Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets

POSTED BY: JEWELSTAITEFAN
UPDATED: Saturday, March 9, 2019 06:47
VIEWED: 6460
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SHINYGOODGUY

Friday, September 1, 2017 12:44 PM

No, I couldn't say I had a big problem with the plot, it was more dialogue and pacing - well, it was a little bit the story, how it unfolded. I liked the beginning - the middle and ending, not so much. But I think it was mostly the chemistry between the 2 leads - it was non-existent.

SGG

Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:
I think we pretty much agree on a great many things about this movie:
Quote:
I understand Valerian and Lorelei was a comic series which this is an episode from. I am astonished at the level of extravagance derived from a comic storyline. I have not read the comic.
I agree, it makes me want to read it and see what inspired Besson so much.
Quote:
This was an extravagant exposition of sight, sound effects, story, concepts, action, and adventure. I do recommend it to anybody who thinks it is for them. And see it in cinema at least once - I expect to see it at least another time in cinema. If you are into 3D, it may be the best candidate for that format.
Agreed. I want to go back and see it in IMAX, it was that stunning to see. Maybe not so much in the plot development, but it was a good story idea.

SGG
I didn't recall any terrible problems with the plot, unlike with a lot of recent entries.
It's not any mind-bender, not Inception or Arrival, but also not defective.

Did you have any problems with the plot?

SHINYGOODGUY

Friday, September 1, 2017 1:00 PM

I'm not sure if the actors ever worked with CGI before, but that's something the director has to pay attention to.

Quote:
There was a component of romantic tension which was corny, cheesy, hokey.

This contributed a lot to the movie's overall theme; was it a rom-com or sci-fi space epic. The trailers depicted the latter - a space epic with dazzling effects. That should have been the tip-off right there. It was corny, it was cheesy, it was hokey.

I think Besson was trying to recapture the brilliant success of The Fifth Element. But there you had more experienced actors, a better story, pacing and plot development. But I think you may have a point there about how these young actors were unable to create a spark between them - which was part of the story. I was more impressed with the plight of the aliens than I was with the 2 leads.

I expected better from Besson.

SGG

Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:
I think we pretty much agree on a great many things about this movie:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
There was a component of romantic tension which was corny, cheesy, hokey. But because this was not portrayed much in the Trailers or summaries, it did not effect my expectation. This aspect is the only facet that I found substandard, like it was written for or by teenagers.
Again agreed, wholeheartedly. It felt forced and uncomfortable, off kilter. I didn't believe it for a second. Was it poor casting, weak script, weak acting or do we put this on the director? Sometimes directors have a bad day, so to speak.
I have difficulty conjuring the Director at fault here. He managed with 5th Element, Transporter, even the platonic of The Professional - that seemed a deft touch, to avoid creepiness. I have not seen either leads in roles before. Laureline seemed more a model type acting (better to use Emily Ratajkowski, who seems to be much better actress), but Valerian seems dismal. Perhaps their problem was all of the CGI, green screens, blue screens, etc - just couldn't act without background. If these roles, or at least his, get re-cast, the next installment could be all that we hope for. But how could they miss this in the dailies? the obvious problems should have been visible despite the missing CGI. But maybe it was too late to recast. It must have been a nightmare during editing to try to salvage that footage. I don't even know how central the romance was to the storyline in the comic. Perhaps the romance garbage was a idea in hindsight?
As I alluded to, perhaps the combination of CGI with young performers is what went haywire. Have the 2 leads been in CGI work before? They may have been unable to deal with blue screens, green screens, etc.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Friday, September 1, 2017 10:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:
I'm not sure if the actors ever worked with CGI before, but that's something the director has to pay attention to.

Quote:
There was a component of romantic tension which was corny, cheesy, hokey.

This contributed a lot to the movie's overall theme; was it a rom-com or sci-fi space epic. The trailers depicted the latter - a space epic with dazzling effects. That should have been the tip-off right there. It was corny, it was cheesy, it was hokey.

I think Besson was trying to recapture the brilliant success of The Fifth Element. But there you had more experienced actors, a better story, pacing and plot development. But I think you may have a point there about how these young actors were unable to create a spark between them - which was part of the story. I was more impressed with the plight of the aliens than I was with the 2 leads.

I expected better from Besson.

SGG

Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:
I think we pretty much agree on a great many things about this movie:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
There was a component of romantic tension which was corny, cheesy, hokey. But because this was not portrayed much in the Trailers or summaries, it did not effect my expectation. This aspect is the only facet that I found substandard, like it was written for or by teenagers.
Again agreed, wholeheartedly. It felt forced and uncomfortable, off kilter. I didn't believe it for a second. Was it poor casting, weak script, weak acting or do we put this on the director? Sometimes directors have a bad day, so to speak.
I have difficulty conjuring the Director at fault here. He managed with 5th Element, Transporter, even the platonic of The Professional - that seemed a deft touch, to avoid creepiness. I have not seen either leads in roles before. Laureline seemed more a model type acting (better to use Emily Ratajkowski, who seems to be much better actress), but Valerian seems dismal. Perhaps their problem was all of the CGI, green screens, blue screens, etc - just couldn't act without background. If these roles, or at least his, get re-cast, the next installment could be all that we hope for. But how could they miss this in the dailies? the obvious problems should have been visible despite the missing CGI. But maybe it was too late to recast. It must have been a nightmare during editing to try to salvage that footage. I don't even know how central the romance was to the storyline in the comic. Perhaps the romance garbage was a idea in hindsight?
As I alluded to, perhaps the combination of CGI with young performers is what went haywire. Have the 2 leads been in CGI work before? They may have been unable to deal with blue screens, green screens, etc.

Are they both gay? Or only Carla? Suddenly I can't recall any big Besson Rom stars who were gay.

Is Carla his first?

SHINYGOODGUY

Saturday, September 2, 2017 4:50 AM

Quote:
Are they both gay? Or only Carla? Suddenly I can't recall any big Besson Rom stars who were gay.

Is Carla his first?

Cara Delevingne apparently plays for both teams, but what does that have to do with anything. An actor is supposed to act. Actually I liked her performance better than Dane Dehaan (who played Valerian).

SGG

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Saturday, September 2, 2017 5:43 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:
Quote:
Are they both gay? Or only Cara? Suddenly I can't recall any big Besson Rom stars who were gay.

Is Cara his first?

Cara Delevingne apparently plays for both teams, but what does that have to do with anything. An actor is supposed to act. Actually I liked her performance better than Dane Dehaan (who played Valerian).

SGG

Yes. "Supposed" may be the key term.
Not all models can transition to acting. If she can't act, perhaps Besson had difficulty bridging the spark gap.

I'm thinking "standoffish" describes her performance here.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Friday, September 8, 2017 11:58 AM

Regarding Besson's The Professional and The Fifth Element: I had thought Leon was the carryover character from La Femme Nikita at the time, but did not read confirmation until just now. The Professional was not a long-planned production, but Besson had to wait for Fifth Element until after Willis's schedule cleared, and wrote and filmed Leon in the interim before Fifth Element. Not sure if I knew that.

AURAPTOR

Saturday, March 9, 2019 6:47 AM

Was looking for another thread, then saw this ( and the other ) on this flick. I waited a good long time to see it, and was somewhat surprised. It was better than I expected. However, I didn't see it until after I saw Ready Player One, and I have to say, RPO is the movie Valerian WISHED it could have been. IDK, maybe because of my age, RPO just spoke to me more ?

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