Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is an intriguing failure because Besson was able to make the movie he had wanted to make his entire career… And he’d already made a better version of it twenty years before.
Luc Bensson also had been developing The 5th Element since he was an early teenager. Its bonkers world building worked because even though much of it fit together misshapen play-dough, it had that exact childlike love and care that went into creating it, giving it an endearing quality that’s impossible to impose.
I have one small nit to pick with you--and I speak as someone who was reading /Valerian et Laureline/ as a child back in the 1960s (along with Tintin, Asterix, and a whole host of others, both in book form and serialized in the Tintin and Pilote magazines).
I don't honestly think Cara Delavigne is well-cast--and for much the same reason her counterpart is also miscast.
In the books, Valerian is a fully-formed human being--an adult. Which is part of the reason De Haan flops. He's a broody teenager with impulse-control issues.
But Laureline is also a fully-formed adult--indeed she is one of the earliest SF heroines to be able to go toe-to-toe with Valerian (the comic-book version) when he gets too stupid.
And Cara Delavigne...Just. Doesn't. Cut it.
She's pretty, and quite sexy in a somewhat creepily child-like way. But as Valerian's partner? Nope. Not even a little bit.
They needed to cast someone like Karen Allen as she played opposite Harrison Ford as his foil/love interest in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But of course, that would merely have exacerbated the issue with De Haan, who would have appeared even more as a man-child by comparison.
So for me, the movie fails on both its choices in the leading roles.
But it's still what my late father would have called "a brilliant failure."
One question: you make no mention of the movies in which--for me anyhow--Luc Besson made his bones...the hyperkinetic, over-the-top action movies starting with /Nikita/ (and BTW I think that the Anne Parillaud of Nikita would have made a far better Laureline, but of course by then she'd have been too old).
Fifth Element holds up masterfully. It looks really good. The acting is solid. The script is great. The visuals are amazing. It is hugely fun. And has been memed to death because it is so iconic.
I never saw Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, went to the tube and viewed the trailer. The lead actors both were immediately unappealing and the effects were too busy. The Fifth Element is a classic by all the standards in your very good review.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets reminds me of Stargate - it wants to be a fun sci-fi flick, but it keeps getting in its own way. I also second the commentors who have mentioned the miscasting of Cara Delavigne - she is striking, but she doesn't have the 'actress face' or the charisma to work on film. Jovavich pulled off the model to actress transition because she is likable and looks like she belongs onscreen.
Since you brought up the Ninth Art scene, is La Mort de Staline/The Death of Stalin part of that as well, or is it a different category?
Luc Bensson also had been developing The 5th Element since he was an early teenager. Its bonkers world building worked because even though much of it fit together misshapen play-dough, it had that exact childlike love and care that went into creating it, giving it an endearing quality that’s impossible to impose.
I love your review and mostly concur.
However, comma...
I have one small nit to pick with you--and I speak as someone who was reading /Valerian et Laureline/ as a child back in the 1960s (along with Tintin, Asterix, and a whole host of others, both in book form and serialized in the Tintin and Pilote magazines).
I don't honestly think Cara Delavigne is well-cast--and for much the same reason her counterpart is also miscast.
In the books, Valerian is a fully-formed human being--an adult. Which is part of the reason De Haan flops. He's a broody teenager with impulse-control issues.
But Laureline is also a fully-formed adult--indeed she is one of the earliest SF heroines to be able to go toe-to-toe with Valerian (the comic-book version) when he gets too stupid.
And Cara Delavigne...Just. Doesn't. Cut it.
She's pretty, and quite sexy in a somewhat creepily child-like way. But as Valerian's partner? Nope. Not even a little bit.
They needed to cast someone like Karen Allen as she played opposite Harrison Ford as his foil/love interest in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But of course, that would merely have exacerbated the issue with De Haan, who would have appeared even more as a man-child by comparison.
So for me, the movie fails on both its choices in the leading roles.
But it's still what my late father would have called "a brilliant failure."
One question: you make no mention of the movies in which--for me anyhow--Luc Besson made his bones...the hyperkinetic, over-the-top action movies starting with /Nikita/ (and BTW I think that the Anne Parillaud of Nikita would have made a far better Laureline, but of course by then she'd have been too old).
...Thoughts?
You are correct. Both leads were badly cast and failed the project.
Fifth Element holds up masterfully. It looks really good. The acting is solid. The script is great. The visuals are amazing. It is hugely fun. And has been memed to death because it is so iconic.
How do you feel about the Valerian animated series?
I haven't watched it yet because I'm not sure it's worth the time.
I haven't watched it.
Love this one. And Mira is an absolute smoke show.
I never saw Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, went to the tube and viewed the trailer. The lead actors both were immediately unappealing and the effects were too busy. The Fifth Element is a classic by all the standards in your very good review.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets reminds me of Stargate - it wants to be a fun sci-fi flick, but it keeps getting in its own way. I also second the commentors who have mentioned the miscasting of Cara Delavigne - she is striking, but she doesn't have the 'actress face' or the charisma to work on film. Jovavich pulled off the model to actress transition because she is likable and looks like she belongs onscreen.
Since you brought up the Ninth Art scene, is La Mort de Staline/The Death of Stalin part of that as well, or is it a different category?
Oh I love this one
Great article. For a moment, I thought I read Duck Dodgers of the 24 and 1/2 Century. I had no idea there was a thing called Buck Rodgers. O_O