Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

2017 137 Minutes

Adventure | Science Fiction | Action

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...

Overall Rating

6 / 10
Verdict: Good

User Review


  • From the director who created one of my most favorite films (Leon) and a couple of other sci-fi films that I have yet to see, comes a movie that I placed a lot of bets on being really great earlier in the year, based on the fantastic trailer, and ended up being kinda meh: Valerian. I did not read the description for this film intentionally, so I could see if I could sum it up from only watching the movie. This is my best attempt. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, because I haven't read the comics. Valerian stars Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevigne as two humans in a galaxy/dimension bending world away from earth's orbit. They have to rescue some precious item, I think an orb or an animal that creates them, and bring it to safety because in the beginning a very pure planet was destroyed that held all these orbs, and now those extraterrestrial beings don't want this special animal to fall into the wrong hands. I think that's it. My thought process on this movie shifted from: "I don't know what the hell is going on," to "okay I get the general idea this could be interesting," back to, "oh lord am I confused," to, "this movie really just needs to end." The visuals were surely stunning, as the trailer implied, and there were some really cool sequences and ideas behind some of the scenes in the first thirty minutes. Once the shock of all this begins to wear off, the movie starts to showcase its weaker elements. More than a fifth element, too. (Haha) Cara Delevigne is a weak actor. Not only can she not demonstrate the proper abilities, but the script given to her was fatal to her performance. Cliched or stupid lines such as, "Well done boys," or "move lizard" simply made me die of laughter. Silence would've made a much stronger character, but she just said pointless things all the time. The themes were unoriginal and I'm 90% sure they just reused the "love conquers all" monologue from Interstellar at the supposed climax. Then there's the climax itself- this movie is 140 minutes long, too long for a movie of such showiness, in my opinion.
    THE REST OF MY REVIEW IS UP ON MY INSTAGRAM BECAUSE I FORGOT TO COPY MY COMMENT AS INSTAGRAM HAS A CAPTION LENGTH LIMIT- I SURPASSED THAT, FORGOT TO COPY, CANNOT COPY AS I HAVE ALREADY SUBMITTED THE COMMENT, AND NOW I ONLY HAVE HALF A REVIEW FOR FILM FED WHICH I APOLOGIZE FOR BUT I CANT REMEMBER ALL MY WORDS AGAIN SO SORRY FOR THE INCONSISTANCIES.