Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Director: Luc Besson. Cast: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, Rutger Hauer. 137 min. Rated PG-13. France/China/Belgium/Germany/UAE/USA/UK/Canada. Adventure/Fantasy.

There are original stories like "Dune" and "Valerian", which people claim Star Wars stole ideas from, and if their movies had premiered before Star Wars, each would've revolutionized cinema the way Star Wars did. Well, sorry - they didn't. So now, post-Star Wars, what's left of the films based on that source material, is just repeated plot points ... and blasting visual and sound effects. I kept watching this very long movie, and kept thinking: other than spectacular computer animation, what motivated the illustrious Luc Besson to make this? Is gloating over CGI effects, the sole reason to make a movie?

PS: The title for the original French comic book that inspired this was "Valérian and Laureline". Considering that Cara Delevingne's enchanting screen presence (as Laureline) entirely blows her male counterpart (as Valerian) into oblivion, I'm surprised there hasn't been a female revolt over the movie's title. They simply excluded her.

Mo says:

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