Luc Besson has always been an incredibly visual filmmaker, with classics like 'Leon: The Professional", "The Fifth Element" and "Le Femme Nikita" blazing a trail in their day.
His visual gifts are equally on display in his newest film, 2016's VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS.
The opening scenes of the film are jaw dropping and incredible, creating the most stunning alien world since James Cameron's "Avatar".
The assault on your eyes continues for over two hours, but unfortunately the story behind them is very hit and miss and our two lead characters are played with such a complete lack of star power that interest begins to wane.
Special agents Valerian (Dane DeHaan, very dull) and his partner Laureline (beautiful but vapid Cara Delevingne) are charged to track down an invading species and a fascinating creature that can replicate anything.
The worlds they travel through on their non-stop chase are incredibly conceived and depicted, as are the hundreds of species in them.
Besson does a great job of introducing the history of this world from sixties American history through many hundreds of years in the future.
The set up is terrific. The worlds are stunning.
The action is often fun and thrilling.
But.....DeHaan and Delevingne are about as exciting as wallpaper paste. Clive Owen is miscast in a major role and only Rihanna as a shape-shifting entertainer truly brings any excitement to her character. Switching from Cabaret's Sally Bowles to an exotic dancer to every fantasy you can imagine during one song, her seductive performance as Bubbles (at a club owned by Ethan Hawke having fun as Jolly The Pimp) brings this thing to life.
With a $177 million budget, your eyeballs will pop with everything they have to see. Visually, I LOVED this movie. But audiences figured out quickly that there was no story behind the visuals and worldwide, the film dropped quickly out of sight.
I would buy this movie to showoff my 4K Sony and relive some of the amazing visuals, but the movie isnt good enough to warrant repeat viewing or anything beyond a healthy respect for all of the countless visual artists who created Besson's world.
Next time Luc, just spend a little budget on some lead actors with a personality. DeHann and Carla sink this thing faster than a giant asteroid with a Mars-sized anchor on it. They stink. And that's being gracious.
VALERIAN is a giant, beautiful, expensive, gorgeous big old empty rock that sinks from memory as soon as the very long credits begin to roll. I'll give it a C.
Did I tell you how great this thing looks!!????......
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