Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline: A universe without boundaries needs heroes without limits.

In the 28th century, Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are a team of special operatives charged with maintaining order throughout the human territories. Under assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two embark on a mission to the astonishing city of Alphaan ever-expanding metropolis where species from all over the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence and cultures with each other. There is a mystery at the center of Alpha, a dark which threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.

Storyline: VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS is the new adventure film from Luc Besson, the director of The Professional, The Fifth Element and Lucy, based on the comic book series which inspired a generation of artists, writers and filmmakers. In the 28th century, Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are a team of special operatives charged with maintaining order throughout the human territories. Under assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two embark on a mission to the astonishing city of Alpha-an ever-expanding metropolis where species from all over the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence and cultures with each other. There is a mystery at the center of Alpha, a dark force which threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, November 10, 2017 Question: How is it possible for a film with a reported box office take of well north of $200 million to be considered a "flop"? Answer: When that film cost close to $200 million to begin with, a total that doesn't include the all important (and infamously amorphous) "marketing" and related costs. It's been kind of interesting to see some cinematic stalwarts like the Wachowskis and now Luc Besson stumble, at least a bit, when they attempt to bring a high concept science fiction epic to the screen, as the Wachowskis did with the largely lamented Jupiter Ascending and Besson has done now with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. One of the kind of bizarre aspects of both of these perceived "failures" is that Besson and the Wachowskis are no strangers to the science fiction idiom, with the Wachowskis of course having provided one of the best remembered franchises in the relatively recent history of science fiction cinema, The Matrix / The Matrix Reloaded / The Matrix Revolutions, and Besson being equally celebrated for films like The Fifth Element and Lucy. The Wachowskis and Besson also share one other salient trait, and that's their typically unflagging sense of visual excitement, and even those who have taken these particular filmmakers to task for this or that assumed shortcoming have almost always agreed that from a purely visual standpoint, their films tend to evoke wonder and perhaps even awe. Besson evidently first started thinking about adapting the French comic book Valérian and Laureline during the shoot for The Fifth Element, but some of the more daunting challenges of making a film with an inherent need for staggering special visual effects seemed to make the project less than feasible. While some might accuse Besson of relying too much on technologies that have matured in the years subsequent to The Fifth Element's release, there's little doubt that despite a number of potentially hobbling issues, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets offers viewers a lot to look at.

The opening sequence of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets documents the evolution of the International Space Station from a mere "wayside" to a huge conglomeration, a process which takes hundreds of years. The amalgamation, known as Alpha, becomes so huge that its weight threatens to send it hurtling back into Earth's atmosphere, so an intergalactic council decides to send the structure off into the wilds of space, where it and its interplanetary inhabitants can act as ambassadors in a way. Already Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is trafficking in some pretty well worn science fiction clichés which might remind various viewers of everything from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Battlestar Galactica .

Meanwhile, a seemingly unconnected vignette may remind some other viewers, especially those who had little boys playing videogames as I did, of a completely odd property, namely Super Mario Sunshine, for an apparently dreamlike "visit to a small planet" details a locale very much in keeping with that venerable old Nintendo outing, a gorgeous, sun bathed place with vast oceans and stunning beaches, where an alien race fishes for pearls that evidently contain vast amounts of natural energy. A princess of this population also has a pet that's kind of a lizard like creature, soon to be identified as a so-called "Convertor", a name that is appropriate since whatever it consumes it then excretes in vast amounts. Unfortunately, kind of like those massive oil slicks that used to confound old Mario, the planet is suddently beset with an onslaught of debris falling out of the sky, something that seems to put an end to everything.

There's a lot in this opening set of scenes that is not fully explained, a tendency that continues throughout the film's busy but often pretty shallow screenplay by Besson. Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are introduced in what turns out to be a sort of "holodeck" beach, where that whole scene of the redolent alien world filled with magical pearls may have been a dream Valerian was having. Soon enough, though, the duo's AI app, known as Alex, lets Valerian know that the "dream" was actually a telepathically received message from some other place (and, possibly, time).

Unsurprisingly, the whole alien pearl angle ends up being totally central to the plot, as Valerian and Laureline are called into a top secret operation helmed by Arün Filitt (Clive Owen), an officious army commander at Alpha who is trying to excise a radioactive "tumor" that has developed and is growing in the center of the space station. There are any number of sidebars I haven't detailed in an already overcrowded plot, but the biggest issue with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is that even the plot points I have detailed here are typically just thrust at the viewer with very little context or explication, leaving the film to survive on its often manic visual proclivities. One other issue in terms of character crops up fairly early, since there's next to no question who the villain of the piece is going to turn out to be.

There's a Felliniesque ambience at play in this film, with a peripatetic camera darting hither and yon in search of some new shiny object, as well as an emphasis on odd looking characters (alien and humanoid). The whole dreamlike atmosphere perhaps helps the film to elide some of its more problematic plot presentations, but the performances in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets often bring this film crashing down kind of like the flaming wreckage that destroys the pearl planet. The two stars play their characters like petulant teenagers, and unfortunately a large supporting cast is often less than effective. The film certainly could have used some tightening in terms of pacing, but also in terms of actual explicative content delivered in the screenplay to help the viewer understand what's going on. When the expected massive info dump occurs quite late in the film, it's a matter of too little, too late, after much too much.

This review continues in my by now long (and growing longer) tradition of stating that if you're the same kind of fan of eye candy as I am, you may well be willing to overlook the other manifest issues hobbling Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The film's plot is resolutely predictable, and some of the performances are ham handed (at best), but Lordy does Besson ever know how to fill a frame. Technical merits are excellent for those considering a purchase.

[CSW] -1.5- Visually stunning movie but plot, dialogue and everything else was absolutely awful. I found it impossible to connect emotionally with it in any other way than feeling very impatient for it to be over. Even the acting was terrible. I had such hopes for this movie but they seemed to somehow miss every opportunity to succeed.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box enhanced this movie but couldn't save it.


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