# Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (forthcoming movie) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2017, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619 "2017-05-01T03:06:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TYphoonSignal8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e99b99/32.png) [@TYphoonSignal8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TYphoonSignal8)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/1 "2017-05-01T03:06:39Z")
I have recently read about the comic book history of “Valerian”: [Valérian and Laureline: From French Comic Book to Hollywood Motion Picture - World Comic Book Review](http://www.worldcomicbookreview.com/index.php/2017/04/22/valerian-laureline-french-comic-book-hollywood-motion-picture/) which in turn led me to the official website of the movie: [http://valerianmovie.com/](http://valerianmovie.com/) The controversy, as explained in the first link, is that elements of the “Star Wars” movies were at least inspired by the comic “Valerian”. Certainly the Jabba the Hut character in the movie looks like a direct take. The article in the first link talks about how some of the design production people on Star Wars were French which led to the similarities, but it is hard to see how Han Solo’s encasement in carbonite, a key and now famous part of “The Empire Strikes Back”, was not directly copied by George Lucas from “Valerian”. The similarities in that are obvious and striking. In any event, always happy with a new Luc Besson motion picture! I’ve not seen Lucy, but I thoroughly enjoyed both “The Professional” and “The Fifth Element”. My only reservation is Cara Delavigne. Being the current (admittedly wacky and fun) “It Girl” does not make you a good actress. I haven’t seen “Paper Towns”, but I wasn’t especially happy with her performance in “Suicide Squad” (although to be fair, there was a lot of wood in the movie generally). Anyone more familiar with the comics than I am? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/2 "2017-05-01T13:01:22Z")
Nothing to add other than the usage of The Beatles behind that trailer is perfection. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/3 "2017-05-01T13:19:13Z")
I loved with Bresson did with _The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec_, so this sounds promising. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/4 "2017-05-01T14:03:47Z")
I have a couple of issues of the comic, though they’re buried somewhere in boxes and I haven’t looked at them in a couple of decades. They’re remarkably prescient in style, considering how early they were drawn. They wouldn’t look out of place even now, forty five years later. The cast of the movie look like 12yr olds, though Dane DeHaan is actually 31. That’s a bit disconcerting. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/5 "2017-05-01T17:06:21Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I have a couple of issues of the comic, though they’re buried somewhere in boxes and I haven’t looked at them in a couple of decades. They’re remarkably prescient in style, considering how early they were drawn. They wouldn’t look out of place even now, forty five years later. > > The cast of the movie look like 12yr olds, though Dane DeHaan is actually 31. That’s a bit disconcerting. Good gravy. 31? I watched the trailer and was thinking to myself “Movie seems interesting, but the teenaged leads look super annoying…” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/6 "2017-05-01T17:12:05Z")
Looks like it has potential. I’ll check the reviews before I see it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/7 "2017-05-01T17:34:26Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Good gravy. 31? I watched the trailer and was thinking to myself “Movie seems interesting, but the teenaged leads look super annoying…” I remember some people saying that Felicity Jones looked too young to have been cast as the lead in _Rogue One_ because Jyn was supposed to be in her late twenties. Jones was 31 when the movie was made. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/8 "2017-05-01T17:49:10Z")
Besson’s output is wildly uneven to say the least, but this does seem right down his best alley, so we’ll see. I’ve got the same issue as the OP with Cara Delavigne and I see the potential for an enormous flop - one thing that saved _The Fifth Element_ was the casting. But hopefully it will at least be a distractingly entertaining flop if so ;). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/9 "2017-05-01T18:46:12Z")
Personally, I think that Besson is a terrible director in every way except casting, which he’s actually quite good at. And sometimes his casting is good enough that it can salvage the rest of film, or even make it great. Do these actors have the sense to know when to ignore what the director is telling them? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/10 "2017-05-01T20:50:37Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > one thing that saved _The Fifth Element_ was the casting. But Milla Jovovich wasn’t exactly famous for her acting ability either. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/11 "2017-05-01T21:50:55Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > But Milla Jovovich wasn’t exactly famous for her acting ability either. Nope. She’s not always **awful** ( I’d take her over Rebecca Pidgeon any day ), but she isn’t very nuanced. She was probably the weakest link in the _The 5th Element_ IMHO ( I’ll hear NO criticism of Chris Tucker - Ruby Rhod was his finest moment! 😛 ). But thankfully her role lent itself to the unsubtle and she was okay. Even her slightly cringe-worthy attempts at serious emoting were tolerable in context. As casting goes, it was actually a happy fit. Which probably goes to backing up **Chronos** ’ assertion. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/12 "2017-05-01T23:06:55Z")
