Luc Besson isn't the most artistically talented director out there, but he's made some films that I adore. "Leon: The Professional" and "The Big Blue" were some of my favorites of his. So naturally, when I saw his name attached to a promising trailer called "Valerian", I was immediately excited. I had the same thought process to Dunkirk, but whatever. I'll see something fun first.
After my screening I couldn't tell if I liked the film or not. To put it bluntly, VatCoaTP is a bit of a mixed bag. When the movie focuses on action scenes, world-building, and weird creatures it's a lot of goofy, creative fun but whenever Besson tries to advance the plot it gets messy. Some of the scenery, color grading and set designs are absolutely breathtaking and deserve the "Avatar 2.0" praise it's been receiving. Every habitable planet is gorgeous to look at, the designs of the aliens are creative and Besson fills the universe with little-details that are fun to catch (there's a "fishing" visual gag that made me giggle). It's evident that everyone making this film had a blast, and there was a lot of imagination and passion put into this project. Some of Luc Besson's action scenes are energetic enough to leave a smile on my face, and I could see the same effect happening on others too!
I know it sounds like I'm praising this film to the heavens, but I can't deny that Valerian is still heavily flawed. And by heavily flawed I MEAN HEAVILY FLAWED! Sometimes the tonal shifts between campy and serious feel very off, and the exposition dialogue can feel sloppy. The storytelling is all over the place and can venture off from 1 mission to 5 before actually getting focused, and even then the little "villain twist" at the end was so cliché I had to roll my eyes. The lead actors could've used some snark and chemistry to make their characters appealing, but their performances feel oddly flat compared to how bonkers the rest of the film is. Most of the problems I have with Valerian comes with the script and how disjointed some scenes feel compared to some others, which is a shame.
In short, I don't think VatCoaTP was a bad movie at all. As a whole, it's a passable one-time watch and has enough energy to satisfy some audiences. My main problem, however, is how scattershot the tone of the film is - often switching from light to dark without feeling very smooth. This can lead to more problems in terms of story structure and such. It's sometimes intentionally and unintentionally silly, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, and a little over/under-stuffed. For what it was trying to achieve I thought it was an okay film in that regard, but it would've helped if the story and dialogue wasn't so uneven. It was a nice try though.
GRADE: 6/10
After my screening I couldn't tell if I liked the film or not. To put it bluntly, VatCoaTP is a bit of a mixed bag. When the movie focuses on action scenes, world-building, and weird creatures it's a lot of goofy, creative fun but whenever Besson tries to advance the plot it gets messy. Some of the scenery, color grading and set designs are absolutely breathtaking and deserve the "Avatar 2.0" praise it's been receiving. Every habitable planet is gorgeous to look at, the designs of the aliens are creative and Besson fills the universe with little-details that are fun to catch (there's a "fishing" visual gag that made me giggle). It's evident that everyone making this film had a blast, and there was a lot of imagination and passion put into this project. Some of Luc Besson's action scenes are energetic enough to leave a smile on my face, and I could see the same effect happening on others too!
I know it sounds like I'm praising this film to the heavens, but I can't deny that Valerian is still heavily flawed. And by heavily flawed I MEAN HEAVILY FLAWED! Sometimes the tonal shifts between campy and serious feel very off, and the exposition dialogue can feel sloppy. The storytelling is all over the place and can venture off from 1 mission to 5 before actually getting focused, and even then the little "villain twist" at the end was so cliché I had to roll my eyes. The lead actors could've used some snark and chemistry to make their characters appealing, but their performances feel oddly flat compared to how bonkers the rest of the film is. Most of the problems I have with Valerian comes with the script and how disjointed some scenes feel compared to some others, which is a shame.
In short, I don't think VatCoaTP was a bad movie at all. As a whole, it's a passable one-time watch and has enough energy to satisfy some audiences. My main problem, however, is how scattershot the tone of the film is - often switching from light to dark without feeling very smooth. This can lead to more problems in terms of story structure and such. It's sometimes intentionally and unintentionally silly, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, and a little over/under-stuffed. For what it was trying to achieve I thought it was an okay film in that regard, but it would've helped if the story and dialogue wasn't so uneven. It was a nice try though.
GRADE: 6/10