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Dennis Reynolds

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

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All right, so I had been looking forward to this movie for a while, and now that I've finally seen it I've got as many thoughts on it as any other film I've seen this year. I'm writing my main review without spoilers, and I'll add some bullet points underneath the spoiler to elaborate more on a few things.

I like Luc Besson well enough, not that I've seen a ton of his movies. He has a reputation for making films that have strong visuals and thin stories, and by no means is Valerian very different. That said, the general story of Valerian isn't exactly what I would call thin...it more just kinda takes a break for a while, and when we get back to the main plot after what has been quite a while, a bit much happens all at once and it just sorta leads to an anti-climax. I'm genuinely curious if the first cut was significantly longer and Besson whittled it down to a more average length, because the story structure is honestly very strange.

He does certainly succeed on the visuals, and also importantly to me the film delivers on its promises for some out-there sci-fi concepts that are too weird for Star Wars. In order not to spoil anything, I'll cite Valerian jumping onto his own laserblasts as he's firing them in the trailer. The world building is pretty good, although I would've liked a little more to be seen of the diverse city of a thousand planets, even if that is where most of the film is set. The two planets we see in the movie are fine if not particularly unique in the world of sci-fi, although a lot of the film's better moments occur on the latter. 

The acting isn't very good, but I think it's important to note that for me at least, that's one of the last things I generally have high expectations for in these high adventure space opera films. Even in Star Wars, I would hardly say the acting is generally noted to be one of the strongest points. Cara Delevingne is better than she was in Suicide Squad, not that that's a huge accomplishment. Still, I think she could still improve as an actress and I don't understand this attitude of counting out actresses just because they used to be models (not accusing anyone on this forum of thinking that way, but I've come across it in the past quite a bit. I won't be surprised if Dane Dehaan faces criticism for being "unbelievable" as an action hero, but for most of the film sequences, he's not so much a fighter as a guy who's one hell of a shot and has agility to spare.

Rihanna's role isn't very big, but she debuts in a great scene - an elaborate dance sequence where she uses her shapeshifting powers to change into basically every cliche from male fantasy. Naughty nurse, Catholic schoolgirl, dominatrix, you name it. They pretty much have their cake and eat it too here - it works as both fanservice and as a self-aware mockery of it. However, the way her character is dealt with afterwards irks me probably more than anything else in the film. Ethan Hawke has a pretty funny small role as a sleazy cowboy space pimp as well.

I don't imagine this is the kind of film that too many would be on the fence about based on the trailer. It represents it fairly well and if you don't believe this looks like your kind of thing, I highly doubt it'll be any pleasant surprise for you. And if you do think you'll enjoy it, I think you'll probably still like it to some extent, but my personal impression overall would be one of slight disappointment. If you do want to see it though, definitely head to the theatre for it instead of waiting for it to come out on home media. It'll really add to the experience. 

7/10.
 

Spoiler

- On the story, I felt the film took way too long to get back to focusing on the Mul story, and I think they could've at least spaced out the two Laureline-has-to-rescue-Valerian and now-Valerian-has-to-rescue-Laureline aspects of the plot, which take up at least an hour of the film. I definitely think these could've been easily cut down a lot.


- Rihanna isn't a big character in this, but still, I wasn't crazy about how her character dies for a mission that essentially means nothing to her, and ultimately the whole reason Valerian even needs her help seemed pointless to me. He needs her to help him in so they can shapeshift as one of the aliens and not cause a political problem...but killing a bunch of said aliens once you get isn't an issue? I guess they still needed to get it, but eh, it just sorta came off like her character just existed to die after getting dragged into something she had no personal stake in. 

 

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3 hours ago, Chapman. said:

I saw the trailer on my way to see dunkirk, it's saying it's the director's work of a lifetime with visuals more stunning than Avatar... but cant back it up with the footage it showed me dead2 

I think it was since Avatar, not than Avatar, at least some of the reviews I read said that

 

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I'm going next week to the theatre to watch it

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59 minutes ago, McDreamy said:

I think it was since Avatar, not than Avatar, at least some of the reviews I read said that

 

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I'm going next week to the theatre to watch it

my point remains, it's not *stunning* 

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All right, so I had been looking forward to this movie for a while, and now that I've finally seen it I've got as many thoughts on it as any other film I've seen this year. I'm writing my main review


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