The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (PG)
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Caution: spoilers.

This is a French film by Luc Besson, which came out in 2010. But I think I first heard of it when it was released on DVD in the U.S. in 2013. (It's one of those movies that I only learn about because I look up DVD releases to put on my website's calendar. And when I saw it on Amazon, it looked interesting.) But I didn't get it until I happened to see it in a discount store several years later. And I finally watched it in December of 2018. Before watching it, I had included it in my list of fantasy movies I want to see, but while watching it, I wasn't sure whether or not I'd put my review in that category. Certainly that would be an apt place for it, but so would "adventure", or "comedy", or "quirky", or "weird". I was kind of leaning toward "quirky," until I learned that it was based on a series of French comic books that began in 1976. So, I decided to put my review under "live-action comic book adaptations." Although I'm also including a secondary link to it in my "monster movies" category, because there are mummies, toward the end of the movie (but they're not really scary). Anyway, it's really quite funny and entertaining. (I also want to say I watched the English dub, but I'd definitely like to someday watch it again in French, with subtitles. And I should say the DVD I got is somewhat edited for content, to get a PG rating. I guess the uncut version has a brief nude scene, and a bit of gore, or whatever. But I certainly don't need such things.)

Well, it begins with some droll narration that introduces us to various characters. I couldn't possibly remember the exact order they were introduced, but it's not really important. It's set mostly in Paris, in 1912. There's an old scientist named Professor Esperandieu, who uses telepathy to hatch a pterodactyl egg in the Museum of Natural History, at night, when no one is around. (Esperandieu isn't there, he does this from his own home.) The pterodactyl soon escapes, and begins terrorizing the city, starting with forcing a car into the Seine, resulting in the death of the car's three occupants. So the police want to find the beast, and Inspector Albert Caponi is assigned the case. Eventually, a big game hunter named Justin de Saint-Hubert is brought in to help track it.

Meanwhile, a journalist and travel writer named Adele Blanc-Sec is sent by her publisher to Peru... but she decides to go to Egypt, instead. There, she and some local associates (well, treasure hunters) enter the tomb of Ramesses II. But Adele isn't interested in any treasure, nor even in Ramesses himself. She's there to find the mummified remains of the pharaoh's doctor. Before she can get it, however, her rival, the devious Professor Dieuleveult, shows up to stop her. However, she's very cunning, and manages to get away with the coffin. She brings it back to Paris, hoping to have her friend Professor Esperandieu use telepathy to revive the doctor's mummy, since ancient Egyptian medical science was, supposedly, far in advance of modern medicine. Five years earlier, Adele's sister, Agathe, had been rendered comatose, and Adele hoped the mummy would be able to revive her. Unfortunately, while she was away, unaware of the whole business of the pterodactyl, Inspector Caponi had, in the course of his investigation, visited Esperandieu, who had already lured the creature there. When the police showed up, he tried to hide it, but it eventually revealed itself, before flying away again. Because of his involvement with the creature, Esperandieu was put in prison, charged with the deaths that had been caused by the pterodactyl. So... when Adele learns of all this, she tries numerous times to break him out of prison, without any luck.

There is also a young scientist named Andrej Zborowski, an assistant researcher at the botanical gardens, who is deeply enamored of Adele. He loves her writing, and had met her once at a book signing. While she was away, he sent her many letters (to her home in Paris), and when she gets back, she finds him trying to slip another letter under her door. He tells her that is the one she should read first, which she decides to do later, since she had more important business to attend to. (I'm sure I'm getting details out of order.) Eventually she does read the letter, which tells her that he'd found a way to lure the pterodactyl somewhere safe. And when she goes there, she ends up taming the beast and riding it (because of course she does), and with its help, finally manages to break Esperandieu out of prison, just as he was about to be executed.

Well... I've already left out a lot of details, and various characters. It's all just the most awesome kind of redonkulous, though. As for what happens once Adele gets Esperandieu back to her home... well I don't want to spoil any details of that, either. But I will say that more than one mummy ends up being brought back to life. Though they don't really do anything scary, they're actually rather helpful. Anyway... the movie ends with Adele going on vacation, though there's a twist I don't want to spoil about that. And then there's a mid-credits scene that takes place at a particular point earlier in the film, and shows us what became of Saint-Hubert. That was amusing. Really, the whole movie is just full of surreal, whimsical fun. I honestly am not remotely doing the movie justice.