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

[Barnack]

4 minutes ago, JB33 said:

Some directors/actors are too cool for school when it comes to the mainstream franchises that are dominating cinemas right now. Barry Jenkins just made a comment the other day on Twitter as well (a totally harmless comment, mind you).

Not sure it would apply in any way to someone like Besson though, he rate american cinema above all the rest of the world cinema and he is working on is big popular franchise Taxi 5 / Taken 4 / Transporter/arthur and I do not how many other really big franchise movie.

[dudalb]

1 minute ago, Bastien said:

 

It's from an interview in the biggest television news in France. It's how good I can translate it but the way he said it was not contemptuous.  He wanted, I think, to say that Americans love america, and that this foreign film on foreign characters is not for them.

OK, lets wait until we get a translation by a professional translator before passing judgement. because the way you quoted it it comes off as a put down down for American audiences. And then there is the "Fake News" a bout how Besson never had a hit in the US..

[Barnack]

5 minutes ago, dudalb said:

OK, lets wait until we get a translation by a professional translator before passing judgement. because the way you quoted it it comes off as a put down down for American audiences. And then there is the "Fake News" a bout how Besson never had a hit in the US..

That could be true from Besson point of view, Lucy barely made the top 25 in the US (versus #18 intl), while it was in France top 5.

 

And Lucy was not particularly successful for Besson in France.

Besson has 2 of the biggest movie in France cinema history, that did about half of Avatar there with Le grand bleu (is biggest) and Le cinquième élément.

 

Besson has 4 of the 100 biggest french movie ever, from is point of view even with Lucy he could reasonably have the impression he never had really a break out success in the USA.

 

 

[Bastien]

9 minutes ago, dudalb said:

OK, lets wait until we get a translation by a professional translator before passing judgement. because the way you quoted it it comes off as a put down down for American audiences. And then there is the "Fake News" a bout how Besson never had a hit in the US..

He said that laughing.

 

(is a profesionnal translator really going to translate a french interview ?

 

If there is french speaking people that can translate this better : link

[grim22]

 

[Water Bottle]

1 hour ago, AJG said:

 

Was wondering how long before superheroes were brought up.

 

Since we did bring them up I think part of the reason Valerian didn't do well is GotG. It's a series that is pretty similar to Valerian in many ways. Audiences already had a movie like Valerian to enjoy.

[Dementeleus]

People seem to be taking so much of this stuff personally. I have no idea why. If the movie looks neat or fun, go watch it! If it doesn't, then don't. 

[filmlover]

1 minute ago, Squadron Leader Tele said:

People seem to be taking so much of this stuff personally. I have no idea why. If the movie looks neat or fun, go watch it! If it doesn't, then don't. 

I think the only person taking all this personally is Besson. 

 

And perhaps WeneedtotalkaboutKevin.

[Chewy]

This flopped? No way

[That One Girl]

1 minute ago, filmlover said:

I think the only person taking all this personally is Besson. 

 

 

Well I mean, it's not like he just had his passion project that he wanted to make since he was a child flop in the US.

[filmlover]

1 minute ago, That EddieKaspbrak Guy said:

 

Well I mean, it's not like he just had his passion project that he wanted to make since he was a child flop in the US.

I saw the photos from the London premiere earlier and in every one of them Dane DeHaan had a look of "why am I here?" on his face while Cara and Rihanna were all smiles for the cameras. I have to imagine that's how I would feel if I had to promote a movie that already has the stench of failure all over it in my home country as well. Oh well, life goes on.

[That One Girl]

1 minute ago, filmlover said:

I saw the photos from the London premiere earlier and in every one of them Dane DeHaan had a look of "why am I here?" on his face while Cara and Rihanna were all smiles for the cameras. I have to imagine that's how I would feel if I had to promote a movie that already has the stench of failure all over it in my home country as well. Oh well, life goes on.

 

This has like nothing to do with what I originally posted  

[dashrendar44]

I've just watched that french interview. Besson said "American science fiction is about the power and strength of the US, superheroes...My hero, Valerian, has no superhero powers but he can channel the hero in him. He's quite pretentious even though he makes lame jokes. He's kinda like me and who we are."

 

There's no disingenuous or condescending tone in his stance. I think he just says it's a different flavor that might not mesh with american sensibilities and interests in scifi. Different strokes for different folks yadda yadda.

Edited July 25, 2017 by dashrendar44

[filmlover]

1 minute ago, That EddieKaspbrak Guy said:

 

This has like nothing to do with what I originally posted  

I was pointing out that Besson apparently isn't the only one taking the failure of the movie hard.  Though we don't hear about anyone from the movie being too worked up about it.

 

I do think it was a silly move to open this in the US before most countries though. Now it's gonna rollout overseas with the perception of being flop. 

[dudalb]

10 minutes ago, That EddieKaspbrak Guy said:

 

Well I mean, it's not like he just had his passion project that he wanted to make since he was a child flop in the US.

Yes, but that does not excuse Besson handling it like a 16 year old kid.  he jusr made things worse.

[That One Girl]

Just now, dudalb said:

Yes, but that does not excuse Besson handling it like a 16 year old kid.  he jusr made things worse.

 

All he said is that American audiences might necessarily not like the type of sci-fi hero he was going for in Valerian.  And he's sort of right.  Nothing wrong with that.

 

(unless there's some other comments I missed from him)

[dudalb]

And why was Besson so obsssed with A: The July 21st opening date and B. Opening the film in the US first?

particularly point B. Besson should have opened the film in France;if this film was going to be a big hit anywhere it would be there. It would then have gone into the US with some momentum.but now it has a huge headwind with having bombed in the US.

And it's doing not very well in Germany is a huge red flag;it might mean the film is weaker in worldwide then we thought.

[shayhiri]

It WILL be weaker. Movie is just not good.

 

It is not any better than Jupiter Ascending - it's just as cringy and misguided - and visually it's even behind JA. JA got those revolutionary 3D visuals (hail Wachowski) that made the Shay see it FIVE times - this has nothing special, just lots of it.

 

280m WW at best.

[AJG]

10 minutes ago, shayhiri said:

It WILL be weaker. Movie is just not good.

 

It is not any better than Jupiter Ascending - it's just as cringy and misguided 

 

So what you're saying is I should expect moments as brilliant as this:

 

 

[shayhiri]

Yes, there is a lot of Ham & Cheese in Valerian, as there was in Jupiter. Goes with the Besson.

 

But it's also just plain boring and insubstantial. Honestly, I expected more from European comics. (I don't know why - I've read some, and they are nothing special. Their only advantage is they are NOT about superheroes, and their format (48 BIG pages per issue) allows for a much longer story.)

 

My main thought while watching Valerian was: How can Star Wars be SO much better than this??!! And then it dawned on me: yes, Valerian can be compared to SW - but only to Phantom Menace!! You can quote the Shay on that: Valerian is just as stupid, misguided, broken, childish, empty and self-indulgent as Menace, which the Shay, as most SW fans, considers an aberration that can only be watched for some racing action, garish visuals and Darth Maul's ass.

Edited July 26, 2017 by shayhiri