[Film] Luc Besson's Valerian and The City of A Thousand Planets

I haven't seen it, but this really fells like a movie to wait to watch on HBO.

 

You read it backwards. It'd be hard for a book published in 1971 to borrow from a 1977 film.

 

Its better than Jupiter Ascending. The film had some slow spots but was entertaining and better than I thought it would be.

 

My wife and I saw this on opening weekend.

I give it about a mayyybe a 7/10 . Probably closer to a 6.5 out of 10.

First off, understand something: whether they meant to do it or not, they made a 'kid's movie'. What I mean by this is, the concepts, the story, the characterizations are almost infantile, they are so immature and childlike. I don't know the source material at ALL, but I assume since it's from a kid's comic book, that what is on the screen is a reflection of the course material.

And ok, Besson *LOVED* it as a kid, and has wanted to make Valerian into a movie all his life. And probably, what is on the screen is exactly what he WANTED to make.

The problem is, if you don't already know the source material, and don't already love it, then seeing it with no foundation will just leave you wondering what the appeal was supposed to be. Because as it stands, as a previous poster mentioned, there is no 'build-up' to any kind of emotional connection or payoff between these two characters. In fact from the very beginning, he is begging this girl to marry him. I get it, not wanting to make this an 'origin story', but that really was not a good way to start. We as the audience have to WANT these two to be together, or else we simply don't care.

Now having said that, I did like some of the conceptual elements, some of the Besson quirkiness which always shows up, whether from the odd people in the other-dimensional touristy marketplace, to the bizarrely weird/funny bug-eyed orc aliens. And I did enjoy the inter-dimensional VR-Helmet fight/chase/set-piece, I thought it was well conceptualized and well done. Very clever.

But most of the characters were 'cartoon' characters. The evil General? Yep, he's just.. evil. The utopian happy perfect aliens? Yep, happy smiling clone-looking utopian aliens. Evil robots which you knew as soon as you saw them that they were going to do evil things at the end? Yep. Exactly.

In fact, as strange as this may sound, I saw the same flaw in the writing that I saw in V for Vendetta - an almost infantile acceptance of the premise that all of the who might and strength of some galactic civilization is under the complete and incontrovertible control of a single individual, and if that single individual wants to do evil things, well, there's nothing anyone can do about it because, well, he's the guy in charge.

I have thought about this for a long time after seeing V for Vendetta, and again after seeing Valerian, and it strikes me that this attitude seems to be a very European one, from cultures which have a long history of living under monarchies, under rulers who were unquestionable and who held absolute control over life and death of the citizenry. And then add in this sort of idealizing and yearning for the perfect Utopia..

To most Americans, such attitudes seem very alien and unnatural, while to someone who is, for example, French or British, it might just feel like the most natural thing in the world, at least historically-speaking.

Anyway, that's just a random 2-cent thought, probably means nothing.

As for the cast.. well, I was actually pleasantly surprised by Carla's performance, especially given her absolutely movie-ruining turn in Suicide Squad. And when I say 'pleasantly surprised', by that I mean, she was not as horrible as I presumed she would be. Was she great? No, but she didn't ruin the movie, so that's a step up for her. As for Dane DeHaan, the guy is an ok actor, but I think Hollywood casting directors got a little infatuated with him after Chronicle, and he went straight into main roles in some prominent movies, and I don't know that he really has the presence to be able to pull that off. Spider Man, then a Cure for Wellness, and now Valerian, and I don't know what all else.. (haven't seen A Cure for Wellness yet, but I intend to) .. he just seems like he is going to be better suited to a career as a character actor rather than 'leading man'.

Clive Owen was Clive Owen, but playing the bad guy, I don't think that spoils anything to say that. He's fine, as he always is. I didn't really recognize any of the other actors in it.

Bottom line, it was... Meh. I'm glad we saw it as a Matinee for half price, that's for sure.

Would I watch it again? I might would leave it on if I come across it on HBO or something, but I am not going to excited or happy like when I see that 5th Element is on..

 

I know next to nothing about the comics, but from what I understand, Valerian and Laureline patrol both space and time and Laureline is his latest partner (after several others), actually an 18th Century peasant girl that traveled to the future. Now that kind of backstory would definitely have been interesting to explore, rather than the marry me even though I'm a playboy schitck we got from the get-go.

 

Dane Dehaan is the problem. You can cast a zero-talent model like Cara Delevingne as eye candy so long as the guy with the titular role can carry the film. Sorry to judge, but some actors are destined to be the villain because of the way they look. Dehaan has the emo baggy-eyed look going for him as a baddy. Upon first look, audiences dismissed him as the leading man. I know I did.

 

Agreed until I got to that part...
Wow ! WTF ?!

You do know that France has been a Republic since 1792 ? That's almost 225 years ago. What kind of f***ed perception do you have of modern day Europe ?!

 

On the movie I pretty much agree with the rest. Dehaan is not a convincing leading role and the relationship between the 2 main characters was badly introduced.

It did have a 5th element vibe to it but not as good as the original.

 

Looked like dog **** the moment I saw the trailer, absolute garbage. Considering the reviews and lack of box office success, the general public agrees. I don't have the best taste in movies, but I have to wonder how anyone here thought that this would have been a good movie.

 

Maybe I wasn't being clear. Yes, France has been a Republic for a long time now, but that land, that culture, has a history extending well over a thousand years before that. Their entire cultural history is one of being ruled by Monarchies, prior to the more 'modern' sensibilities of the last couple of centuries. Americans specifically do not. I merely brought it up as a possible explanation about why certain cultures find it easier to digest concepts like single individuals holding unbreakable autocratic power, such as many European countries, while others do not, such as the U.S. Medieval European History was one of the things I studied in college, and so I guess I tend to think of these things over the long haul, rather than just looking at only relatively recent history. Cultural identity can extend wayyyyy back, as far back as there is anything recorded.

And as I said, it was just something which popped into my mind and was probably meaningless. But someone somewhere is writing these scripts this way, and other people are reading them and saying, 'Yeah, that looks good! We'll go with that!' Usually, when movies are almost completely rejected by whole countries, but embraced in others, it's because of cultural differences. Maybe the vagaries of monarchic histories plays a part in those cultural acceptances or rejections, maybe they don't. Just idle speculation on my part.

 

Or maybe it's just because Besson is French and has a bigger fanbase in his native country as he has produced a few blockbusters here. Or maybe it's because the origins of the movie is from a famous old French comics, which btw had a great influence on the Star Wars univers.

Anyways, although I disagree, I see the logic in your thoughts. No harm done.

 

Nobody in America likes France to be honest.

 

I like the French women. Majority of the time they are freaks in the sheets

 

Did a free watch on the Sy Fi. It must have lost a lot of money on budget alone. The visuals of the pearl race were very good. And some others. But the story gets lost and isn't really all that interesting. And a major plot dump at the end to explain the whole stupid movie. There was really no reason to make this movie.

 

Dehaan did an absolute trainwreck of an acting job. He is so monotone and one dimensional. He's painful to listen to and watch.

Otherwise, it wasn't a bad movie. I watch it whenever it comes on and there's nothing better to sit through.

 

It is because the Fifth Element had a real leading man (Bruce Willis), not to mention Chris Tucker, Gary Oldman, and Ian Holm to carry the film. Additionally, Milla Jovovich inexperience in acting can be explained away because her character is an awkward alien learning about humanity (also she didn't really do that badly)

Also, Fifth Element leaned into its quirkiness and that's what has made it sort of a classic.