Review of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) by Nube C — 04 Apr 2018

Luc Besson was someone who appeared like a prodigy out of Europe. Not limited to one unexpectedly good film early in his career, but several that were truly original, well made, and well acted. "One assumed" that as he grew older and more experienced his work would only improve. - not the case. His later films have been, in my most respectful opinion, abysmal.

I just watched "Valerian" on Amazon - not even knowing it existed prior to this, and I am an avid SciFi fan who will watch, and enjoy, the silliest of this genre out there. I can not state strongly enough how disappointed I was in this film.

Visually stunning, with a few homages here and there to his earlier work, Fifth Element, that caused me to smile. But otherwise this film was just so very weak.

Starting with the two main characters. I can appreciate the effect some scifi movies have recently had on showing very young underdeveloped males as leads, but the lead actor in this film looked truly infantile. Not once during the entire film did I believe he was a soldier, a spy, or even remotely sexually interested in his female counterpart. He was too pubescent. It was like having a 12-year old boy just starting middle school play a major 'mature male role' in an expensively made futuristic movie. In The Professional the point was having the female lead be too young for what was happening to her. The male lead in Valerian should have been cast so very differently.

As for the female lead, at least 'once' I would have liked to have seen some emotion, not just a very occasional smirky smile. I've never witnessed such a black hole presence on the screen. The CGI-created female alien Princess from the scenes just prior to her appearing on the beach wearing a bikini outshined this 'living' female lead - in emotion, in beauty, and oddly, even in acting. Even the alien's body was nicer. I felt so much more from the 'CGI princess' than from the 'human'. Is this 'actress' this cold and detached in real life?

If I don't believe in the two main actors - in any way - and the entire film revolves around them, then the rest of the film really falls apart, no matter how stunning the visuals might be. And the visuals were very stunning.

I often compare such efforts to "2001", which had reticent actors playing second to a wayward computer and many amazing visuals for its day. But in that film the story was inspiring and gripping. "Valerian" did not offer either, sadly.

As someone who was a true Luc Besson fan I am so disappointed. He is not the only major film creator who, in his older age, has been making extremely weak and underwhelming films. But I'd hoped for more from him as he grew older.