Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

[Gold Ranger]

For those of you that played GTA5, Cara is the DJ on one of the very few decently good stations.

[P-Rock]

How come Dane Dehaan always looks like he didn't sleep for a week? Those dark eye bags are really distracting.

[CreepyThinMan]

I've been waiting for Besson to make another Sci-fi movie for 20 years since The Fifth Element, which I love, and I knew this movie was doomed the second he announced those two scrawny gremlins as his lead actors. What the Hell was he thinking?!?

Karl Urban and Karen Gillan would have been PERFECT for Valerian and Laureline.

[P-Rock]

Yeah, Valerian looks like a young Josh Brolin.

Urban is a bit too old imo.

[235to1]

Can someone spoiler this for me ? Is this related to or take place in the same universe as the fifth element as the poster hinted at?

[Rodney-2187]

Originally Posted by 235to1

Can someone spoiler this for me ? Is this related to or take place in the same universe as the fifth element as the poster hinted at?

[Show spoiler]I suppose they could be sort of, both feature Earth. According to the alarm clock Korben Dallas has, The Fifth Element takes place in 2263. The Valerian comics are set in the 28th century, so much later. When Valerian starts, you see the date 2150 when Rutger Hauer is speaking. Then there is a very long montage showing time passing, and then a screen that says 400 years later. So whatever the exact date for Valerian, it's hundreds of years past The Fifth Element.

[NegaScott128]

Originally Posted by 235to1

Can someone spoiler this for me ? Is this related to or take place in the same universe as the fifth element as the poster hinted at?

It's not connected at all, not that I could see at least. Any connections are easter eggs at best. Not sure what you mean by the poster hinting at a connection.

[Rodney-2187]

Originally Posted by negascott128

it's not connected at all, not that i could see at least. Any connections are easter eggs at best. Not sure what you mean by the poster hinting at a connection.

valerian-v-poster-full-highres.jpg

Bruce Willis was Korben Dallas in The Fifth Element.

korben-valerian-993635.jpg

[235to1]

Well damn that kinda sucks. Would have been a great twist a la

[Show spoiler]Split

.
I remember the rumors this could be related to the fifth element pre release. Would have been really cool for this to have been set in the same universe.

[CreepyThinMan]

Watched this trash yesterday and all I could think was "if only Besson took the money wasted on this garbage and made a Fifth Element sequel". He said that TFE was actually a two part story, the second which was called "Mr. Shadow". Now, obviously he isn't going to cast Jovovitch and I doubt Willis would return, however, wouldn't it have been neat if he did the sequel with Scarlett Johansson as Leeloo and, say, Jason Statham as Korben?

Got the perfect tie in song here.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPOV...ature=youtu.be

[Monkey]

Originally Posted by VanDammage80

Pretty much how I feel. With better leads, movie would have been much better. Still, I enjoyed it for the most part.

Exactly what I was thinking. I enjoyed other characters in the movie far more than the leads which were borderline annoying most of the film.

It is a gorgeous looking movie and sounds great. CGI has come a long way.

Does that male main actor always look so sickly? I only have noticed him in the Spiderman movie as well.

[Rodney-2187]

I watched it again. I wouldn't change a thing. Different actors would only make it more like everything else. I love that it's different. I love Guardians of the Galaxy, but not everything has to be GotG!

[Monkey]

Originally Posted by rodneyfaile

I watched it again. I wouldn't change a thing. Different actors would only make it more like everything else. I love that it's different. I love Guardians of the Galaxy, but not everything has to be GotG!

I certainly don't want every movie to be GotG. I really enjoyed that Disney movie that bombed, John Carter. I wish it had done well and we had more of that universe to explore.

[jess1581]

Originally Posted by rodneyfaile

I watched it again. I wouldn't change a thing. Different actors would only make it more like everything else. I love that it's different. I love Guardians of the Galaxy, but not everything has to be GotG!

Agreed. Valerian is bonkers and unconventional, and that's how I like it.

[s2mikey]

Originally Posted by sperezmore

Watched the film last night.

Beautiful to look at, bad acting, bad script, not a good film.

My vote: 2 stars

No blu-ray for me

Regards,

Yes, yes, and more yes. 100% eye candy with zero redeeming value otherwise. It’d be nice to get some short video clips of the movie to use for demo purposes but that’s it. A completely wasted opportunity. But, Luc Besson kind of sucks so I went in with very low expectations. They were met, LOL.

[Bolo Seagull]

Originally Posted by CreepyThinMan

Watched this trash yesterday and all I could think was "if only Besson took the money wasted on this garbage and made a Fifth Element sequel". He said that TFE was actually a two part story, the second which was called "Mr. Shadow". Now, obviously he isn't going to cast Jovovitch and I doubt Willis would return, however, wouldn't it have been neat if he did the sequel with Scarlett Johansson as Leeloo and, say, Jason Statham as Korben?

I like your recasting suggestions. Although Besson fulfilled Statham's lifelong wish of being established as an action hero, from what I understand, the two did not part ways on the best terms. But maybe they're ready to make-up.

I'd tend to say this has a slim chance of happening. But we got 30 year late sequels to 'Tron' and 'Blade Runner', so ya never know.

[Rodney-2187]

Originally Posted by jess1581

Agreed. Valerian is bonkers and unconventional, and that's how I like it.

That's the beauty of it for me. I love it.

[levcore]

Rewatched in 3D last night. I'm sad to say this movie didn't improve on its second viewing and I actually liked it less second time around. The 3D came off a lot better at home for sure, it looked good. The CG stuff looks amazing in 3D but the live action stuff is mostly quite reserved and certainly could've been pushed a lot more.

The story though, oh man, this movie is way too long and one of the reasons is all of the unnecessary asides to the main story. The actual crime solving aspect of the storyline is very brief, it's just that huge chunks of the movie are taken up with stuff that has nothing to do with the main plot. First of all we have a lengthy section where Laureline has to find and rescue Valerian after his ship crashes. Then when she's found him, she gets kidnapped and we have a lengthy section where Valerian has to find and rescue Laureline. None of this has anything to do with the main plot/ mystery/ story! It's insane how much of this movie is spent on sequences that have nothing to do with the main story.

Sure the movie is visually spectacular in terms of its VFX and imagination but on the other hand so much of the movie is set in dingy interiors and generic sci fi space station sets. Stuff like Guardians of the Galaxy felt much more open and visually exciting. This feels quite muffled and muted due to all the forgettable interior locations. It's also quite a dark movie visually which makes it a bit samey after a while.

I want to love this movie, I really do. Unfortunately its dull and predictable story, coupled with ridiculous amounts of padding, along with a severe miscast in Dane DeHaan (good actor, totally wrong for this role) makes Valerian falter pretty heavily for me. The 3D is good but not great. I think this was a big missed opportunity and I can't believe it cost $200Mil as I don't think the money is up on the screen. Yeah there's lots of CG but the movie is mostly generic and fairly cramped stock sci fi sets. There are no big stars either.

It's totally worth it for sci fi fans and definitely a movie i'll revisit for its visual and imagination but it falls far short for me unfortunately.

The first 5 minutes are absolutely superb though.

[jbloggs]

It was enjoyable, the visuals were fantastic. This movie would have done really well if they had cast more mature looking actors for the lead. As it is, it seemed like two kids on an adventure with a coming of age story rather than true Sci-fi adventure.

[esteban²]

As it should be, kinda. People really need to read the comics.