15 Feb 2012
Director: Luc Besson
France
2010
107 min
As ever, director Luc Besson handles the fast-moving action comedy very adroitly in this high-spirited adaptation of of a 1970s French comic. The story is a chaotic romp that demands immediate suspension of disbelief: Louise Bourgoin as the title character is a bizarre cross between Indiana Jones and Besson’s own Nikita, feisty and fun as a glamorous tomboy adventurer-cum-writer in 1912 France.
Like the best of Besson’s work, it combines some stunning visual ideas, and once the viewer accepts the pterodactyls and mummies, it is easy to relax and enjoy a solid old-fashioned adventure fantasy told with great panache and knowing humour.