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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets Review Thread
- Thread starter Penguin
- Start date
Only heard good things so far, I mean 57% of critics liked it based on RT, I wouldnt put too much stock into that RT score. I am hoping to go in the next week or so.
I saw it tonight in 3D (Spiderman was hogging the non-Dunkirk IMAX screen unfortunately). 8/10 for me. For context, I also enjoyed The Fifth Element, and this felt like a mix of that and Star Wars.
For most people it would probably be 6 or 7, but I REALLY like science fiction visuals and this movie delivered in spades. 3D was neat though probably not necessary, and I wonder if 2D would actually have brighter colors. I remember one scene from the trailer where a guy had a pink headset, and it was kind of muted here.
The bad:
* Mediocre acting from the leads.
* Some of the plot could have been better.
The good:
* Outstanding visuals!
* Great world-building! I kept thinking about the movie afterwards. It really conveyed the sense of watching a small story in a grand universe where a bunch of history, races, and government existed.
* Good soundtrack.
For most people it would probably be 6 or 7, but I REALLY like science fiction visuals and this movie delivered in spades. 3D was neat though probably not necessary, and I wonder if 2D would actually have brighter colors. I remember one scene from the trailer where a guy had a pink headset, and it was kind of muted here.
The bad:
* Mediocre acting from the leads.
* Some of the plot could have been better.
The good:
* Outstanding visuals!
* Great world-building! I kept thinking about the movie afterwards. It really conveyed the sense of watching a small story in a grand universe where a bunch of history, races, and government existed.
* Good soundtrack.
Saw it tonight in a mostly empty theater
The visuals and 3D are stunning, and if you are thinking you want to see this movie at some point in your life, make sure to do it in a theater. The movie is a 6/10: Rhihana ended up being one of the better acting preformances in this movie, which should tell you how bad the rest of them did. Action scenes are very tepid as well. Go see this if you like Sci-fi art and want to see how $300 million can make the prettiest screensaver you have ever seen.
The visuals and 3D are stunning, and if you are thinking you want to see this movie at some point in your life, make sure to do it in a theater. The movie is a 6/10: Rhihana ended up being one of the better acting preformances in this movie, which should tell you how bad the rest of them did. Action scenes are very tepid as well. Go see this if you like Sci-fi art and want to see how $300 million can make the prettiest screensaver you have ever seen.
Good point, and I really liked the big Rihanna scene.
MID MOVIE PLOT SPOILER:
I thought it was funny that both the Fifth Element and Valerian have a female alien performing a random musical scene in the middle of the movie. And in both cases, the performer helps the protagonists. And in both cases, the performer is injured during a fight and dies in their arms.
Prof. Bathtub
Member
The books are a bit hard to come by in US comic stores, so I managed to read three somewhat non-representative stories (before I knew that the movie was happening), but not the one they were adapting beyond the Free Comic Day sample. So, the Time Travel stuff is not in the movie, and the characters are pretty different. Wish they could have at least kept the sideburns and white spacesuits. Good overall though. Probably the best huge budget Franco-Belgian SciFi comic movie we'll get, even if Refn's Incal actually was happening.
By the way is
?
By the way is
Lauraline from the middle ages in the comics, or just in the animated show
Inceptional
Member
Don't forget the
blue blood and final dying words being about love.
Was really vibing on the movie hard up until
Rihanna's death scene. It went south real quick once the movie turned into one really long exposition dump about evil Clive Owen, Na'vi albinos, and how Valarian loves Loraline.
DangerMouse
Member
Yep can't wait to see this.
Yeah, he's just okay in the trailers while I've liked their Laureline in them.
Just re-watched The Fifth Element on 4K blu-ray too, still a lot of fun. The show off moments in the visuals like sky chase still look fantastic on the new disc.
Just reading Blizzard's post too, I expect to enjoy this, at least for the most part.
Visual spectacle that is a delight to see in 3D.
