Parts of The Fifth Element made me laugh. A lot. It had an original look and feel to it, even as other parts were cringable. Watching Valerian made me feel as if I’ve aged out of enjoying certain kinds of movies. And It just seemed to take itself a bit more seriously than necessary.
I saw it, they did an astonishing job. I still want Nemesis and ABC Warriors.
It’s not you. Fifth Element is ridiculous, self-aware, visually-stunning, and a damn fun ride. Valerian is just terrible from start to finish.
wait, Fifth Element and Valerian were made/directed/produced/whatevered by the same person? No Way! BTW Cara Delivigne was mostly ok in Suicide Squad, yanno, where her character (the scientist) doesn’t really say much most of the time and her character the “Seductress” is a character you expect to be played with bad acting.
Funny that there’s this recent thread about Valerian because I was watching it earlier on Amazon Prime. I’m not finished yet. I put it on pause at the part when the Mul aliens kidnap the general and the major (Valerian) goes after them. After being directed by the chick to take short cuts, he busts through walks and destroys other alien habitats and then once he gets to his ship, Alex, he proceeds to shoot down the alien ship and damaging more of the Alpha planet. So stupid.
I just had to stop it and see if I want to finish watching it.
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I enjoyed Valerian for what it was (just like I enjoyed Lucy) and I thought the visuals were the best bit.
The casting was terrible for the roles, but I don’t think Cara Delevingne was a terrible actress in it, I quite liked her. They should not have cast a 30 year old who looks 15 for Valerian, though.
I thought the acting was fine, in terms of ability, just dull and listless, with dialogue that was stilted and awkwardly inserted. They just looked like they were wondering what was for lunch.
Their apparent youth didn’t fit with their purported skill level and experience at being Agents. And their body-types were so slight and fragile I couldn’t picture them as action stars, though admittedly there wasn’t too much fighting, it was mostly all running or flying a spaceship.
Casting different actors could’ve elevated it into, at the least, rewatchable, but as it is I have no expectation I will ever look at it again.
Is Cara Delvigne the Piper Perabo of the mid-to-late 2010’s?
I would, but I only speak English and Bad English.
Personally, I think Ruby Rhod fit in perfectly with T5E’s general balls-tripping aesthetic.
Ruby Rhod is what elevated T5E to a 10/10, IMO. The whole movie is over-the-top-yet-relatable but RR was presented as over-the-top-yet-relatable to the people in the movie, which is what made his character (and Chris Tucker’s performance) instantly recognizable and memorable.
I agree, Ruby Rhod was a wonderful part of the movie, and it wouldn’t be the same without his weird over-the-top dialogue.
The character of Ruby Rhod was written with the intent of casting Prince in the role. That would have been brilliant and Prince would have made the character work. But Prince decided he didn’t want to do the movie so Tucker was cast in part. And in my opinion (along with many other people’s) Tucker wasn’t able to fill Prince’s shoes.
I had not heard that (and The Fifth Element is one of my favorite movies, which is why I was hopeful for Valerian and disappointed when it sucked so badly). So does anyone know who was the voice of Corbin Dallas’ mother?
Say, for example, a young Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich? Not only are they more believable physically, they are a lot more charming. And Jovovich spent most of T5E babbling in a made up language.
Seeing Valerian and from what I read about the source material, the source material was clearly an influence on Besson when creating T5E.
I would dare say that Fifth Element (and by extension Valerian) was a large influence on the “future aesthetic” of films ranging from the Star Wars prequels, JJ Abrams Star Trek, Jupiter Rising, Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok. In contrast to the dark, future-noir working industrial cyber-punk dystopian future of Blade Runner, Matrix films, Alien films, even the original Star Wars films, the “Valerian” future is bright, flamboyant, sometimes zany, and, while not perfect, actually (mostly) functions in broad daylight.
What didn’t work for me was the whole Valerian and Laureline relationship. Aside from the fact that a major continuing to pester his sergeant / partner with flirting, sexual innuendo and proposals of marriage would probably be at least frowned upon in any military or law enforcement institution, it was never really clear to me what their relationship actually was. It seemed like it went right from flirting and “I’d never sleep with you because you fucked half our coworkers” to “will you marry me” as if the proposal was long overdue.
Naah. Or, at least, only indirectly. You really need to go back to the source materials. Besson is hardly an originator there.
And IMO Ragnarok, specifically, looks as it does largely because they went full Kirby. Always go full Kirby, is my advice.
You forgot to mention the most horrible line in the whole movie, in that very scene. Valérian is in a hurry, Laureline directs him to break through walls to get to the destination faster. He doesn’t like the idea, but starts doing it anyway, and we see fast-paced silly CGI for about a minute.
Then, while taking a short break from all that mechanical carnage, Valérian says/mumbles something like “It may be the shortest way, but it’s not the easiest!”
Really? Our great big (small cute) intergalactic hero can’t find anything more relevant to say? I’m not a pro, but here are a few ideas that would have been less bad:
- Make some joke about a headache;
- Complain about the ruined paint job on his armor;
- Worry about the aquatic aliens he’s hurting by bursting their bulkheads;
- Wonder how the varied races described earlier as being in the North, South, East, etc. of Alpha all seem to be situated in a straight line.
What 12-year-old wrote this? Can we get a restraining order against them?