STX Entertainment presents Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
Premise:
A dark force threatens Alpha, a vast metropolis and home to species from a thousand planets. Special operatives Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.
The cast is:
Dane DeHaan as Major Valerian, a space-and-time-traveling agent and Laureline’s partner/love interest.
Cara Delevingne as Sergeant Laureline, a space-and-time-traveling agent and Valerian’s partner/love interest
Clive Own as Arün Filitt, Valerian and Laureline’s commander
Rihanna as Bubble, a shapeshifting entertainer
Ethan Hawke as Jolly the Pimp
Herbie Hancock as Defence Minister
Kris Wu as Captain Neza
Rutger Hauer as the President of the World State Federation
John Goodman as the voice of Igon Siruss, a Kodar’Khan pirate captain and the galaxy’s most-wanted criminal
I had high hopes for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets because this movie is based on a comic book series called “Valerian and Lareline.” Plus, this movie was filled with an all-star cast. Directed by Luc Besson who also made The Professional and The Fifth Element and is well known for his visual style. Also, Besson independently crowd-sourced and personally funded Valerian and with a production budget of over $209 million, it is the most expensive independent film ever made.
This movie has me extremely conflicted when I walked out of the theater. This movie had a lot of things I loved and at the same time a lot of things I couldn’t stand.
Watching this movie is a wild adventure that is not only visually amazing but I respect the imagination and creativity that was felt throughout the movie.
Watch the trailer below to see what I mean when it comes to the visuals.
To elaborate on what I mean when I say it’s a very creative movie is the use of CGI and special effects. Also, the creation of unique aliens, animals, weapons and lifestyle concepts used by the characters. For example, we see a market place that exists in a parallel dimension that you have to wear glasses to see and use as your navigation tool.
The opening scenes are very fun as we see the creation of Alpha, which is a space station where millions of creatures from hundreds of races from different planets live peacefully with each other and exchange their knowledge and cultures. I loved the use of David Bowie’s music playing in the background as the movie explains what Alpha is.
This movie was filled with non-stop action as we watch Valerian and Laureline, who are special agents of the human police forces travel from planet to planet dealing with a variety of aliens/creatures, completing various missions.
Watching the main characters go through their various adventures really felt like I was watching a comic book come to life. Every mission, planet, alien they visited felt like a different issue from the comics.
However, what the incredible work this movie did visually did not make up for the rough dialogue and performance from the main characters. Dane DeHaan’s voice really bugged me the whole time, he sounded like Keanu Reeves circa late 80s/early 90s. Cara Delevingne was solid as the tough female lead but honestly I felt the chemistry between the two wasn’t there. I wonder if they cast two other people that could have done a better job bringing excitement and a believable love between the characters. The dialogue was bad because normally great story telling involved us learning about a character’s personality through their actions, however, in this movie the characters need to explain every thing they are doing and why they act a certain way, which comes off sounding very wooden and lack of depth.
The opening chase scene was a lot of fun but after that the movie failed to capture me back in with the rest of the storytelling. The story was very convoluted and tough to follow and just fell short for me during the second half of the movie. Also, there was a lot of characters popping in and out which made me after a while not care about them. Case in point, Rihanna was heavily promoted for this movie but her role was very small.
This movie could has easily been edited down a bit, it felt very long. I think you should still see it for it’s originality and one of the few movies I recommend seeing in 3D as well.
I would rate the film: 6.5/10
Go see Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets when the movie hits theaters on Friday, July 21st.
Check out the teaser trailer below.
Check out the second teaser trailer below.
Check out the final trailer below.
Check out Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets website: www.valerianmovie.com
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