Bruce Willis’s smirk really served him well in that movie, didn’t it? He was the perfect audience surrogate, making sure we know that \*he \*knows how ridiculous the whole thing was. Without him, the film would have been unwatchable. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/13 "2017-05-02T01:36:08Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Good gravy. 31? I watched the trailer and was thinking to myself “Movie seems interesting, but the teenaged leads look super annoying…” Yeah, that struck me when I watched the trailer too. They seem too young to be these sooper-agent types that I think they’re supposed to be. I decided to think of it this way: in this hyper-advanced society, there’s no reason for _anyone_ to look old. Between advancements in gerontology, surgery, cybernetics - why _not_ be young and cure-looking? That’s my fan-wank, anyway. I’m cautious about it - it’s going to _look_ beautiful, no doubt, but so did _Jupiter Ascending_, and that was a slog. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2017, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/14 "2017-05-02T08:24:16Z")
[Thread from last November about this film](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=810847). I’m still looking forward to it, but I hope the sexism of the books is gone; it can be a little jarring, it’s so casual. ---
**Author:** ![TYphoonSignal8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e99b99/32.png) [@TYphoonSignal8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TYphoonSignal8)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/15 "2017-05-05T01:25:20Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Bruce Willis’s smirk really served him well in that movie, didn’t it? He was the perfect audience surrogate, making sure we know that \*he \*knows how ridiculous the whole thing was. Without him, the film would have been unwatchable. Actually, that’s very true. “I’ve got these weird ass clothes and this bleached blonde hairdo, but I’m getting paid a tonne of money for this and we all know it.” **GuanoLad** > [@](#): > > I have a couple of issues of the comic, though they’re buried somewhere in boxes and I haven’t looked at them in a couple of decades. They’re remarkably prescient in style, considering how early they were drawn. They wouldn’t look out of place even now, forty five years later. I actually thought it looked a bit 1970s “Buck Rogers”, especially the costumes. From what I’ve been able to glean from the Internet, its the sardonic plots that make it work. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/16 "2017-05-05T08:18:09Z")
> [@TYphoonSignal8](#): > > **GuanoLad** > > I actually thought it looked a bit 1970s “Buck Rogers”, especially the costumes. From what I’ve been able to glean from the Internet, its the sardonic plots that make it work. What I mean is [this kind of art](http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-best-comic-book-movie-you-didnt-hear-about-at-comic-1717886091) isn’t obviously dated. The [Star-Wars-ian](http://www.core77.com/posts/60032/French-Illustrator-Whose-Comics-Inspired-Star-Wars-Finally-Getting-the-Movie-Treatment) nature of the designs keeps it looking contemporary. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/valerian-and-the-city-of-a-thousand-planets-forthcoming-movie/785619/17 "2017-05-05T12:18:24Z")
I’m interested, and looking forward to the film\*. I hadn’t heard of the Valerian series until recently, and I obtained one of the books to have a look. They haven’t been available in the US until recently, and they’re still pretty “hidden” (they’[re going to release a large volume containing several of the original books in the States, but not until just before the movie launches). I have to admit that there’s a compelling case for a lot of imagery of Star Wars being lifted from the Valerian series, but they oversell the case – If you compare the pictures of the spacecraft with the Millenium Falcon closely, you’ll notice that they’re comparing the back of one ship to the front of the other. And the claims that Darth Vader (and his ruined face) come from Valerian is a helluva lot weaker, in my mind, than the case for Vader being lifted from the Fantastic Four’s Doctor Doom (All you have to add are shades and a samurai helmet). Other Star Wars elements are demonstrably taken from things like _The Dam Busters_ , American comic books, and American written SF. But there’s a huge amount that appears to come, I must agree, from the French strip. \*I gotta admit, though, I find Besson’s stuff far from my favorite. I found Fifth Element and Lucy pretty dumb.