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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | July 21, 2017 | FLOP OF THE YEAR

By Neo, in Box Office Discussion

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antovolk Blockbuster

antovolk

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Enjoyed this so so much. It's funny, the source material predates everything but Besson here almost shamelessly cribs from Star Trek and Wars, main title cards from Transformers, his own The Fifth Element, with a whole dollop of Fantastic Beasts/Avatar-esque worldbuilding where it's not Valerian & Laureline you care most about - it's the WORLD. It's the Pearls, the different species introduced, the city itself, the conceits (the evolution of VR/AR that Besson plays with in an early set piece is genius) and so on. The fact that you get invested into all this within two hours just shows Besson's skill. 

This is no Fifth Element (but in similar wheelhouse) - but honestly feels like Luc's love letter to modern sci-fi, flaws and all (yes, I see why some people had a problem with some parts of it). Derivative? Yes. Problem? Not at all when the experience (biggest screen, 3D, Atmos, those visuals) and the whole journey works and draws you in.

If I had to pick weak links - the humans: they sure set up Valerian and Laureline to be this brash too-cool-for-school-jock who doesn't really look like one (DeHaan nailed that demeanor tbh) and I'm-so-sick-of-his-crap sidekick (Delevingne is surprisingly good) but that doesn't really get paid off the way it could have - just so much potential. But the non-humans? Amazingly done. Even Rihanna. You can tell how much care both script and visuals wise was put into it. And speaking of - sure the story's a bit weak, but so was The Fifth Element's by the same coin. 

Can't wait for the moment this gets rediscovered on home media. I wonder how differently it'll play there because it really was something on the big screen. I can even forgive Besson for the human casting, but his utter stubbornness when it came to WB/Nolan/Dunkirk just did not help matters, it became the narrative and coupled with the trailers which Besson tried to keep as teaser-y as possible - there's a reason it was ONLY visuals/atmosphere (there isn't really a twist or anything but going in not knowing the *actual* set-up premise of the story is great) - it screwed things up. Real shame. Let's hope this film gets its due.

8/10

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Ozymandias Global Phenomenon

Ozymandias

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21 minutes ago, AJG said:

 

Oh yes, the dreadful American remake of The Raid. Did this really movie people?

The similarities between The Raid and Dredd begin and end with them taking place inside one building.  The Raid is a really great martial arts movie with incredible choreography with nothing else to it.  Dredd is a Paul Verhoeven meets John Carpenter film and you don't see movies like that anymore.  I love them both.

Edited by Ozymandias
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Wrath Box Office Gold

Wrath

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Ok, maybe I'm crazy, but I didn't really think Valerian was that bad.

 

The story and general theme felt kinda silly and "sci-fi 20+ years ago", and that big dramatic speech near the end was like.... really? But the visuals were spectacular, I loved Rihanna's character, and the whole thing was a lot of fun. Honestly, I think half the problem was DeHaan. He wasn't bad, but he didn't have nearly enough oomph. If this was a $30M movie, he'd have been ok, but it wasn't and they needed someone a lot better in that role. I thought Delevingne was fine, though.

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teardropmina Sleeper Hit

teardropmina

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just brought my nephew to see it today. It got an almost limited release treatment in Taiwan; far fewer screens and showtimes compared to standard wide release features. was hoping to see it in IMAX, but Dunkirk still holds on to it~ 

 

anyway, some very fun and interesting moments, but overall...there are more meh stuff in it.

then again, the last Besson film I really really like is  Joan of Arc. Leon remains as my favorite, and would still go back to Subway and Big Blue once in a while.  

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