra (Marian Cotillard) convinces him to go conquer a land that has heard of Cleo but not of Caesar. They march east while Asterix and company also head east, having adventures along the way and an ultimate confrontation in China.

The movie has the spirit of the classic comic series of which I am a big fan. I chuckled every time someone said Deng Tsin Qin's name because it's pronounced "Dancing Queen." Not the most macho of names! It's the best of the ubiquitous comic names, though the princess's body guard Ka Rah Tay is a close second. Caesar and Cleopatra communicate via pigeons in a way that imitates Twitter, so the show has fun anachronisms too. 

On the other hand, the comic violence does not work quite as well in a live action setting, though Ka Rah Tay has some fun Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon wuxia moves. Canet does not have the clever sassiness of the comic book version of Asterix and he's too tall, so he is not as satisfying. Caesar and Obelix are spot on, though Obelix is not as big as he is in the comics (again, a limitation of live action). The plot feels a little stretched out, like there's not quite enough to fill the 112 minute running time. I watched it in the original French with subtitles, so I was distracted when some of the pun-names did not match between the spoken French and the captioned English.

Mildly recommended--this is more for fans of Asterix than for the general public.

As I write (June 2023), this is available streaming on Netflix.