by Emma Smith, Reporter
Strap in: federal agents Valerian and Laureline are here to save a world, and it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Luc Besson (Fifth Element, Nikita) wrote and directed Valerian: City of a Thousand Planets, and it is a visual feast of a galactic adventure. Unfortunately there’s little substance underpinning the beauty.
The film follows a pair of agents, Major Valerian and Sergeant Laureline who work for the United Human Federation. Over many years, human cooperation has turned into alien cooperation, and an international space station has turned into what amounts to a planet, with thousands of species living in relative harmony (the city of a thousand planets of the title). The federation assigns the agents to a mission in which the fate of the entire station hangs in the balance. However, the deeper they get into the mission the more Valerian and Laureline start to suspect that all is not as their superiors claim.
Luc Besson is known for visually striking movies, and Valerian is no exception. The film winds its way through pearlescent beaches, intergalactic marketplaces, space stations with gaseous living environments, and various space ships. The attention to detail is exquisite. The technicians and artists who labored over the visual effects deserve an enormous amount of credit for bringing Besson’s vision to life. The CGI is among the best I’ve seen. In creating the various alien races, the film borrows heavily from both the source material of Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières comic books and prior sci-fi epics, but the depth and breadth of the various alien environments and races is incredible. The film deserves a watch for this alone.
One would hope the landscape would serve as the backdrop for a finely tuned “space cop” adventure. Sadly, the film melts like cotton candy as soon as you try to sink your teeth into it. As Valerian and Laureline, Dane DeHaan (In Treatment, A Cure for Wellness) and Cara Delevingne (Suicide Squad, Paper Towns) lack chemistry as the romantic partners the film tries so desperately to sell for in 137 minutes. They never quite manage to sell their character’s emotional depth. In their defense, they aren’t given much to work with. It is somewhat difficult to determine how much of their performances is a lack of acting ability and how much is due to the atrocious dialogue and poorly developed plot. Even Clive Owen (Children of Men), an actor who has proven his capabilities many times over, struggles to do much with his lines as Commander Arun Filitt. Rihanna (Battleship) appears briefly in the film as Bubbles, an alien escort, and does a nice job, particularly given much of her role is purely vocal.
One wishes Besson spent as much time developing the film’s plot as he presumably did developing its look. It’s an odd mixture of “noble savages: alien edition,” “space cops: when will they kiss,” and “how many set pieces can we make it through in two hours.” Many of the obstacles the agents face during their mission feel shoehorned in so that the movie can take us to a specific location rather than an organic result of what is happening. The plot holes this creates are big enough to drive a spaceship through. Pun intended.
Finally, interactions between the main characters are disappointing. There has been a significant amount of hype surrounding Delevingne’s “strong female character.” One sassy woman who occasional defies orders isn’t enough to make a film woman-friendly. Valerian never misses an opportunity for the characters to remind us that Valerian outranks her, excises the woman character from the title (the original comics are called Valerian et Laureline), makes the only other female character with significant lines a hooker, includes a bona fide “damsel in distress” scene, and has Laureline mock Valerian for “having a woman inside [him].” It’s disappointing.
Overall, this film is style over substance. It’s a burger in a television advertisement – it sure looks pretty, but bite into it and you’ll get a mouthful of Styrofoam. If you’re a sci-fi fan, it may be worth going to see for the visuals alone, provided you have excellent suspension of disbelief skills.
