Review of The Fifth Element (1997) by Paul Z — 12 Dec 2012

I don't know whether I admire that Luc Besson preserved this script since he was a teenager or if I consider it disconcerting. He directs every frame with ostentatiousness and ecstasy for his $90 million comic book ideas, but the cut-rate writing is a trait all his films share, not just this one.

Still, it's fun in the disposable way a cartoon is, featuring what have got to be among the goofiest costumes and aliens in any non-parody sci-fi film of the '90s, while the chases seem inspired by The Blues Brothers in the air as opposed to any visionary sense of flying cars of the future.