It’s amazing what suffering can do to a person, it can either break or it can build you. For director Luc Besson it would inspire him in ways he never imagined. At the tender age of 10, Beson found himself suffering through his parent’s bitter divorce. It was when both his parents decided to remarry and begin new families of their own, that Besson found himself feeling alone and as a byproduct of something that failed. Solace for Besson would appear in the form of the French comic book Valérian et Laureline which focused on the intergalactic adventures of two agents with the ability to travel through space and time. It would be another 48 years before the characters would be brought to life.
Set in the year 2740, Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are special operatives whose main goal is to maintain order throughout the universe. Placed under the orders of the Minister of Defence, the two are sent on assignment to the breathtaking city of Alpha- an ever-expending metropolis where species from all over the universe have come together to share their knowledge, intelligence and culture in order for a better world. However, a dark force threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Plants. It’s a race against time for the duo as they set out to identify the threat, avenge wrongdoings and restore peace.
Valerian is visually stunning and a must see on the biggest screen you possibly see it on. If you thought his depiction of a futuristic world in Besson's earlier film The Fifth Element was anything to get excited about that be prepared to be left breathless with his latest offering. Its crazy to think that it was released 20 years ago, and with technical advancements in filmmaking, Besson pushes the creative envelope much much further that he has in the past.
Besson said it best “The brain compensates, because when you can’t have it, you create it.” Besson’s universe is vast and otherworldly. There’s the Black Market shopping bazaar, where “tourists’ get to wear VR headsets and shop to their hearts' content for crap they don’t need (nice to see thousands of light years away and consumerism hasn’t changed much), there’s the Alpha planet with its thousands of species (there’s robots, aliens, memory eating jellyfish just to name a few), to lands like the candy –neon red light district where anything goes and does.
At times it's hard to like the character of Valerian. He’s a cocky womaniser with an annoyingly gruff voice. Juxtapose the titular character with Laureline’s character who is a smart, strong-willed character who can very much hold her own and yet falls for the “hero” who speaks down to her, and you're left wondering just how on earth she could show any interest in her co-captain at all.
The push for flirty dialogue becomes too much instead of allowing the natural chemistry of the actors to shine through. Valerian also co-stars music superstar Rhianna as a shape shifting pole dancer named Bubbles who brings a few laughs to the role and Clive Owen as the evil Commander Arun Filitt who will go to any lengths to protect the “human” race even if its at the cost of another.
It's easy to want to like Valerian, given Besson's back catalogue of some of the most iconic films in recent cinematic history (Leon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita, The Big Blue). I had high hopes especially after a smart opening sequence that depicted the evolution of the co-existence between humans and other species which would lead to the habitation on Alpha backed by David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.
Unfortunately it’s the script that lets this film down, the writing simply isn’t strong enough to compete with the visual impact (and with a whopping $180 million spent on the film you can see where the money went). I will say the upside to the film is that there is no “American hero”, in so many films we see the Americans ride in on the horse, bike, jet plane and to save the day (this lack of “Americanism" may explain why his films rate so poorly at the US box office). Its not about the power of one nation, its about species coming together for the greater good and making the universe a safe space for all.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is in cinemas now. Image credit Daniel Smith © 2016 VALERIAN SAS – TF1 FILMS PRODUCTION
