'Valerian', new Luc Besson Sci-Fi movie, July '17.

I knew nothing of the Valerian character, or this movie, until this past Free Comic Book Day in early May, when our local comic shop gave away a free "preview" issue of the comic book which also had lots of photos/hype for the movie.

The comic was translated from the original French and though the artwork was nice, I couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on in it. So even before the scathing reviews of the movie started rolling in I'd already decided that I wasn't going to bother with it.

 

'The Sixth Element', first photo from the set.

I'm in.

 

Clever

 

I saw this yesterday in 3D and enjoyed it. I was not familiar with the comics so everything was new to me. It won't go down as a classic, but I thought it was good with some bad elements mixed in. I loved the introduction with the astronauts meetings in the space station over time, that was cool. When I saw how young the protagonists were I thought it might end up being like Starship Troopers with a lot of Beverly Hills 90120 type young actors, but fortunately that wasn't the case. My biggest gripe would be the lead male actor's Keanu Reeves voice, but over time I got lost in the movie and it didn't bother me so much. I think they would have done better to make the male and female heroes a little older, though I understand they are probably trying to get a lot of younger fans into the movie. A lot of action, some humor that worked and some that didn't, but overall I liked it and don't agree with many of those scathing reviews, though some of their points are valid.

 

This looks like a no-go for me. The trailer's assault on the senses with sub-par CGI did me in.

I have not seen Jupiter Ascending and from the sound of it, I should skip that one too. A shame, because I quite liked Cloud Atlas.

 

Saw it this morning (in 2D) and found it mostly enjoyable. Good visuals and I liked all the different kinds of aliens. The two leads don't have much charisma, though. So while its very reminiscent of The Fifth Element, Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich these two are not. The Rihanna section was fun. Probably the best part of the movie.

I thought this was significantly better than Jupiter Ascending, which I thought was awful. I watched it again when it came out on video just to see if my initial impression was wrong, but I hated it just as much the second time Like you, I liked Cloud Atlas quite a bit. Always good to make up your own mind, but as another who likes CA, I say you can just skip JA.

 

I liked it - it was exactly the escapist entertainment I needed after a tough weekend. Luc has lost none of his ability to create stunning visuals and alternate worlds. No one can make a 'Heavy Metal' movie like he can. The film was very reminiscent of The Fifth Element and 80's sci-fi in general. The things that kept it from being really great - the lead actor was a bit of a zero, as are so many young actors today. The boys are really starting to get eclipsed by the girls. Also the villain just wasn't villainous enough. No offense to Clive Owen, but where was Gary Oldman when we needed him? The finale could have been a little more suspenseful too but I know with Luc that isn't always top priority.

On the plus side, Cara Delevingne, while not being the greatest actress, compensates pretty well with physicality and attitude to bring Laureline to life. She was the real sparkplug of the film and I think the whole thing could have used a shot of her energy. Given Luc's penchant for strong female-centric movies, I'm ready to plunk down my cash for an all-Laureline follow-up, but I guess that is as likely as a Black Widow movie at this point. More's the pity.

 

Apparently the movie tanked this weekend! Did only 17M vs. Dunkirk which made over 50M! The article I read said it's only hope of making back the movie's cost is if it does well overseas!

 

I liked this movie a lot. It's pretty looking summer movie nonsense, so if you're okay with that be sure to catch it on the big screen while you can.

 

I'm glad if people are seeing Dunkirk. I liked The Fifth Element well enough but not Jupiter Ascending. I mostly hate all the bloody last split second saves in anything though; really primitive device for keeping people with split second attention spans watching. I'm guessing the original Solaris would be beyond a lot of reviewers today and dismissed as incomprehensible nonsense?

 

Bombs away...

3 Reasons 'Valerian' Failed to Launch at the Box Office

 

Predictable. Besson hasn't got to know yet that European and American along with the rest of English speaking countries, the UK included tastes are different. By casting American actors he's not getting an "in between" movie that may satisfy all, he needs to change, to beging with, aesthetics, these are clearly French and not everybody's cup of tea as I think most people regarding of its country of origin are use to American Sci-Fy and they way it looks. Scripts need to be faster and unpretentious, look at the original Star Wars, its script has no pretentions, but their FX were very ambitious.

 

I don't think the problem is that Besson's films are pretentious -if anything they can be too basic (the plot for Lucy certainly was pretty simplistic...)- or that they have the so-called "French touch" (personally I don't see it, but I'm French), I think that they just aren't very good.
The last excellent film he made was Leon The Professional... and that was 1994.
Before that he made a few great movies: Subway, The Big Blue, Nikita.

 

The ads made it seem like a blatant rip-off of Avatar, which wasn't my favorite to begin with.

 

I was very surprised at how few showings were available. Most new "blockbuster" releases have different auditoriums for regular and 3D showings. When I bought my tickets late last week, I had a hard time finding a 2D showing at a convenient time. Of the half-dozen or so theater's around me, none had more than 4 showings per day split between regular and 3D. Even though the auditorium I eventually saw it in was packed, of course the totals for opening weekend are going to be miserable due to so few showings.

Too bad too. I enjoyed it. Not as much as The Fifth Element, which I am a HUGE fan of. I lowered my expectations a bit. No way it was going to be as fun as 5th. I ended up happy I went to see it on a large screen.

 

Maybe Besson and big budgets are not a good match. And I agree, Léon, Nikita, The Big Blue are great films, I haven't watched Subway. The first he dissapointed me was with The Fifth Element, what a flop to me it was.

 

The moment I saw the trailers, I immediately thought, "oh, Jim Cameron is gonna be pissed-off about this."

 

Don't forget about Angel-A though. That was a good film. Kind of short and low budget, but it had some of the themes you'd expect from classic Besson - a strong woman lead and a strange relationship between the male co-lead and the woman lead being the one that comes to mind first.

No BluRay available in the US, and all foreign BluRays of it are region locked. There was a DVD.

 

Considering that I sleep through most of Avatar...I'm afraid that Valerian
might knock me right out.

 

I saw it in 3-D and it was very amazing cinema wise. Well worth seeing just for the special effects.

 

I dislike Avatar, put me to sleep, the only thing I thought while watching the movie was "aren't they never basting off those smurfs on steroids?". Crappy movie.

 

Avatar is one of my faves - can't wait for the sequels. For a 'crappy' movie it still holds the record for highest grossing movie of all time, and by a significant margin ($600 million).

 

And now one of the company that helped finance Valerian has plummeted on the stock market...

EuropaCorp Stock Falls After 'Valerian' Bombs

EuropaCorp's Stock Tanks After 'Valerian' Flops at Box Office

 

They were probably setting up for sequels for a long time casting the leads so young too. As someone who really liked the '70s comics I hope I won't find out I hate this. It can't be worse than Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd can it?

 

Just got back from seeing it in 3D. Dialogue and storyline let it down but it wasn't horrible. It was a lot better than Despicable Me 3 we mistakenly saw a couple of weeks ago.