In the 28th century, Valerian and Laureline are special operatives charged with keeping order throughout the human territories. On assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two undertake a missi...
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a beautiful mess. That oxymoron is the best way to describe this space opera, a sub-genre that itself needs some resurrection (excluding Star Wars). Ridiculously long title aside, Luc Besson pretty much created this himself. Funds, screenplay, directing...this is his child. How was it? Well...I won't lie, I found this to be thoroughly entertaining! The level of ambition, creativity and imagination is absurd! I simply want to hug the man and say "good job!" for creating something that he actually wanted to achieve. Space Opera's are long, in fact most are over 2 hours and can feel pretty tiresome. Not this time, the world (or universe in this case) building was thick with intergalactic species, advanced technology and impressive scenery. This is more than a film, it's an experience. It was produced simply to showcase how far visuals have advanced through the years and oh my goodness everything looked stunning. Absolutely stunning. I can't fault the visuals. Unfortunately though, I can fault the plot. It wasn't big enough to fill up 137 minutes and so there were plenty of random scenes shoehorned in to masquerade this. However, these diversions were entertaining...and heck that's all I wanted from this. Plenty of memorable supporting characters, including three mischievous creatures that provide information to Laureline which also brings some good humour. Our main characters though, slightly lifeless. More functional than memorable, which is a shame. I also felt the acting was mediocre overall. Dane Dehaan is not lead acting material just yet, I can see he tried but his monotonous line delivery just didn't work. His onscreen chemistry with Cara Delevingne felt forced, I've seen more emotion between two ants carrying a leaf than with these two. Ethan Hawke and Clive Owen were good, Rihanna...looked the part I guess. Interestingly though, by the end I kind of bought into everything. There was more to admire than there was to detest, and at the end of the day it was entertaining. I shall be watching again.