I'll echo what others had said but the first half was good and its starts puttering towards the end, especially the exposition right near the end.
I'll take The Fifth Element over this movie, but I still had a good time. Watch it!
I'll echo what others had said but the first half was good and its starts puttering towards the end, especially the exposition right near the end.
I'll take The Fifth Element over this movie, but I still had a good time. Watch it!
What I said in the movies thread:
The first half had some real good stuff in there, the second half was just inundated with endless exposition. Visually it's a treat, and the action can be really cool, but I got super bored during that third act. Still worth seeing for the visuals and some cool moments, but a little bit of a slog overall.
Rihanna weirdly has the best arc of the film, despite not being in it much. Ethan Hawke has a real weird (but fun) cameo, and Cara and Dane don't have much, if any, chemistry. But I do like their performances, iffy dialogue notwithstanding. I got some Fifth Element vibes from the plot, and Besson's fingerprints are all over this thing.
I do think it's worth seeing, but beware of the last 40 minutes. There's a lot of exposition and staring at screens.
The first half had some real good stuff in there, the second half was just inundated with endless exposition. Visually it's a treat, and the action can be really cool, but I got super bored during that third act. Still worth seeing for the visuals and some cool moments, but a little bit of a slog overall.
Rihanna weirdly has the best arc of the film, despite not being in it much. Ethan Hawke has a real weird (but fun) cameo, and Cara and Dane don't have much, if any, chemistry. But I do like their performances, iffy dialogue notwithstanding. I got some Fifth Element vibes from the plot, and Besson's fingerprints are all over this thing.
I do think it's worth seeing, but beware of the last 40 minutes. There's a lot of exposition and staring at screens.
Warm Machine
Member
Yeah just saw the 7:00pm show here in Vancouver. First off that screening room has the worse sound in the city. Saw Baby Driver in the same space and it didn't work well either.
Anyway, the quality of this is all over the place in terms of story telling. The prologue is sort of neat but Rutger Hauer does it no favours. The Na'vi part is too much and is flashed back to later more effectively. The desert heist is the highlight of the whole movie. After that there are flecks of brilliance in amongst slogs of weak material.
I think the writing was pretty average overall but was simultaneously pretty imaginative and original. Some of the design work was excellent while others parts were grade z awful. The only thing that was consistent was that it was constantly inconsistent.
I don't think Luc Besson knows his green screen very well. He did better than Wachowskis with Jupiter Ascending here but not as good as Cameron by any stretch or even as good as George Lucas.
Anyway, the quality of this is all over the place in terms of story telling. The prologue is sort of neat but Rutger Hauer does it no favours. The Na'vi part is too much and is flashed back to later more effectively. The desert heist is the highlight of the whole movie. After that there are flecks of brilliance in amongst slogs of weak material.
I think the writing was pretty average overall but was simultaneously pretty imaginative and original. Some of the design work was excellent while others parts were grade z awful. The only thing that was consistent was that it was constantly inconsistent.
I don't think Luc Besson knows his green screen very well. He did better than Wachowskis with Jupiter Ascending here but not as good as Cameron by any stretch or even as good as George Lucas.
I remember one person leaving to use the bathroom halfway through but they came back. Some people even sat through the credits like me (there was nothing, not even a Stan Lee cameo or Thanos sitting on a chair).
In the comics, number zero (which is a prequel to the comics).
ryutaro's mama
Member
It's funny everywhere.
Don't have time to dig up the quote, and probably beaten through the thread, but Besson has wanted to make this film for decades and it was only recently he felt CGI had reached the level to make it achievable.
Lovely reviews, in context. I'm excited to see it.
It's interesting how much opinions on this differ. To me, the Rihanna dance was riveting, and I didn't want to blink in case I missed anything. (I'm a straight male so that was undoubtedly part of it, but I also thought it was very creative and I liked the music.)
As was pointed out above, I also thought Rihanna did a better job acting than most of the cast (though that's not a huge accomplishment) and was a more interesting character/arc than the alien the movie actually starts with.
