Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets [DVD] [2017]

In 1997,director Luc Besson made a significant contribution to the annals of cinematic science fiction with "The Fifth Element",a visually stunning and offbeat movie. It would seem that he's trying again with this film,based on the French comic strip "Valerian And Laureline" by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres...regrettably,despite an able try,it appears that lightning isn't striking twice for the director. Part of the problem lays in its leads,Dane Dehaan (Chronicle,The Amazing Spiderman 2),who really isn't the leading-man type and Cara Delevingne (Pan,Suicide Squad),the chemistry between the two questionable at best,despite the fact that the pair are supposed to be playing lovers. Fortunately,the movie is still worth a look for its dazzling visuals,amazing even for something made after James Cameron's "Avatar". Also in play here is Besson's trademark sense of humor,which might not elevate this movie to great heights,but prevents it from becoming a dry,forgettable film.

Sci-Fi, for those who love it, has to only meet minimal criteria. Writing: spend dollars on a credible story that keeps the audience wondering and adheres to some logical (even if only internal) explanation. This was messy, eventually unsatisfying, although it adheres to the comic book. But, I'll watch awful 50s Sci-Fi repeatedly, so I'm an easy sell. Characters: You've got to love the characters. The need to have some serious commitment to their story or else I won't believe it, either. Big miss. Spending money on actors who bring credibility makes a difference. The leads were cute. Chewbaca was cute, too. ET was cute. Not going to carry a movie alone. Careers may have ended here. Special effects. Now a necessity, these alone won't sell a movie. These were wonderful, often unique, but ultimately, not enough. Disappointing, frustrating, and not a very compelling re-watch. So much promise, so close, and yet, production money spent on all the wrong things.Too bad. I'm going to give it 3 stars, because it wasn't Battlefield Earth bad. It is watchable Sci-Fi for the die hard fan, dazzling and noisy. Not much else.

I had heard that the two lead actors in this movie were bad but I still wanted to give the film a chance given all the great things I have heard about how the film looks and sounds. It was not worth it. It's just hard to fully describe just how bad the male lead in this movie is. Not only is he a poor actor, but it seems like he's trying to do some sort of 'macho' voice for the whole film; it is incredibly distracting. Every time he opened his mouth I was taken out of the movie to say aloud to my empty room "WTF?". Anyway, like I said, I wanted to see this film for its alleged audio visual quality. I would call it all good but not particularly great. It did not strike me as being anything out of the ordinary for what you would expect from a quality film. So just go watch a better movie. You are not missing anything if you do not see this film. There is nothing here that is special. You will more likely just find yourself annoyed.

Movie looks great but is not a great film. Im not much on pointless effects driven movies anymore. When I was young I loved a good special effects ladden piece of crap movie as much as the next guy. Now Im really not as impressed by it. I think this move just kinda drums along for the most part and doesnt really give you anything substantial for your time. With where we are today with tv shows blowing most films out of the water you really need to bring it when coming to the theaters. I felt like I was on a roller coaster going slow with this film. I gave it a 2 star rather than a 1 star as the 4K is stunning. To bad the movie itself wasnt as stunning.

I have been a big fan of this director since 'The Professional', so I eagerly looked forward to this new release. I was thinking it might be just another space adventure, I did like 'The Fifth Element'. But I think this movie was less over the top with its characters, and the movie focused on, and stayed close to telling a special tale. The films plot had to move in a linear way to better serve the tale which begins as somewhat of a mystery. We begin the film on a very strange planet, a paradise that's about to be destroyed, The films story, though sometime meandering at times, was always visually entertaining and was well executed. I also liked the young cast members, and I hope that this movie has a sequel, because this cast worked well on screen. I recommend the movie and it was visually stunning at times in 4K.

I enjoyed the visuals in this movie and made the worlds feel alive and the cgi was well done. However in terms of the acting I was not a huge fan of the lead the movie was named after. Which is a shame because I thought the actor was fantastic in Lawless years back. I felt like the way he approached the character did not match the characteristics of what was written. It seemed to be written like a one liner classic James Bond type but was played off like a tough guy Solid Snake type. As for the story it was nothing special either. It became a movie where everything coincidentally comes together for plot purposes at times. Wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the movie picking it up but I will say I did enjoy it much more than I thought I would.

Let me first say that the Special Effects were a blast and that was the best part of the movie. The acting was subpar, but then again who is expecting Oscar material here, right? The "leading man" aka Dane DeHaan was a complete miscast. Not quite on level with Jesse Eisenberg in BvS, but VERY, VERY close. There are reviewers stating no chemistry between the leads and I place that blame on the DeHaan miscast as Delevingne proves she can "have chemistry' (see Suicide Squad). I got this on 4K during the Black Friday sale and that was about right in terms of price for this movie. Again if you take this film for light sci-fi fare then you will have a good time. The older kids will enjoy it.

So I get that some viewers were disappointed because they were comparing the performance of the characters in the movie to the comics, which doesn't do the movie justice. If you just watch it purely from a cinematic standpoint, without comparison, you won't be disappointed. Fans seem to forget that movies based on anything are ALWAYS going to vary and take a few different directions. That's what is fun about it, is you get to revisit something beloved, but with a new twist. the effects were great. I absolutely enjoyed this movie. There is so much to see in it that you would need to watch it more than once to really see it all.