Luc Besson has had a very interesting career in making many sorts of movies ranging from science fiction films to action films. But, he has a stylistic vision that can mesh over-the-top special effects with a fun story. I recently watched The Fifth Element and I have to admit despite a couple of corny special effects and an annoying character, I was surprisingly entertained. Here, while watching the movie for about the first half, I was enthralled by its visuals. But, when we enter into the territory of its narrative and its characters, the movie becomes empty. I'll admit that it has some terrible qualities that reeks of Jupiter Ascending but this movie is a lot better than that monstrosity.
In the 28th century, Alpha, a space station, has been populated from hundreds of races from different countries around Earth but also more races from other planets. Special Agents Valerian and Laureline (Dane DaHaan and Cara Delevingne) has received a mission to retrieve a "converter, a rare animal from a black market dealer. Valerian wants to marry Laureline but she knows about his past as he had meaningless relationships and she does not want to be dealt with that responsibility. They manage to successfully retrieve the converter but the soldiers supporting them get killed.
Later, Commander Filitt (Clive Owen) tells them that part of the space station has been infected by an unknown, highly toxic force. He says that the infection is spreading and the station will be engulfed by this infection in several weeks. Valerian and Laureline are assigned to protect the commander but during a meeting, it is ambushed by the humanoids. They kidnap the commander and incapacitate the other participants, including Valerian and Laureline. Both have to figure out what caused the attack and who is behind it.
Eh...the visual effects are fantastic and the action is quite palpable and makes us not bored. Those aspects are thrilling but the story is utterly forgettable and is over-written and is over-thought. The story becomes more of a burden that Besson maybe wanted to bring some political conflicts between the action and it becomes quite confusing. I felt in the second half that the movie becomes too much as the movie knows that the visual effects and action will be taken care of that the story did not feel executed and does not have a focused narrative that it becomes jumbled and becomes a bit boring because it mostly fluff and then you can feel the pacing a bit. It is nearly two and a half hours long. Also, Dane DaHaan and Cara Delevingne has done good work before but there is very little chemistry between them and the romance felt a bit forced because it wants to reach that teenage demographic. I wished that we spent more time with the supporting characters played by Rihanna and Ethan Hawke. Clive Owen is fine in his role but it is nothing special.
Director Luc Besson knows how to work the mechanics of showing the big presentation. Now, he needs to work on focusing on the story because the outline is there and the visuals are there to back it up but it is narrative mess. He seems to lose it recently especially with his last movie, Lucy, where he had an interesting concept but it is abandoned with a silly plot and it becomes illogical. This movie's plot is not illogical because there is a plot but the filmmakers and the writers felt like they did not know how to take that approach. It is like they are saying that their tactic is "Let them enjoy the action and visuals, but we do not have to do much with the story." Exactly, they did a little too much of the plot and it barely delivers but you contemplate how much effort they actually have gone through. I admire Besson actually put his money in his passion project but you have to question how much passion was put onto the substance more than the style.
**
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