Alx
Member
It's also not a well known fact, even by readers of the serie. It's barely mentioned in the rest of the saga (and mostly irrelevant anyway), I think Laureline only says once
that at one time she was turned into a unicorn
SuperStiltzkin
Member
This is pretty much a videogame movie where all the side quests are way more interesting than the main quest. You need to get one macguffin after another to advance to different levels. Except all the levels and macguffins are visually spectacular and insanely imaginative. That desert heist sequence is like some high concept sci-fi shit you would see in a cool Rick and Morty episode. The entire universe they set up here is super cool. From the birth of the City of a Thousand Planets to the pearl beach planet, the movie does a pretty good job of world building and immersing you in it. The CGI is breathtaking as well. One of the most visually impressive films this year.
The movie actually operates at its best when it drops to the plot to saddle the protagonists with sidequests because the main mystery is pretty much unraveled in front of you in the beginning of the 2nd act and is unnecessarily convoluted. So when it comes time for the big reveal in the 3rd act, it clumsily dumps exposition on you and severely slows down the film's pretty brisk first 2/3.
And I prefer it when the protagonists chase after macguffins instead of struggling to be characters. Dane Dehaan just sucks at being a handsome rogue. It's not his type and he's not convincing at all in the role. He just puts on a deep and dry voice and that doesn't really cut it. He's totally miscast here. Cara is okay. I think she's fine with the material she's given that isn't just rebuffing Valerian's flirting and rolling her eyes. Together they act more like siblings than a couple. Their banter is terrible and I close my eyes everytime they argue about their relationship.
I think the movie could have been perfect if it had a much simpler plot to hang all its set pieces on and a better male lead.
To be fair, you could have taken a dump during many sequences and not have missed anything plot-wise. I thought Rihanna's character was one of the more energizing characters of the cast. And I thought Dane Dehaan had more chemistry with her character than with Cara. Which isn't too high a bar to clear since him and Cara are a black hole of chemistry and charisma whenever they are together trying their best Han/Leia roleplay.
The movie actually operates at its best when it drops to the plot to saddle the protagonists with sidequests because the main mystery is pretty much unraveled in front of you in the beginning of the 2nd act and is unnecessarily convoluted. So when it comes time for the big reveal in the 3rd act, it clumsily dumps exposition on you and severely slows down the film's pretty brisk first 2/3.
And I prefer it when the protagonists chase after macguffins instead of struggling to be characters. Dane Dehaan just sucks at being a handsome rogue. It's not his type and he's not convincing at all in the role. He just puts on a deep and dry voice and that doesn't really cut it. He's totally miscast here. Cara is okay. I think she's fine with the material she's given that isn't just rebuffing Valerian's flirting and rolling her eyes. Together they act more like siblings than a couple. Their banter is terrible and I close my eyes everytime they argue about their relationship.
I think the movie could have been perfect if it had a much simpler plot to hang all its set pieces on and a better male lead.
To be fair, you could have taken a dump during many sequences and not have missed anything plot-wise. I thought Rihanna's character was one of the more energizing characters of the cast. And I thought Dane Dehaan had more chemistry with her character than with Cara. Which isn't too high a bar to clear since him and Cara are a black hole of chemistry and charisma whenever they are together trying their best Han/Leia roleplay.
Saw it last night and I had fun, but not much more. The movie gets completely lost in its own creativity and unfortunately Luc Bessons didn't find a story that this massive and great world design deserved. The first action sequence was truly wild and imaginative though and transcended dimensions that I would have never thought of existed! I'd say it was a solid 6 / 10 !
Teren_Kanan
Member
There is no way this movie isn't hot garbage.
Nice drive by shit post.
Saw it last night and loved it. As expected the visuals are superb, and even though the main cast doesn't have great chemistry, they're ok.
What really annoyed me was a rather meaty section around the middle when
So basically, remove 20 minutes and bring the film to a still decent 1h50min, and all is good imo.
