A film that was released in 2017 and immediately forgotten. I say VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS deserves a bit more attention, if only because it was one of the most calamitous flops of the 2010s. The most expensive European production ever mounted (the budget was a reported €197 million), it was aimed primarily at the American market—the reason writer-director Luc Besson shot the film in English (and in so doing forsook the tax credits he would have received in his native land had he filmed it in French)—where its July, 2017 release was met with near-complete indifference.
…its July, 2017, release was met with near-complete indifference.
America’s dismissal of VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS (the second part of the title indicates there were meant to be sequels) isn’t difficult to comprehend, as its “stars” Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne aren’t exactly box-office draws, and its source material, the French comic series VALERIAN AND LAURELINE (1967-2010), is largely unknown in the English speaking world (where it didn’t appear until 1981). Another problem is the fact that VALERIAN AND LAURELINE’s eye-popping imagery has already been mined in films ranging from STAR WARS (1977) to Besson’s own FIFTH ELEMENT (1997), a sci fi fever dream which employed much of the same creative team as VALERIAN, and is an all-around better movie.
Another antecedent was AVATAR (2010), whose release inspired a volley of script rewrites by Besson, and a rather pressing problem. Quite simply: the screenplay (based primarily on the 1975 VALERIAN AND LAURELINE narrative THE AMBASSADOR OF THE SHADOWS) and resulting film both strain waaaaaaay too hard for Hollywood-level excitement.
Featured are Valerian and Laureline (DeHaan and Delevingne), a pair of 28th Century “spatio-temporal agents” (i.e. interplanetary cops) employed by the rulers of a vast intergalactic city known as Alpha. Valerian, guided by a vision seen in a dream, goes in search of a “Mül converter,” a small animal from the once-peaceful (and since destroyed) planet Mül. This trek entails a jaunt through a virtual reality universe and the help of a shape-shifting babe known as Bubble (Rihanna), while the opposition takes the form of the amoral Arün Filitt (Clive Owen), a military commander who was directly responsible for the destruction of Mül and is now trying to evade responsibility for his actions.
It all ends happily, of course, although I doubt too many viewers will care. The near-impenetrable narrative is relentlessly dense and convoluted, and isn’t helped at all by pacing that ensures the proceedings often feel like they’re stuck in permanent fast forward. The protagonists, in common with those of the VALERIAN AND LAURELINE comic and indeed a great deal of modern science fiction (which tends to mistake “normal” for dull), are resolutely bland, something Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne do nothing to alleviate. Rihanna, on hand for cool cred (a la Chris Tucker in THE FIFTH ELEMENT), proves a far more compelling presence, but she has too little screen time. The same can be said for talents like Rutger Hauer, Ethan Hawke and Mathieu Kassovitz, all of whom are on hand, essentially, as window dressing.
That leaves the special effects, which are made to assume center stage. They’re impressive in their breadth and sheer frequency, but ultimately disappointing. As with other 2010s science fiction bombs like JUPITER ASCENDING (2015) and GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017)—the three films nearly constitute a trilogy—VALERIAN’s CGI scenery is far too orderly and pristine, ignoring the lessons of BLADE RUNNER (1982), the supposed “most influential” science fiction film of our time. BLADE RUNNER’s future was notable for the fact that it looked and felt lived-in, an element VALERIAN’s shiny surfaces, eye-pleasing though they are, sorely lack.
Vital Statistics
VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS
Europacorp
Director: Luc Besson
Producer: Virginie Besson-Silla
Screenplay: Luc Besson
(Based on a comic series by Pierre Christian, Jean-Claude Mézières)
Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast
Editing: Julien Rey
Cast: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, Kris Wu, Sam Spruell, Alain Chabat, Rutger Hauer, Peter Hudson, Xavier Giannoli, Louis Leterrier, Eric Rochant, Benoît Jacquot, Olivier Megaton, Gérard Krawczyk, Pierre Cachia