To be honest, there's a lot that Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets -- the latest space opera from French director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Taken) -- does well. Its universe, filled with diverse alien creatures and sprawling cities, brings to mind the likes of Star Wars, so rich with life and culture. The diversity of the aliens makes the action equally exciting, as the esoteric weapons and technology of each race come into play in unexpected ways. It's also quite humorous, with a surprisingly light-hearted script for a movie about genocide and military conspiracies.
But while much attention has evidently been put into creating its imaginative setting, much of that is offset by the lack of chemistry between the two characters, as well as the stilted and unevenly-paced script, which dips dangerously close to B-movie territory in its cringe-inducing and robotic awkwardness. Valerian is at its best when it puts us in the thick of its world, amid the zany aliens and their way of life. It's unfortunate that so much of it had to be spent with those boring humans.
Unlike Star Wars, Valerian takes place in the far-flung future, not a galaxy far, far away. The international station -- after years of expansion to accommodate various human nations, then alien colonies -- is jettisoned from Earth's orbit and flung into space, creating Alpha, the titular "city of a thousand planets".
The film follows two human peacekeeping agents, Maj Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sgt Laureline (Cara Delevingne), who are tasked with exploring an unknown and expanding source of radiation in the heart of Alpha, a task that unveils dark and incriminating secrets for certain powerful and deadly people.
For the first hour or so, Valerian actually feels like it could be good, with a fast-paced script to match its action. The film introduces us to Valerian and Laureline as they rob an alien crime-lord in a bustling inter-dimensional virtual reality market. This is when Valerian is at its best, throwing the leads (and the audience) into outlandish alien environments with flashy tech, fighting equally creatively-armed aliens.
The script is quick and focused, quickly establishing the world and our place in it, while offering a thrilling action set-piece guaranteed to please any sci-fi fan.
This falls off the rails though once the duo reach Alpha, where the plot grinds to a halt for about a third of the film. Human politics and devious plans come into the mix, and the two leads simply don't possess the commanding presences their roles demand.
A certain event forces the duo apart for a long while, forcing us to sit through Valerian's attempt to save Laureline with the help of a blue, shape-shifting slime alien (Rihanna, the pop superstar), an event that has nothing to do with the main plot. In many ways, Valerian feels like a miniature buddy-cop film, with the added -- and forced and awkward -- sexual tension between the two leads. Valerian is the confident, hotshot detective, while Laureline is his talented, cool-and-collected partner, a role that neither DeHaan nor Delevingne successfully sells. DeHaan has always been good at making dramatic facial expressions, but he doesn't possess the charm and physique to convincingly portray the roguish, ladies' man character with "nine years on the force". Delevingne is little better, looking more like she's in a teenage spring break movie than a sci-fi action film, wooden acting aside. Neither actor has any chemistry with the other, a fact that makes many of their scenes together awkward at best, groan-inducing at worst.
Worse yet is the fact that by the time the film stops meandering in its side-plots, the initial wonder created by the CG effects has largely worn off, and the action becomes a simple fight between humans and human-like robots, each side wielding curiously familiar-looking assault rifles and firemen helmets. The film's need to end with an emotional payoff for the leads also feels forced, with an awkward script that isn't at all helped by the absolutely lack of compatibility between the two main actors.
Valerian would certainly make for a good television series, where the characters are allowed to take their time and be fully immersed in the world and its myriad intricacies. Provided it recasts the leads.
Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets Starring Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen Directed by Luc Besson
