In this space opera most things does not go very well, which is a pity because there are quite a lot of potential in this comic book material.
This is the most expensive indie film ever made, with a budget of 180 million dollars it manages to deliver some impressive visuals, the problem is the story. We have Valerian and Laureline, two space agents tasked with figuring out what happened to the lost planet Mul.
The film is directed and written by Luc Besson, and he is a pretty talented director with quite the unique filmmaking style. He just fails completely on the screenplay. It is a comic book series that has been published since 1967 and here we do not really get any kind of introduction or origin story, which makes it really hard to care about anything the character say and do.
Thierry Arbogast does the cinematography, and has done so on most of the films by Luc Besson, he is pretty good at what he does, and the way he captures the frames is more than good enough for a movie like this.
Cara Delevigne plays the female lead role of Laureline, and she is one of the few highlights of the movie with her acting, being a badass sci-fi heroine suits her, and even though her co-star Dane DeHaan is incredibly whiney and annoying, she still manages to shine.
The music by Alexandre Desplat is as good as it can get. He is truly an amazing composer. Also a very fun use of David Bowies Space Oddity in the opening But the part where Valerian really shines, is on the visual effects. No matter how poor Valerian is story wise, it is truly a beautiful movie to look at. The CGI is on Avatar levels and is quite frankly one of the few reasons why I got through this film.
I was really curious on this film, and I really wanted it to be good. I am a fan of the comics and there are so much opportunity for so many good storylines, but the really weak script, and the fact that Dane DeHaan could not act if his life depended on it makes it a very forgettable movie experience, and it is over two hours long.
I am having problems finding any reason why people would like to see Valerian, the story is messy, and not close to interesting, the lead actor is really bad, and the movie is a snoozefest, but if you like gorgeous visual effects parts of it is worth seeing.
Score: 4/10
Cinematophile 