Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | Film Review

The Sci-Fi genre gets a bad rap. Do it well, and it’s an opus for a generation to love and hold up on high as  the pinnacle of the genre. Anything else is a slap in the face to the genre and it will never recover!

Maybe it’s me, but the hyperbolic nature of criticism is exhausting and boring at the same time. Maybe  we should stop beating up on an entire genre for mistakes made. Maybe it’s time to go back to being  simpler about how we enjoy film. Maybe it’s time to get on with this review of “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”.

Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are special operatives  tasked with maintaining order throughout the human territories. Under a mission from the Minister of Defense, they must recover an item that is quite literally one of a kind and take it to Alpha, a city/space station where thousands of different species live.

At the center of Alpha, mysterious dark forces and marauders threaten the safety of the city. Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the menace. This description doesn’t do the story much in the way of justice, but it’s what I am going to leave you with, because they actually did a cool thing with it. At the risk of sounding cliché or spoiling it, there is a lot of subterfuge happening here. Not everything is what it seems, but when it all unfolds the “gotcha” of the story doesn’t have the intended punch. It’s good, but it doesn’t knock your socks off.

Also, the story would have been served better if they simply focused on the core of the story. During the second act, we get sidetracked by a rescue scenario that only seems to serve as something to do for Ethan Hawk, and Rihanna. They are never heard from again. It’s your basic, “Look at these effects! Now, let’s move on.”

The filming, art direction, creature concepts, and special effects are all where this movie really shines. First, it really stays true to a lot of the looks from the source material. The comic has been around since the 1960’s, so they did take the time to update some of the looks. The visual storytelling has so much in common with director Luc Besson’s other space opera, The Fifth Element“. The two movies almost feel like they are in the same world as there are some minor nods throughout the movie. The digital efforts to create new worlds and species rival those of big blue space cats, superheroes, and even a long time ago.

Valerian opens on an island paradise with big…blue…space…amphibians…? Moving on, this island paradise is a whole planet, and I challenge you to not want to go there. Its calm, serene, and the inhabitants are perfect examples of alien beauty, making a breath taking scene. Likewise, Valerian takes you to the deep bowels of Alpha inhabited by a grotesque race. You can nearly smell what they are cooking. Here’s a hint: it might be you! If nothing else, it’s a feast for the eyes.

Remember when heroes felt larger than life? Of course you do. It’s summer and nearly every other movie has some statuesque Greek god of a specimen looming over you and forcing you to worship at their feet. Not only are they godly in appearance, but they feel like adults. You feel comforted by the idea of adults being tasked to save the universe. This is where I start to have trouble with the movie. Both DeHaan and Delevingne feel like teenagers playing house. You really want to root for them, but it’s just so dang hard! Who gave these kids the keys to a spaceship? Why aren’t they in school? How is one of them a Major? Or is Major his first name? It’s not the star’s fault; the casting team really missed the mark by choosing these two for the roles. DeHaan and Delevingne did the very best they could to carry the movie (even Delevingne’s eyebrows put in the effort), but unfortunately the task of carrying a movie was just too much. It’s as if they were aiming for a massive space opera feel but using YA ammunition.

Is “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” an opus to be heralded as good sci-fi, or is it an embarrassment that the genre will have to recover from? The answer really is: neither. It is a beautifully-crafted movie visually. The story is competent even with a little meandering. The cast did an okay job; not great, not terrible, just okay. It’s not the greatest compliment, however you have to at least appreciate them for not taking away from all the other beautiful work that was executed expertly in this movie. “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a good (lower case “g”) summer movie. Valerian will take you places you’ve never seen and introduce you to new and exciting species. It will make you feel as if you might be on vacation, if for only for a (little long) two hours and seventeen minutes.