Pros:
* Story is good, if a bit cliche.
* Environments/ sets have so much imagination behind them. Straight out of Jodorowski/ Moebius it seems
* Costumes and decors are out there and mind blowing
* CG is excellent
* Intruder and Alex AI look/ sound great
* Alain Chabat's bit (underwater) was great
* The multidimensional heist was a great mind fuck, if a bit confusing at first
Cons:
* 20 mins too long, should remove that middle detour which includes Rihanna (her dance bit itself is good though, just useless for the story)
* Humor is a bit touch and go. Less wacky than 5th element though, and nothing straight out bad like "Moultipasse!"
* The end kinda... Happens. Not much of an epilogue at all.
* Die hard fans will mourn the amount of changes vs original comic. I didn't mind.
* main cast a bit off, lacks chemistry and seems too young and "skinny" to be the top interdimensional super agents they are supposed to be.
What really annoyed me was a rather meaty section around the middle when
Laureline touches a butterfly, which triggers a whole series of events including Ethan Hawkes and Rihanna... Which had no link or impact to the main story whatsoever. I get it is meant for us to "explore" Alpha and one of its 800+ Alien races, but it seemed to both kill the pacing, be very out of place (specially that overly long Rihanna dance bit) and bring nothing to the story aside from a superfluous "Show her you love her" speech at the end.
So basically, remove 20 minutes and bring the film to a still decent 1h50min, and all is good imo.
Pros:
* Story is good, if a bit cliche.
* Environments/ sets have so much imagination behind them. Straight out of Jodorowski/ Moebius it seems
* Costumes and decors are out there and mind blowing
* CG is excellent
* Intruder and Alex AI look/ sound great
* Alain Chabat's bit (underwater) was great
* The multidimensional heist was a great mind fuck, if a bit confusing at first
Cons:
* 20 mins too long, should remove that middle detour which includes Rihanna (her dance bit itself is good though, just useless for the story)
* Humor is a bit touch and go. Less wacky than 5th element though, and nothing straight out bad like "Moultipasse!"
* The end kinda... Happens. Not much of an epilogue at all.
* Die hard fans will mourn the amount of changes vs original comic. I didn't mind.
* main cast a bit off, lacks chemistry and seems too young and "skinny" to be the top interdimensional super agents they are supposed to be.
I had the same question. I thought it was made for 3D but someone else said it was a conversion? In a non-IMAX, digital 3D theater, I felt like some distant objects were hard to focus on. Other than that it worked pretty well. There weren't any "in your face" moments I remember. Instead, things were deep, e.g. giving scale on a far-away, massive space station.
It sounds like you should just go with 2D, which might have brighter colors anyway.
Not too much, basically two sequences, but check a few of the above posts for opinions. She's surprisingly one of the better characters, to me. Some people thought her time could have been cut.
Oh by the way, I forgot to mention the one plot thing that actually bothered me. PLOT SPOILER:
They have this super important ball, and super important creature, and general whatever they're protecting. The Avatar aliens kidnap the general (though apparently not the ball/creature, not sure if Valerian is aware they got neither). Chasing after them, Valerian identifies the ship with the general and decides the best course of action is to fire a bunch of massive weapons at it. Why not attempt to follow or track instead of, you know, killing the general?
I would, but hey, good luck lol
Warm Machine
Member
I took my 6 year old son to it and he liked it well enough.
A good edit of this movie could be done to tighten up the pacing. The 2nd prologue isn't necessary as they flash back to it later. They could have easily combined the two parts into one stronger part.
I did miss most of the Rihanna dance sequence as my boy had to run to the washroom so I'll have to catch up on it when the movie comes home.
A good edit of this movie could be done to tighten up the pacing. The 2nd prologue isn't necessary as they flash back to it later. They could have easily combined the two parts into one stronger part.
I did miss most of the Rihanna dance sequence as my boy had to run to the washroom so I'll have to catch up on it when the movie comes home.
