Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: A Review
Have you ever seen a film which looks and sounds amazing but can quickly put you to sleep? This film is the textbook example of that.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a 2017 film directed and written by Luc Besson.
From a visual perspective, the film looks and sounds great. The excellent CG effects allow each of the alien species and locations to stand out from one another. The music featured throughout the film was also great, from David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” to Alexiane’s “A Million On My Soul”.
Sadly, the rest of the film is really boring.
Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne were terrible choices to be the film’s main leads. DeHaan always looked like he just climbed out of bed and his performance as the titular character subsequently sounded very sleepy. Delevingne, on the other hand, tried her best by playing Laureline as someone stoic but instead sounded both bored and exhausted. Every other actor was just terrible, due to the film’s dialogue making everyone sound robotic. The only exception was Rihanna, who gave the film’s only decent performance as the shapeshifting alien Bubble.
This film had a decent plot and a few great moments, such as the opening sequence and the action scenes on both the desert planet and Alpha station. However, whenever the characters stopped to talk, the film came to a complete stop. It is highly likely that the film will put you to sleep whenever the characters start up a conversation and suddenly wake you up when the music indicates that an action scene is about to begin.
It also had references to two of Besson’s previous films, The Fifth Element and Taken. While The Fifth Element reference was somewhat subtle and OK, the Taken reference was blatantly obvious and felt forced.
Overall, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets looks and sounds great but falls apart due to terrible dialogue being performed by actors who either sounded bored, robotic, or sleepy. Just go buy the excellent soundtrack. This film is only worth watching if you want to go to sleep.
What do you think about the film? If you have seen it, do you think it was good, bad, or just plain forgettable? Feel free to respond down in the comments section.