dane dehaan: why
― crazed with patience (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 24 July 2017 13:31 (six years ago) link
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
― mh, Monday, 24 July 2017 18:26 (six years ago) link
was the english dialogue written by people who were trying to coin new english idioms? kind of felt like it sometimes
― mh, Monday, 24 July 2017 18:27 (six years ago) link
that is to say, people who don't have english as a primary language trying to sound hip in english
― mh, Monday, 24 July 2017 18:28 (six years ago) link
cara delevingne was a joy
nah
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Monday, 24 July 2017 18:30 (six years ago) link
they called up an intern at io9 on the phone and asked them for the hot new english language scifi slang.
― nomar, Monday, 24 July 2017 18:30 (six years ago) link
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.
― silverfish, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 15:22 (six years ago) link
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
― mh, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 15:32 (six years ago) link
i haven't seen it yet but have listened to the score by Desplat 2x and it is fantastic
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 16:02 (six years ago) link
V. interesting read
http://deadline.com/2017/07/valerian-who-loses-luc-besson-europacorp-fundamental-films-stx-1202134583/
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 27 July 2017 22:50 (six years ago) link
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
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 27 July 2017 23:41 (six years ago) link
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)
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 28 July 2017 08:06 (six years ago) link
"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.
― El Tomboto, Friday, 28 July 2017 11:49 (six years ago) link
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.
― jmm, Friday, 28 July 2017 12:57 (six years ago) link
This film bombed so hard we're not going to be able to see it in the theater. Oh well.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 13:52 (six years ago) link
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
― the shape of a hot willie lumpkin (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:04 (six years ago) link
Ha, I thought you were joking about watching it on a plane, which I think is where most Americans will end up seeing it.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:08 (six years ago) link
I believe he meant "Fly to where I live"
― Neanderthal, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:30 (six years ago) link
brb gonna charter a plane so me and tombot can bro down watching valerian on 8-inch screens somewhere over the atlantic
― the shape of a hot willie lumpkin (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:37 (six years ago) link
he's def gonna have to buy his own popcorn tho
― the shape of a hot willie lumpkin (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:39 (six years ago) link
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
― mh, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 14:57 (six years ago) link
Lol
― flopson, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 17:22 (six years ago) link
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
― mh, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 17:23 (six years ago) link
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
― mh, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 17:24 (six years ago) link
I am not sure this movie is worth a $1100 plane ticket but I'll take some fresh popcorn
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 18:10 (six years ago) link
she is interesting in interviews!!
― flopson, Tuesday, 1 August 2017 18:29 (six years ago) link
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
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 3 August 2017 18:35 (six years ago) link
Did the Star Wars prequels get a better critical response in France as well?
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 3 August 2017 18:51 (six years ago) link
Omg I am a harbinger of failureFinally I know myself
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 3 August 2017 22:03 (six years ago) link
A ton of concept art
https://kotaku.com/the-art-of-valerian-1797524049
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 7 August 2017 00:23 (six years ago) link
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
― mark s, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 14:15 (six years ago) link
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
― mh, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 14:21 (six years ago) link
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'?".
― weird echo of the falsies (Tom D.), Tuesday, 8 August 2017 14:23 (six years ago) link
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)
― mark s, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 14:27 (six years ago) link
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
― mh, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 14:41 (six years ago) link
Heard some crazy person say Chris Tucker ruined Fifth Element. I think he was by far the best thing about it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 15:18 (six years ago) link
i hated chris tucker in that movie and he totally ruined that movie for me.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 15:58 (six years ago) link
i wasn't that big a fan of the movie before he showed up though.
^^^crazy person
― mark s, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 15:59 (six years ago) link
Fifth Element sucks for so many reasons - Willis, Tucker, the dialogue/script - and it's only redeeming quality is all the Moebius design-work, which you can just get from his comics anyway.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:43 (six years ago) link
^^^always wrong
― mark s, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:44 (six years ago) link
if hating Besson is wrong, I don't wanna be right
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:45 (six years ago) link
cool bcz you're not right
― mark s, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:47 (six years ago) link
The two problems in the fifth element are the opera / fight sequence and the premature death of gary oldman's character.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:49 (six years ago) link
at least milla got to redeem herself with my beloved resident evil sextet of fine films.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:49 (six years ago) link
sometimes you get a second chance in life to get something right.
and to be fair to bruce willis, after the fifth element came out he made over 50 movies and i saw some of them.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:54 (six years ago) link
milla is tremendous in the messenger
― mark s, Tuesday, 8 August 2017 18:57 (six years ago) link
I'm curious as to how long ago people last saw The Fifth Element - we all (including me) like to think we've been woke af forever, but it's pretty hard to watch Chris Tucker in it these days.
― Andrew Farrell, Saturday, 12 August 2017 20:04 (six years ago) link
The rest of the film is great of course - Valerian is both very good and very bad, but frankly is worth it just for shaming everyone else who makes "3D" films.
― Andrew Farrell, Saturday, 12 August 2017 20:05 (six years ago) link