Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

This just looked like the so bad its good kind of film of 2017. I didn’t take the trailer for the film or premise very seriously because honestly how could you? I do however like Luc Besson. Leon The Professional and The Fifth Element are very entertaining films. I was expecting something along the lines of The Fifth Element. Boy, was I wrong about this film. Its really not very enjoyable at all.

I would attempt to explain the plot here but I’m still unsure on what the heck the main plot of the film is. What I gathered was that a planet of aliens were targeted and one of them died but before they did, their spirit inhabited Valerian. Thus, him and his girlfriend go on an adventure that never seems to end. Might as well start with the positives since there aren’t many. The visuals for this film are eye popping and very nice. That’s it.

The film is so incoherent. I still don’t have much of a clue on what I saw, or why some things even matter. The film has too many roles, too many different alien characters and it seems the characters just stumble upon things. For a film that looks so visually stunning, the film is incredibly dull. I struggled to stay awake. The best part of the film was oddly, the introduction of Rihanna’s character. And the whole segment with her character was the best part of the entire film.

The film has already failed at the box office and I can see why. It just seemed like a weird concoction that would only appeal to a very niche audience. I’ve never even heard of this comic and don’t expect to hear about it again. I like both DeHaan and Delevigne but they should have avoided this project. This might be really fun to watch when you’re super high, otherwise I can’t really recommend it. Its one of the worst films I’ve seen in 2017.

4.5/10