Thread for Luc Besson's new comic book movie: Valerian

ok

Should I see this in 3D? Normally I wouldn't

Yes.

ok

no it isn't

Valerian & Laureline: The Nebula of Ambivalence

i'm still gonna see this, 51% on metacritic which is similar to the 52% score the fifth element has on there. that seems accurate, i don't think this is receiving poorer notices than TFE did when it was released.

we're seeing it on the 4th

i enjoyed this. i also kinda hate 3D movies. the theater itself was kinda excellent though. newfangled digital theater in a mall with an excellent screen and sound and stadium seating. would actually love to see dunkirk there. it just takes me too long to get acclimated to 3D. and i have to sit way in the back to take it all in properly. i got used to it but 3D just ends up taking me out of movies. i don't get sucked in. i'm constantly aware that i'm wearing 3D glasses and watching a 3D movie.

the dude in this was pretty lame. and the main duo had zero chemistry. it felt like they had met each other the day before. it should have been two cool women. they had no fun together. no fun banter. nothing. but whatever. there was enough cool stuff in this movie for ten movies. so much to see! very inventive. just the costumes alone. creatures. very cool. i did feel detached though. partly because of the 3D but in general i didn't really care what happened to anyone. but still, very much worth seeing.

that rihanna scene was pretty lame. she sounded like a disney fish or something. her voice didn't fit the movie. also, i would love some future music in sci-fi movies. the retro thing must die.

this was dope (i didn't bother with 3D tho).

Sounds like thing is going to lose a ton of money.

it's not primarily aimed at the US market from what I can tell

I uh didn't enjoy this v much, bizarre casting choices and just no apparent thematic core to grasp onto really

dane dehaan: why

cara delevingne was a joy, having the movie titled after the less interesting lead was bleh. scott otm about the lack of chemistry, the dynamic between the characters and what was supposed to be cute (the whole 'playlist' thing barf) didn't work and the monologues about love hit the wrong notes

the middle part was too much of a shaggy dog story where the plot wasn't progressing

was the english dialogue written by people who were trying to coin new english idioms? kind of felt like it sometimes

that is to say, people who don't have english as a primary language trying to sound hip in english

cara delevingne was a joy

nah

they called up an intern at io9 on the phone and asked them for the hot new english language scifi slang.

I wanted to like this, but the bad aspects really outweigh the good ones in this. The two main characters were completely uninteresting, the dialogue was terrible, the plot was just a bunch of random detours.

Nice visuals, they definitely got the French comic book style down. Going in, I thought that would be enough for me to like it.

I was thinking the parts bordering on interesting would grow on me, but the whole thing has kind of faded from memory already, other than a sense of irritation about how awkward and cringe-worthy all of the "romance" was

i haven't seen it yet but have listened to the score by Desplat 2x and it is fantastic

V. interesting read

http://deadline.com/2017/07/valerian-who-loses-luc-besson-europacorp-fundamental-films-stx-1202134583/

Said one financier: “Looks like China is going to get burned again. We’re going to have to start hitting other planets, I think, because here we are killing yet another golden goose.”

There's like, a thousand planets

It’s unfortunate for Besson that the film bombed domestically as a warm reception in the U.S. would have helped to give the film a boost around the globe.

I'm not entirely convinced this is a useful way of thinking about a Luc Besson film.

(also as always a limitless pit of rage at 'domestically' for a foreign film being taken as meaning the US)

"domestically" could refer to the author's or outlet's POV though (https://www.whois.com/whois/deadline.com)

But I see your point.

I am looking forward to this even more now than I already was.

It's doing okay in France so far. I'm curious why they wouldn't open there first if it's their strongest potential market, unless you need to open first in North America to give the impression that this is a serious AAA blockbuster and not something weird and foreign.

This film bombed so hard we're not going to be able to see it in the theater. Oh well.

i think i'm gonna see it this weekend but my wife's not into it, why not hop on a plane and come see it with me

i'll buy you a small popcorn

Ha, I thought you were joking about watching it on a plane, which I think is where most Americans will end up seeing it.

I believe he meant "Fly to where I live"

brb gonna charter a plane so me and tombot can bro down watching valerian on 8-inch screens somewhere over the atlantic

he's def gonna have to buy his own popcorn tho

hmm not sure making popcorn in a popcorn machine is safe on a plane, better pop it at the airport and bring it on board

cara delevingne was a joy

Lol

lol I was thinking about that last night after this thread got bumped and I realized the theater showed an interview clip with her before the film that she was actually interesting in and I conflated it with movie content

conflated my enjoyment of the interview with my enjoyment of the movie performance, I mean

or I'm turning into an old perv man like a few people around here, hard to tell

I am not sure this movie is worth a $1100 plane ticket but I'll take some fresh popcorn

she is interesting in interviews!!

this experience has reminded me of this research, which totally applies to me btw:

http://news.mit.edu/2015/harbinger-failure-consumers-unpopular-products-1223

Did the Star Wars prequels get a better critical response in France as well?

Omg I am a harbinger of failure
Finally I know myself

A ton of concept art

https://kotaku.com/the-art-of-valerian-1797524049

the good elements don't redeem the quite bad ones BUUUUT the quite bad ones don't entirely spoil the good bits :|

SPOILERS AND QUERY

so evidently the harmonious alien hippies are peace-loving by definition and colour-scheme even if they have taught themselves philosophy* in the 30 yrs since their planet was sideswiped, in which case who massacred the earlier expeditionary groups into the infected area? i feel there is a dark unspoken subcurrent to the mül culture = ppl die in large numbers when they "get close" to these so-called harmonious alien hippies, who are imo NOT WHAT THEY SEEM >:|

*the purpose of all philosophy to provide ppl with justiication for war, everyone knows that

THAT IS MY QUERY, END SPOILERS

ps i do have a rival explanation for this, tho afaict it is given no sanction by anything shown on-screen (in general i think that quite a lot of connective tissue was omitted by design or accident in this quite long and inattentively paced but good-looking film)

pps i am afraid you will guess the villain the instant they first appear

was their proof anyone actually got massacred? if so, it seems like clive owen's character was willing to cover his ass by killing his own soldiers, so he seems like a good suspect

I was in a pub quiz last night where one of the questions was "Who directed big budget French sci-fi flop, 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets'?".

the irony is that besson made this film -- of one his very favourite comics as a youngster -- bcz he hired mézières for the fifth element and mézières said (something along the lines of) "why are you filming this PoS, you shd make something good, like oh for example valérian and laureline??"and now it's been made and it totally makes valérian and laureline seem crappier than the fifth element

(tho admittedly V&tCoaTP does look good)

(but *boy* does it cry out for thesping of the by-contrast stellar standards of bwillis and mjovovich)

(yes, mh, the second is my alternative unsinister explanation. the killbots did it: i prefer the all-harmonious-hippies-are-actually-manson version tho)

on a side note, I was mentioning to someone I was with at this film who said something about the Fifth Element's computer animation that that particular film actually used nearly exclusively practical effects, which lead me to dig this up: http://www.metafilter.com/165553/Leeloo-Dallas-Multipass#6952794

there are some very large copies of the matte paintings used for backgrounds and some bits that flesh out the film's backstory

Heard some crazy person say Chris Tucker ruined Fifth Element. I think he was by far the best thing about it.

i hated chris tucker in that movie and he totally ruined that movie for me.

i wasn't that big a fan of the movie before he showed up though.