I will admit I hesitated some about Valerian, given that it’s definitely not what I expected/wanted out of the film. I had to see it a second time to really appreciate it for what it is.
While not a “great” scifi-adventure film, and sadly falling quite short for me compared to Luc’s homage-heavy Fifth Element, what I appreciate are the following:
- The First 10 Minutes. While misguided to cast only Luc’s director/actor buddies for the Earth Greeters on the ISS (thus why they’re all cis-het white dudes, since it’s from his director pool who made movies for him), I love the intention of the sequence - we go out and meet new people and do our best to live in peace. And I loved the opening sequence on the alien world before its destruction (Paarl, I think it was called?), which was bold to just say “here, this is the world. Love it? Great, now it’s on fire” and then throw the audience right into things. I appreciated that.
- As much as they get flack for it, Dehaan and Delevingne are not typical traditional action-adventure heroes and I appreciated what they did with both characters. Having finally read some of the comics, they’re interesting interpretations of both characters out of the rather wafer-thin personalities they show in the early books. I did take issue with the forceful romantic plot, but in the end, it’s also their movie. Laureline ends up getting about as much rescuing/work to do in the film. I’d like to see their adventures continue.
- Characters. So many different weird wild characters. The tangents are sometimes distracting, that’s part of the big “plot” problem with the whole movie, but I loved the personality to it. Goodman as an interdimensional space pirate? Yes please. :D Though, yeah, Clive Owen was a wasted villain.
- The spectacle was very fucking good. I do wish there was more weight given to it, but like the comics, it emphasizes big scope sequences (sometimes just being small characters in the middle of something ginormous) and keeps the pace extremely brisk. The only reason I find it bogs down is that Luc Besson is really best, in my opinion, when he does a less-is-more approach (i.e. the subtlety of Leon or Nikita). So, it’s him playing in a style that’s both unfamiliar and extremely easy to get lost in. That said, there’s magical moments that still stick with me now months later, compared to other films I saw this year.
The main issues with the film are actually pretty plentiful, so it’s more of a case of having to find the gems among the debris of a rather too-complicated design-heavy piece. In that way, it’s actually a bit more like the comics than people may give it credit for. Kind of like Hellboy 2 - accurate to a fault to the material’s structure, pace, and narrative design.
