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Crappy film

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This is the worst treatment of the books I've ever seen ! It's tripe from start to finish, except for Kristin Scott Thomas' interpretation of the Cagliostro.As someone who read all the books as a youngster, I can tell you they are much, much better than this. So was the French serial with Georges Descarrères (not sure of the last name).Frankly, the only thing that disappointed me more was the French rendition of the Fantômas movies with Louis de Funès and Jean Marais, of all people! Don't bother watching this. Get the serial. You won't be sorry.

We laughed in the wrong places, I briefly fell asleep in the middle of the film, and then we left before the end. What can I say? A boring, insane mess. I did not care about any of the characters, probably since the back story was so limited and rushed. I did not care what happened in the inane plot, or who was good or bad. I also didn't think the visuals were all that stunning. The film did look expensive, but big deal. The same thing happened in every scene (that I was awake to watch): Arsene came bursting into a room/train/masked ball/etc. Revolvers blazed. Kirstin Scott Thomas ran around, and/or stabbed someone in the neck. Arsene's girlfriend screamed "Ar-SENE!" A group of identical-looking old guys with mustaches ran around. Someone stole a golden cross. Repeat 1,000 times. Zzzzzzzzzz!

As is often the way if you try to be everything to everyone you wind up being nothing to no one. Assuming that we actually needed another take on this character - who, especially in France, has been as well documented on celluloid as Sherlock Holmes, Maigret, Raffles or even Tarzan - then we could have started with someone a tad more credible. Romain Duris is one of those actors (Vincent Cassell and Benoit Magimal are others) cursed or blessed depending on your point of view with a built-in insolent, arrogant expression that probably makes certain females roll over and play dead but makes me reach for the sick bag. The script does him no favours by jumping about like a Time Traveller and invoking echoes of The Maltese Falcon and The Da Vinci Code via a Masonic cum Knights of Templar outfit and crucifixes instead of black birds. On balance it's risible more than thrilling and/or scary which is the wrong response to this type of fare. As others have remarked here the viewer is constantly conscious of time passing non-fruitfully.

This movie is an embarrassment to French cinema. It seems to have stolen the worst ideas of Hollywood movies in trying to make a French blockbuster. Gratuitous special effects and bombastic music fail to distract the viewer from the flashy, shallow, and convoluted storyline. The movie starts slow, almost too slow, and then by the end whips into a frenzy where the filmmakers have tried to stuff everything and the kitchen sink both to forestall any misgivings by the viewer and to allow for the possibilities of endless sequels.The role of Arsène was very poorly cast. The only saving graces to this movie are Kristen Scott Thomas and the beautiful landscapes of Normandy. Yet somehow this movie managed to make even Étretat, the focus of Monet's famous paintings, look fake.