Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

I think that despite all the enthusiasm, energy and breathtaking production design, we are all willing to forgive the lack of physical laws, technical fundamentals and logic. But forgiving a stale story full of boring puzzle unravelling and a predictable finale – that's too much. So if we ignore the story filler, we're left with about 50 percent of the whole, i.e. fantastic-looking filmmaking full of funny scenes (Rihanna is incredible), Luc Besson's exceptional imagination of fictional worlds, and the awesome chemistry of the central couple, with the sexy Cara Delevingne playing with Dane DeHaan like anything. The European version of Guardians of the Galaxy. (11/08/2017)

I liked Jupiter Ascending, I liked John Carter, too, and I think Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is much more similar to them rather than the mentioned Star Wars. It also has something that the two stories mentioned don't have - 100% sympathetic main characters, finally a pair that has spark from start to finish and who is a joy to watch and listen to. Although the film is not original in terms of story (that would be hard, considering this is a 40-year-old book), its workmanship and smilingly adventurous atmosphere playfully make up for it. Perhaps only Alexander Desplat's music didn't make me feel how I would have liked this time. (02/08/2017)

Valerian is beautiful proof that Besson is a top craftsman who can work with visual effects as well as James Cameron, but unfortunately only a mediocre storyteller; or rather, a filmmaker who wants to please everyone and is too wrapped up in his own creation. How else to explain that such a simple plot is stretched to 130 minutes and instead of working on the supporting characters and creating a coherent structure, the script repeatedly flounders in dead ends and lets us get to know only the two title characters. Fortunately, it all looks breathtaking, the sophistication of the various settings is perhaps richer than in any SW, some scenes are truly epic, and the whole thing is surprisingly dominated by the mesmerizing Cara Delevingne, who oozes charisma and I don't have to explain how difficult it would be to play alongside her in a tight jumpsuit or, heaven forbid, just a pair of shorts (in this respect, one must also admire the otherwise traditionally bland DeHaan). I'd love to see this made by Cameron, who would add drama, more epicness and maybe even Arnold... Rihanna's cameo is great, though completely irrelevant to the story (as are many other elements). 65% (26/12/2017)

It warms the heart when one sees how Luc Besson's Valerian is for him the true First Element. I may not know the comic book, but the respect for the material and the almost childlike nurturing of everything related to its world brought a smile to my face more than once. Unfortunately, what is being nurtured is not something that can be called old-fashioned, but just outdated. Considering the year of the source material, it's unfair to criticize that we have already seen something similar countless times, but unfortunately, there are no plot twists happening in Alpha. I am also really sorry about that, because the rumors about this having the best visuals of the last decade were not wrong. Every flight, jump, or water trip takes your breath away with every pixel and erases yet another imaginary boundary of digital effects. The fact that this happens in several casually patched episodes that awkwardly drag along the central mundane plot is unfortunately just one big sigh. At the expense of the visual aspect, character development suffers as well, because the central Valerian's apparent task is only to deliver annoying lines and occasional action escapades. Dane DeHaan's unique face even tantalizes antiheroes, but cruelly fails in this case. Cara Delevingne effortlessly rises to the top, and it is perhaps thanks to her natural Laureline that she has moved on to starring roles written for her. (21/07/2017)

Well, it was nice to watch, yeah. There hasn't been a more spectacular-looking sci-fi film since Avatar, but visual effects aren't everything, and although Luc Besson manages to impress with the very first scene, he soon runs out of breath. In fact, it's as if he's decided not to tell a story, but merely to present a world in which another twelve films could take place. That world is really beautiful, mind, but when you have boring protagonists running around the screen, and when they actually intervene in the story rather accidentally, boredom is bound to set in sooner or later, no matter how good it looks. The main characters are unnecessarily out of the action all the time, and the more interesting and exciting things happen almost without their input. (16/08/2017)