Jeri Jacquin
Coming to theatres this Friday from director Luc Besson and
STX Entertainment from the comic book by Jean-Claude Mezieres is VALERIAN and
the CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS.
There once was a planet of alien beings that lived
peacefully taking care of one another and giving back to the planet that
provided for them. A little creature on their planet provides pearls that are
important to their existence and powerful. Their idyllic life comes to an
apocalyptic end when ships crash on their planet taking the life of a Limai
Princess.
It is the 28th century and a city known as Alpha
floats in space. Filled with thousands of cultures and thousands of languages,
they must all work together for the survival of the ship and its crew.
Commander Arun Filitt (Clive Owen) is doing what ever he needs to ensure that
it all works.
Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sgt. Laureline (Cara
Delevingne) are sent on a secret mission. The assignment from the Minister of
Defense is to retrieve a one-of-a-kind creature that is sought after by unknown
forces. Once Valerian and Laureline find it, they also have to fight there way
back to Alpha city with it.
Back on duty, the two soldiers are set to protect Command
Filitt but it all goes wrong when they are attacked and he is taken. General
Okto Bar (Sam Spruell) takes over and isn’t happy when Valerian takes it upon
himself to go after the ship with the Command inside. Laureline does what she
can to track him but Valerian is lost in the Dead Zone. It is a zone where
anyone that goes in does not come back.
But Laureline won’t take no for an answer and finds a way to
Valerian. Immediately captured by alien creatures, Laureline now needs rescuing
herself. He meets Bubble (Rihanna) who has the ability to shape shift which is
a neat skill especially when it may be the only way to rescue Laureline.
General Bar begins to believe what Valerian told him about
the alien beings on the lost planet beginning to investigate. What he finds
will not stop what the Commander has planned all along but it may be the
destruction of Valerian, Laureline and a race thought to be extinct!
DeHaan as Valerian plays a straight forward action hero who
has a past with the women but wants a future with his partner. Always looking
for answers, the Major isn’t going to let anyone or anything stop him from
discovering the truth. DeHaan jumps right in action wise yet his character
finds a moment here and there to remind Laureline that she’s the one.
Delevingne as Laureline, oh gawd I know I’m going to get it
for this, just drove me absolutely nuts. I wish I had a clicker to count how
many times she said ‘Valerian’ per scene. I know one scene that’s all she said
and when the camera cut away I couldn’t have been happier about it. I’m sure
her character is meant to be an example of female empowerment but I didn’t see
it. Instead I saw a girl trying to be standoffish yet always felt the need to
rescue someone who isn’t her man that she wants as her man but pretends she
doesn’t want her man. Yea, that’s about how I felt.
Spruell as General Bar doesn’t care for his commander very
much so it’s not surprising that he’s willing to listen to Valerian and not
make extremely hasty decisions. Owen as Commander Filitt gets a chance to be
secretive and down right devilish. It’s an interesting look for him even if his
role is sporadic.
Director Luc Besson is responsible for some of the most memorable
films such as THE BIG BLUE and my family’s favorite THE FIFTH ELEMENT. There
are several things in this film that remind me of THE FIFTH ELEMENT which means
VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS will probably end up being a cult
classic.
Other cast include Elizabeth Debicki as Haban Limai, Ethan
Hawke as Jolly the Pimp, Aymeline Valade as Haban-Limai, Kris Wu as Sgt. Neza,
Diva Cam as Maatri, Alexander Willaume as Captain Kris and Rihanna as Bubbles.
VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS is an
interesting sci-fi film with special effects for days. Besson brings bright
colors, crazy aliens, space ships and special effects like an oven on broil.
There is so much to visually take it that it’s almost a story within itself.
The film takes an air of predictability with a few things I
am calling out. So, I felt like I was watching a bit of other sci-fi films over
the years and a bit of THE FIFTH ELEMENT mixed with characters that are changed
up. When seeing the film tell me that you see Jessica Rabbit because I swear I
did.
That’s probably the part of the film that I liked the most –
the special effects and characters that were created. Of course I’m probably a
little bias since I think most ‘human’ roles are overplayed and overly spent
acted. Bring on the colorful aliens!
If anything it is certainly a film about loyalty and accountability
no matter what species you associate with. There’s nothing wrong with that at
all.
In the end – a universe without boundaries needs heroes
without limits!
They didn't sell it. They seemed to be all but sleep-walking through their lines. The guy seemed to be a Jason Bourne wannabe without the intensity, depth, passion, or style. One could cast him as the protagonist in The Nutcracker, his performance was so wooden. The gal was somewhat better (she, at least, did smoldering anger pretty well), but otherwise, she seemed to be phoning it in, too.
ReplyDeleteNow, that said, they had a hard job to do. None of them likely actually "saw" most of their sets, since they were likely done in CGI. So in that respect, if you've seen "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", and recall the performances of the actors in that, then you'll get a good idea of why the leads just failed on delivery, and pretty much exactly how they failed in it. The lack of visual cues made them under-play it way too much.
If you can overlook that and focus on the story (which is recommended, because it seems to expect you to know what's going on, and it takes a bit of time to figure it out) it's basically OK. Also, don't think about the science too much. In retrospect, it's pretty awful. It's a chaotic world, a chaotic script and a pair of actors with less expression than most marionette puppets.
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