SuperStiltzkin
Member
I thought the Rihanna sequence was one of the better parts of the movie. Yeah it's definitely a detour sidequest that could have been cut, but her and Valerian actually had an interesting dynamic both character-wise and universe wise.
I like how he can basically "wear" her and use her as a disguise.
If we really wanted to trim down the film, cut out ALL the Valerian/Laureline scenes that are them talking about their relationship for the 20th time. Maybe it wouldn't be faithful to the comic, but if it were just a platonic working relationship where Valerian didn't whine incessantly about marrying Laureline and instead the two of them just discussed the mission, the movie would have moved better. Instead of a big exposition dump at the end, after
Valerian crashed his skypod he could have had a vision from the princess and then tell Laureline about it when she finds him instead of having yet another contrived argument.
The film stops too many times trying to get you to like their Han/Leia dynamic that doesn't work because Dane Dehaan sucks at being a playboy and they have no chemistry and literally do no talk about anything else except whether they're gonna get married or not.
That was weird.
I thought it might turn out that he's shooting stasis bullets or something? But it just seemed like regular bullets/lasers. Even more dangerous is that he's in a crowded city and risked shooting buildings and other ships, not to mention the commander.
I also thought it was weird and cold blooded that they totally ditched the desert bus squad.
I also thought it was weird and cold blooded that they totally ditched the desert bus squad.
Like The Fifth Element, this is probably a "Don't think too much about the plot and just roll with whatever the movie tells you" sort of affair.
So here's a little too much thinking about the plot:
So here's a little too much thinking about the plot:
What was even going on with the General's plan? There was no deadly radiation leak inside the city, so what happened to the squads that got sent there and never returned? Why doesn't he just send his robot death squads in to kill the Na'vi? What was it that he originally had intended for Valerian and Laureline to do, prior to his kidnapping? What was even the purpose of lying about the radiation? What did that accomplish?
To be clear I actually liked her character, she had surprisingly FAR more chemistry with Valerian than Laureline, and in a rather short amount of time they kinda get us to care for her. It's just... The whole thing is completely unrelated to an urgent mission they have going or the movie itself, and feels like a waste of time.
Valerian is very much aware as
he made sure the very high profile commander would not carry the 'one thing in the universe' rare animal, as he was a defacto obvious target.
The pearl he was keeping on himself as a keepsake, having no idea what it was.
The pearl he was keeping on himself as a keepsake, having no idea what it was.
Here's my interpretation
The Aliens managed to create this reinforced area within Alpha, which we realize at the end is a very advanced starship. Its entrance is protected by a force field which can selectively let people through.
The general, wanting to keep the whole thing hush hush, and when he realized who the stowaways were, probably organized the assassination of every squad sent in to investigate, while trying to involve as little "troops" as possible, as humans tend to spill the beans.
The other option is that each mission was a group of kill squads, and were dispatched by the Aliens, but this would contradict their seemingly non lethal ways and aversion for violence unless necessary.
The zone being radioactive was a convenient excuse (faked) by the Commander to keep investigations at bay, and the (alien controlled) comms blackout in the zone was only reinforcing that.
We learn the killer robot squad is of recent fabrication, at least this specific one.
The problem is that they can't get in without explosives, which would alert Aplha anyway, and the high command mandates fornthis mission that High Level Agents had to come anyway to try the diplomatic approach first (with the Duplicator, which would serve as a bargaining chip to replicate whatever "ennemy" they would find there would deem of interest).
The commander tries to argue that his new squad is capable on its own, and not take them with him.
When forced to take them along, I imagine that there was going to be an incident where both Valerian and Laureline would end up shot in the back repeatedly by mistake...
The whole thing was meant for the Commander to get rid of the Aliens with as little human witnesses (alive) as possible.
The general, wanting to keep the whole thing hush hush, and when he realized who the stowaways were, probably organized the assassination of every squad sent in to investigate, while trying to involve as little "troops" as possible, as humans tend to spill the beans.
