Valerian and the City Of A Thousand Planets

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS

Director : Luc Besson

Year : 2017

Genre : Science Fiction

Rating : **

Despite it's many problems, it's impossible to deny that Luc Besson's anticipated sci-fi extravaganza 'Valerian and the City Of A Thousand Planets' was made with a great deal of love, invention and ambition. The film, adapted from Pierre Christin's popular French comic series 'Valerian et Laureline', has been on the backburner for the 'Leon : The Professional' and 'La Femme Nikita' director for many decades now and while his 1997 cult classic 'The Fifth Element' was a generous stab at the source material, 'Valerian' sees Besson at his unapologetically idiosyncratic best who, with the help of his production and computer effects teams, conjures up consistently breathtaking visuals, astonishing creature designs and rich, colourful environments. It's then a shame that such visual brilliance was ultimately wasted on a poor story and undeniably weak characterisations. 

The movie begins in the most perfect way possible, with a David Bowie song. Greeted with a stunning shot of Earth accompanied by the iconic strains of Space Oddity, we see the formation of the titular city Alpha -  a sprawling metropolis of  millions of different alien races who have crossed the universe to share their collective knowledge and wisdom. It is also here that we meet the eponymous Valerian (Dane DeHaan), a young yet skilled major who with his fellow agent and maybe-lover Laureline (Cara Delevingne) must uncover the truth behind the mysterious abduction of Alpha's general (Clive Owen) as well as preventing the total annihilation of their home. 

It is with these two characters that we traverse the many environments and habitats of Alpha and every single one is unique and spectacular - an inter-dimensional virtual reality marketplace plays host to the movies most visually arresting and thrilling action set piece while Rihanna takes centre stage for a truly beautiful shape-shifting dance sequence. Costing upwards of $210m, 'Valerian and the City Of A Thousand Planets' is both the most expensive European movie ever made and the most expensive independent film ever made and despite it's many shortcomings, Besson has used the money to create some of the most awe-inspiring visuals in modern sci-fi history. Anyone going into the film is sure to be impressed by the amount of extravagance and wonder on offer here.   

However, while the many planets of Alpha provide a great deal of amusement, the characters and the plot, sadly, do not. Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne are fine actors and both deliver good performances but an unfortunate dearth of chemistry makes them increasingly dull to watch, an aspect that certainly isn't helped by the consistently lackluster script which attempts to bat around a will-they-won't-they subplot but sorely lacks the necessary romantic tension to fully convince. Meanwhile the supporting cast which includes such great actors as Ethan Hawke, Rutger Hauer and the aforementioned Clive Owen all do their best with the mediocre material but are given little to no development, only adding to the mounting frustration.   

Running for a bum-numbing 137 minutes, the movie grossly exceeds the standard length of a generic sci-fi picture and while it's action-heavy finale is certainly a feast for the eyes, it's almost copyright-infringing similarities to James Cameron's 'Avatar' ultimately make for a crushingly underwhelming two hours in the multiplex. 'Valerian and the City Of A Thousand Planets' isn't, as many critics have already called it, one of the worst films of the year but it's certainly one of the most disappointing. Technically, it's a truly astonishing feat of special effects, costume design and production quality but as a satisfying cinematic experience, 'Valerian and the City Of A Thousand Planets' falls short of the spacial heights that were so clearly in its grasp.