Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

[NARMAK]

Just watched this earlier and have to say, it's not very well put together and the lead actors are just very miscast and very poor choices overall although I would argue Dane Dehaan is more of a mismatch for what I saw portrayed and Cara Delvigne could be seen to try her best but she doesn't seem to be completely at home and in her natural environment.

Major Valerian is supposed to be this suave lady killer and Dane Dehaan just comes off as a dweeb trying to be cool and seeing Cara react to it is almost at times akin to watching a person trying hard to take him serious and not laugh loud in his face.

Clive Owen brings some gravitas to his role but the rest of the supporting cast that appear are mainly serviceable and it did give Rihanna an opportunity to stand out a little more against that backdrop of mediocrity but even she seems a little wooden and when you watch, you'll realise how much of her "performance" she really does.

The script is also very poorly written and executed alongside poor casting choices for the leads and Fifth Element is a much superior movie even after all this time. Just on another level and to think this comes from the same director is a bit of a travesty.

I could have maybe imagined somebody like Channing Tatum maybe taking on the role but he's already done Jupiter Ascending so perhaps Alex Petyfr might have been a good choice. Good looking guy that can get in shape and be charismatic in a smarmy way and perhaps pull it off. I'd probably replace Cara with another more seasoned actress who's in her 20s and easy on the eyes too.

4/10 is probably what I'm thinking but it's not atrocious. 5/10 maybe? It's average.

[Shingster]

Just how woefully contrived is Rihanna's entire involvement in the film though? It's like this completely unnecessary 20min subplot lands out of nowhere to give her and Ethan Hawke a little mini-adventure with the two leads. Remove that and the film would probably come in under 2hrs and be a considerably more breezy experience.

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by Shingster

Just how woefully contrived is Rihanna's entire involvement in the film though? It's like this completely unnecessary 20min subplot lands out of nowhere to give her and Ethan Hawke a little mini-adventure with the two leads. Remove that and the film would probably come in under 2hrs and be a considerably more breezy experience.

I wouldn't say it was as "Contrived" as some make out and actually fit into what logically was happening. Valerian

[Show spoiler]needed to enter the restricted area but needs a disguise so goes looking for one and he comes across Rihanna aka Bubble who can morph into different characters and uses her to conceal him and get into the restricted area and save Loreline. Ethan Hawke probably needed a pay cheque because god he is the most wasted actor in the movie with that two bit role

I'd say that a lot of this movies problems stem from a very poor script trying to come up with a convoluted way to make things look "Cool" whereas in The Fifth Element we had this amazing world all set up and fully fleshed out where it was "crowded" but felt "real". Here they make things too artificial and looked like Luc Besson was trying too hard to ape Avatar with his own spin on the Na'Vi.

If they'd stuck with making the movie much more practical rather than a CGI monstrosity and streamlined the script and replaced the leads. This would have been a solid movie to build a franchise on potentially. I'd actually say Enders Game is a much more satisfying movie to watch than this by a country mile.

[Shingster]

It's contrived because

[Show spoiler]The narrative thrust of the film is finding out who took the commander and what's behind the radioactive zone of secrecy, so Valerian goes missing in pursuit of the enemy and Laureline gets her only little mini-adventure where she has to track him down, which makes sense because it serves towards the central narrative. This subplot culminates in finding him and then because she's not warned about the dangerous environment they're in, she's swiftly snatched up by a hostile culture within the zone. Valerian having to plan a rescue is an extremely creaky subplot that is closed off and completely independent to the central narrative, hence it's an obvious contrivance - presumably so they can give Rihanna something to do for a few minutes for promotional purposes

[Bolo Seagull]

I saw this and agree with a lot of you that casting was this movie's biggest problem. With 'The Fifth Element', Besson had four sure bets in his casts (Willis doing his John McClane thing, Oldman playing an overthetop villain, and Chris Tucker playing an obnoxious motormouth). At that time, Jovovich was the only real gamble and it paid off in a star-making performance.

With 'Valerian' almost every casting choice was a gamble that didn't pay off. Besson either cast totally against type or with actors who are definitely unproven in what they were asked to do. DeHaan being cast as a cocky charming rogue being the biggest problem. But strangely even small roles never seem to connect the way they're intended. Rihanna talks about how Ethan Hawke would hunt her down and kill her if she ever tried to run away from him, but I never bought Hawke as some vicious pimp, more just a two bit hustler. Herbie Hancock is supposed to be some top brass type facing an explosive political scandal and terrorist crisis, but he only ever seems like a bored old man reading off his queue cards.

Delevingne might at least be the right type for what she's asked to do (she seems like Sharon Stone in training). But she just hasn't refined her craft enough yet. It doesn't help that she's stuck trading very stock banter opposite a totally miscast guy with whom she has no chemistry.

The movie didn't do much for me, but it had some aspects to recommend it. It kept moving and had some energetic sequences. Every now and then there would be a campy Flash Gordon type of moment or an eccentric Terry Gilliam moment that would catch me off guard and make me smile. But good casting would've made a huge difference in giving this big movie a healthy human centre.

[Chaotic]

I thought Ian Holm was funnier than Chris Tucker.

[sanriel]

[P-Rock]

Everybody seems to forget that there also was this whole musical performance in The Fifth Element, with the opera singer. Watching Rihanna perform her act made me think of that.