The other option is that each mission was a group of kill squads, and were dispatched by the Aliens, but this would contradict their seemingly non lethal ways and aversion for violence unless necessary.
The zone being radioactive was a convenient excuse (faked) by the Commander to keep investigations at bay, and the (alien controlled) comms blackout in the zone was only reinforcing that.
We learn the killer robot squad is of recent fabrication, at least this specific one.
The problem is that they can't get in without explosives, which would alert Aplha anyway, and the high command mandates fornthis mission that High Level Agents had to come anyway to try the diplomatic approach first (with the Duplicator, which would serve as a bargaining chip to replicate whatever "ennemy" they would find there would deem of interest).
The commander tries to argue that his new squad is capable on its own, and not take them with him.
When forced to take them along, I imagine that there was going to be an incident where both Valerian and Laureline would end up shot in the back repeatedly by mistake...
The whole thing was meant for the Commander to get rid of the Aliens with as little human witnesses (alive) as possible.
illmatic22
Banned
And now 55%
Welp
Spike Spiegel
Member
Got off work early today, so I caught a matinee in 3D.
I had a blast. Visually creative and stunning in a way that few movies in recent memory can hope to match, with a plot that's exciting and silly and meanders a bit but still manages to be entertaining. The lore of Alpha, the wildly imaginative flora and fauna and the technology on display, was almost overwhelming, and the the lead actors...honestly, I can see what others are saying about the lack of chemistry and I chalk it up to those actors' faces and their tendency to deadpan. DeHaan was better than Delevigne I felt, but neither was B-A-D bad I thought.
Thinking back the only real problem I had was with
I had a blast. Visually creative and stunning in a way that few movies in recent memory can hope to match, with a plot that's exciting and silly and meanders a bit but still manages to be entertaining. The lore of Alpha, the wildly imaginative flora and fauna and the technology on display, was almost overwhelming, and the the lead actors...honestly, I can see what others are saying about the lack of chemistry and I chalk it up to those actors' faces and their tendency to deadpan. DeHaan was better than Delevigne I felt, but neither was B-A-D bad I thought.
Thinking back the only real problem I had was with
the death of Rihanna's character, Bubble. It was so abrupt. I kept waiting for her to pop up, like the death scene was another act. When they kept focusing on the General's war droids in the finale, I expected that she had mimicked one of them and was going to help out in the finale. But nope, it boiled down to "this character served her purpose, time to die." And after such a stunning introduction too.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Got back from seeing it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.
-Story was decent, minus the 20 minute video game side-quest that just brings the narrative to a grinding halt.
-The two leads were very bland, I didn't care for them much
-Movie is gorgeous, and one of the few I would say is worth springing for 3D on.
-Story was decent, minus the 20 minute video game side-quest that just brings the narrative to a grinding halt.
-The two leads were very bland, I didn't care for them much
-Movie is gorgeous, and one of the few I would say is worth springing for 3D on.
There isn't hate if you call a spade, a spade. The funny part is still ruffles some jimmies.
boredJonathan
Member
Agreed on the sidequest vibes. It didn't help that for most of that scene Valerina was wearing his cosplay of Mass Effect 3's Shepherd armor.
It's weird though, I liked those scenes, I'd probably have liked the film less if it dropped them - but they were just totally unnecessary and in the end the film felt way too long.
David H Wong
Banned
It bombed:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...ads-45m-50m-us-debut-valerian-bombing-1023378
Estimated $17 million weekend on a $180 million budget. Ugh.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...ads-45m-50m-us-debut-valerian-bombing-1023378
Estimated $17 million weekend on a $180 million budget. Ugh.
It probably would have bombed anyway, but releasing square in the middle of Spiderman + Apes + Dunkirk is pretty rough.
SuperStiltzkin
Member
Not the mention you have no idea what the movie is about based on the trailers. For the first 30 minutes you don't even know who Valerian and Laureline are. Are they cops? Spies? Bounty Hunters?