Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

B

Bruce Watson

Veteran
Wife and I went to see this the other day just at the end of its abbreviated run in the theaters. We both liked it quite well; we both gave it around a 7.5/10. I'm wondering why it's not selling tix. It's really pretty good.

Is it because it's based on a comic that's not in the mainstream of USA comics? I've read reviews that trashed the main actors, but I thought both the leads were pretty good. Certainly more than adequate. Not great romantic chemistry between them, but certainly more than I got from Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in La La Land for example. I'm just sayin' that that alone isn't enough to understand the "flop" label.

I thought set design was excellent, particularly color choices. Direction was quite good. Editing quite good. Music was really nice. Dialog was strong and crisp. And one of the best "comic relief" characters in all of sci-fi.

So the question remains: "what's not to like"? I don't get it.
 
Suzy and I liked it too. Visually stunning in 3D. The graphic novel story was definitely targeted for a teenage audience. Probably not many teens in this country are familiar with the series.
 
I enjoyed it, but I understand the weak box office. The dialog was not handled very well, the writing, the performances, and the direction were all weak. There have been much better examples of the bantering couple. "The Thin Man" comes to mind, much better writing and performances. The story rambled quite a bit, especially when the girl gets kidnapped and taken into one race's private zone. So the Guy has to grab a shape shifting alien to go in and get her out. This entire sequence really has nothing to do with solving the primary problem, and could have been excised. It would have improved the pacing and allowed more room to explore the villains role in setting events into motion.
So visually lush, but poor writing and structure.
 
I thought the visuals were pretty cool and, after the initial reviews came out, were the sole reason for me to go see the film. The casting of the lead was dreadful - the role demanded a swashbuckling Han Solo/Indiana Jones type personality, but DeHaan was sleepy and passive through most of the film. Cara Delevingne did much better at hitting the right level of energy, but couldn't save the whole story by herself.

I hadn't considered KurtF's point that the whole kidnapping/Bubbles/rescue sequence could have been deleted with no impact on the plot. That's true, but it's what, 25% of the running time of the film? There wouldn't be much left without it, and it did include some of the more interesting visuals, characters and humor in the movie. I'd choose to leave it in but think it should have been rewritten to be more integral with the main plot.

Some really excellent images and CGI work in there, and it was exciting to watch, but even in that department I couldn't help thinking there wasn't really anything I hadn't seen in the Star Wars series before, although even more amped up and psychedelic here. Even Valerian and Laureline's spaceship looks externally a lot like the Millennium Falcon.

I never wish for any film to lose money (well, maybe some of them ...), and I'd like to see Besson continue to thrive and do even better stuff, but really, I can understand why this didn't push enough buttons for the majority of American viewers, at least.

- Greg
 
I felt all of the best visuals were in the trailer. So, when I saw the film in the theater, it didn't really add any sense of wonder. In fact, in context, the visuals were less interesting and immersive than they were in the trailer. Still, it was a good 'world', but with the pace of the film, it would have been better as Subscription based VOD series.

The trailer ruined anything that could have been fun about this film, which isn't saying much about the film.
 
Could have been shorter, but I liked it well enough. Had no idea what it was going to be, so I wasn't disappointed or blown away.
 
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