Comment on Movie review: 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets'

Brandy McDonnell An abbreviated version of this review appears in the Friday Weekend Life section of The Oklahoman. 2 of 4 stars. Movie review: “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” In the summer of 1997, inventive French auteur Luc Besson launched movie audiences on a colorfully bizarre, imminently watchable and ridiculously entertaining space adventure with the sleeper smash “The Fifth Element.” Thanks to advances in computer technology, Besson’s new action-packed space oddity “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” is teeming with exotic and eye-popping aliens, planets and gadgets, but the film’s human elements are sorely lacking and its narrative deficiencies all-too commonplace. Based on the long-running French comic book series “Valerian and Laureline,” one of the key inspirations for “The Fifth Element,” Besson’s latest passion project opens with such promise, as a striking parade of humans and aliens of all different cultures and kinds meet with a handshake to the tune of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” As interstellar travel advances, the International Space Station expands as more human nations and later alien species send ships to dock with it, until the bulbous amalgamation of people and technology -- renamed Alpha and nicknamed the “City of a Thousand Planets” of the title -- becomes so large it has to be jettisoned from Earth’s orbit. Jumping 400 years into the future, Beeson’s jumbled story shifts to the idyllic oceanic planet Mul, where the iridescent inhabitants peacefully harvest pretty power-packed pearls until debris from a massive space battle overhead devastates the planet. Unfortunately, Besson’s movie gets much less interesting as it introduces the humans we’re supposed to be following on this muddled adventure: hotshot Human Federation agents Valerian (the woefully miscast Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (ditto Cara Delevingne), whose latest assignment is protecting their commander (Clive Owen, whose ham-fisted turn manages to give away the entire plot the moment he appears on screen) from some vague danger.Read more on NewsOK.com