Diva - YouTube

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by P-Rock

Everybody seems to forget that there also was this whole musical performance in The Fifth Element, with the opera singer. Watching Rihanna perform her act made me think of that.

Diva - YouTube

To be fair, all the elements going on around that scene were really good and git in properly as part of the narrative.

[Shingster]

Plus it only stops the film for about 5mins or so. I've got no problem with Rihanna's dancing sequence, it's actually quite impressive, it's just what the 20min subplot that it's a part of does to the pacing of the film. In general Valerian is much less manic and more measured and rational than The Fifth Element, but on the flipside it doesn't have as much personality and charm.

[Synchg]

thinking about it, if there is anything hampering cara delevingne chances at being taken more seriously as an actress, it's her trying to deliver any performance with an american accent. Even other seasoned english actors struggle with it. This was a movie where she could have just kept it natural, and it probably would have made it easier for her to deliver even ADR lines. Still kinda pissed luc didn't go with eric serra for the score though. It was unmemorable

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by Synchg

thinking about it, if there is anything hampering cara delevingne chances at being taken more seriously as an actress, it's her trying to deliver any performance with an american accent. Even other seasoned english actors struggle with it. This was a movie where she could have just kept it natural, and it probably would have made it easier for her to deliver even ADR lines. Still kinda pissed luc didn't go with eric serra for the score though. It was unmemorable

I haven't seen this, so cannot comment on her accent. But her accent as Margot in Paper Towns seemed fine to me.

Most English (or Australian, for that matter) actors and actresses do a FAR better job at emulating an American accent than the other way around.

[Synchg]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

I haven't seen this, so cannot comment on her accent. But her accent as Margot in Paper Towns seemed fine to me.

Most English (or Australian, for that matter) actors and actresses do a FAR better job at emulating an American accent than the other way around.

she does okay with it, but it's very boring on her. keeping it english/british? might give her performances some balance.

[ScarredLungs]

Just got back from seeing this. Really enjoyed it. Too bad it got such negative reviews.

[ScarredLungs]

Originally Posted by P-Rock

Everybody seems to forget that there also was this whole musical performance in The Fifth Element, with the opera singer. Watching Rihanna perform her act made me think of that.

Diva - YouTube

That Rihanna scene was pretty good. I was worried how she would be used, but it worked out.

[PoshFrosh]

I hope this get's a 4K UHD Blu-ray release in the US...

[soarinsteven]

Originally Posted by PoshFrosh

I hope this get's a 4K UHD Blu-ray release in the US...

For the Rihanna scene alone.

[Rodney-2187]

Luc Besson interview

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...31-gxm0r9.html

"If a film like this was working huge in the US, that's a problem for the studios. It's independent. It's not superheroes defending the power of America. It's European – it's different – and they can't accept that."

"It's their right – and sometimes these films [about American superheroes] are very good – but I think diversity is the key for everyone," he says. "If on 10 screens we have 10 Marvel [movies] we're losing something. It's like eating fast food every day. And I come from France so I'm more for cuisine."

Luc responded specifically regarding the review by Todd McCarthy for The Hollywood Reporter that I posted earlier in the thread where he used the work Euro-trash and references the Razzies. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/rev...review-1019847

"You know since the beginning of art that some people will love it and some people won't like it and that's fine," he says. "Every artist accepts that, but why insult someone? We worked seven years on this film. There are 2000 people who worked [on it]. Why insult these people? We are proposing something that people are not obliged to watch. We're not building weapons so why not use all this hate to defend real causes or put the fingers on people who are selling weapons?"

Luc regarding international casting:

"I go where talent is," Besson says. I'm not looking for the passport. And there are not enough good French actors any more. They wake up too late; they wake up at noon. The girls – the French actresses – work much more, that is why they're so popular. But the English, the US, their actors are very strong. And the French don't want to learn English."

Luc regarding Hollywood studios:

"They have a couple of hits and they have a lot of flops. If you look at the '70s and the '80s and all the films we had, it was so great. It went from Marathon Man to Out of Africa [and so on]. Now it's just branded – number three, number five, number 12.
There's less and less flavour. I think it's wrong for us as movie-goers because if now if we go to a movie, if we have a little pleasure, we're happy – 'oh, it was a little better than number three but it was less good that number four.' That's all we say. Rather than crying and saying 'oh my god, I can't believe that guy'. Rather than being moved and discussing [what we've seen]."

[Geoff D]

It wasn't the studios who didn't go to see it in their droves. I knew this would sink like a stone in the US the moment I laid eyes on the trailer, 'cause unless it's got Star Wars in the title then scifi/space opera just doesn't seem to do it for people at the moment and his lead casting certainly didn't help. Or perhaps that's his wider point, that because the studios are pushing Marvel Movie 15 or Star Wars 8 or Furious 9 (if they set that in space we could make scifi popular again! ) then there's no room for anything else?

[NARMAK]

I think Besson is right to criticize the use of some wording but he needs to accept that his movie was a failure because it has script in and casting issues that led to sub par reviews and word of mouth. Not being an American production doesn't have anything to do with it.

Star Wars is a major pop culture event and that's why those movies now sell but to say that a genuinely good movie that's Sci fi based would flop is wrong to a degree. Look at John Wick. An amazing movie that had a very small theatrical run but great word of mouth leading to a sequel that did a lot better.

Valerian could have pulled off something similar if only it had a better script, casting and execution with much more practical effects. Besson needs to also accept working on something for 7 years doesn't guarantee quality either.