Review: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
The plot of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets goes something like this: an unnamed paradise planet populated by the iridescent, sylph-like Pearl species is annihilated at the film's outset. Cut to about 30 years later as Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne), special agents of the human police forces, are tasked with retrieving a "converter" from a black market dealer on the enormous space station named Alpha, which houses millions of creatures from different planets.
The converter turns out to be a colourful, armadillo-like creature that has the ability to reproduce anything it ingests, including the energy-containing pearls that the Pearl species used to sustain their planet. As it's the last of its kind, it makes it very valuable indeed and Valerian and Laureline discover, in between neutered romantic exchanges, that there's more to their mission than meets the eye and that perhaps the Defence Minister (Herbie Hancock), General Okto Bar (Sam Spruell), or Commander Arun Filitt (Clive Owen) may have their own dastardly agendas for wanting the converter.
In truth, the plot is wholly beside the point. The raison d'être of the film, which is based on the popular French comic book series Valerian et Laureline created by Pierre Christin and drawn by Jean-Claude Mézières, is to allow writer-director Luc Besson to let his imagination run wild. The series, which ran from 1967 through 2010, influenced the likes of Star Wars and Besson's own The Fifth Element; it's particularly difficult not to compare Valerian to The Fifth Element not only because they are near carbon copies of one another, but especially because, for all the technological advances that have occurred in the 20 years between the two films, Valerian is vastly inferior to The Fifth Element as far as Besson's inventiveness is concerned. Both films possess worlds, figures and creatures that are stuffed to the brim with details but, where The Fifth Element had more of a narrative engine that disguised its digressions, Valerian is a series of diversionary interludes that wouldn't feel like such glorified filler if the film's leads and all the goings-on weren't so dull.
To be fair, Delevingne makes a far better impression here than in her previous film appearances, but it's difficult to assess if her performance is actually as spirited and sassy as it seems or if it simply appears that way because DeHaan is so flat and obviously miscast. It doesn't help matters that their chemistry is akin to bickering siblings than romantic partners; most of the time, they come off as kids putting on costumes and playing at being intergalactic agents. More interesting is Rihanna, who plays the shape-shifting performer Bubble in the film's best interlude, which successfully combines kitsch, spectacle, comedy, pathos, and action and which unfortunately lasts for all of 15 minutes.
It's no doubt that Besson puts on quite a visual extravaganza - Valerian is definitely best seen on the big screen - but it's one that bores rather than enraptures.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Directed by: Luc Besson
Written by: Luc Besson; based on the comic book series by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières
Starring: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Rutger Hauer, John Goodman, Elizabeth Debicki, Mathieu Kassovitz, Alain Chabat, Sam Spruell, Kris Wu
