Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets- A Stunning Visual Ride with a Lackluster Script
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, come to life as a part of Director Luc Besson’s dream and based on the French comic Valerian and Laureline, should have been among the top science fiction movies. The film follows Agents Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) as they confront an unknown threat and struggle to protect Alpha, a space station hovering above Earth made up of many environments and species. This premise, with its promise of an action-packed and unique adventure, should be enough to excite any fan of science fiction.
The movie did deliver on parts of this promise. The visual experience is breath-taking, filled with colorful settings, seamless animation and special effects, and imaginative environments. The first mission Valerian and Laureline go on is especially fun to watch, since it features a city in another dimension. Visitors have to wear special equipment just to be able to interact with the city, which adds a whole other dimension to the action and chase that happen there. There is also an exhilarating scene where Valerian breaks through many environments in Alpha all in quick succession.
The rest of the movie falters in living up to this awesome world. The first most obvious problem are the two main leads. While not individually bad actors, DeHaan and Delevingne have no chemistry on screen, and their interactions are more cringey than endearing. DeHaan especially has a very odd gravely voice that I guess was supposed to sound cool or badass. Delevingne herself wonderfully portrays a fighter with a sprinkling of attitude (though this opinion seems to put me in disagreement with many other viewers I’ve heard from), but that alone was not enough to make watching Valerian’s and Laureline’s interactions enjoyable. Right from their awkward introduction on the beach to their offbeat banter throughout the movie, they make audiences struggle to believe they are comfortable partners, let alone a romantic couple.
While the unengaging leads are bad enough, the real problem is in the script. The main storyline centers around the Pearls, a humanoid race from a destroyed planet called Mule. The heart-wrenching destruction of their planet in the beginning of the movie grabs the attention, and the glimpses we get of their actions a little later are enticing. The initial conflict the agents have with the Pearls sets up a solid foundation, only for the movie to then meander about. The scenes in the middle of the film become only tangentially related to the main conflict.
The subplot where the story loses the main thread all together is comparable to the much maligned detour to the casino planet in the most recent Star Wars instalment -- it could be cut out all together without hurting the rest of the film. It’s a shame, since its the arc where viewers get introduced to the quirky and enigmatic Bubble, a shape shifting alien played by Rihanna. Valerian enlists her help to sneak into a human-banned area of Alpha to rescue Laureline, who gets captured by man-eating species. Bubble is such an interesting character in concept, and her character is fun and adorable, but she, like everything else in this arc, is underdeveloped and completely useless in relation to the rest of the movie. Not only is her character and hints at a tragic past not given enough screen time, it has zero impact on Laureline’s and Valerian’s mission.
The problems with the script were not only structural. The Pearls themselves irked me the most. They were set up in the beginning of the movie to be very interesting. With their planet destroyed, a tragic death happened right before their eyes, what are they going to do now? How are they going to react to such a traumatic experience? There were so many possibilities, so many threads to follow, all so ripe with drama. Yet the film went with the most predictable, most tired, most shallow path. Highlight to see the slight spoilers. After all the trauma they went through, all the culture-shock, the Pearls just turn out to be a peaceful and nature-loving group? None of them lash out? None of them want revenge? The Pearls are like the Mary-Sue of alien races in addition to being the embodiment of the noble-savage trope. Their intentions are just as noble as they assert in the beginning of the movie. And not only are they suddenly able to understand (or learn in montage) the context surrounding the destruction of their home without bias, their leader can give that information in a huge exposition dump to the main characters. Viewers are supposed to sympathize with the Pearls, which they do, but not in the sincere way they sympathize after watching one of the Pearls die on the other size of a glass wall. There’s not as much emotional investment there when all the victims are able to handle the trauma seemingly without internal strife.
The conglomeration of many problems with casting and script made what could’ve been exciting movie a mediocre one. I had fun with the visuals and the action, but a lot of things about the movie had me rolling my eyes. I came in to the movie with high hopes and left disappointed.
Sci-Fi Rankings from best to worst
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
- Star Wars: the Last Jedi
- Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planet
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