[CRITICAL] VALÉRIAN AND THE CITY OF a THOUSAND PLANETS

Luc Besson and his major EuropaCorp come to play in the field of american blockbusters. That we approve of it or not, the formula and the tone chosen to the Blog, we greet the abundance and generosity of the artistic direction, show of force of the French savoir-faire.

Luc Besson is definitely a character that is appalling. Under the figure of a pasha in detail and under this face, very expressive, hides in reality a kid is hyperactive, such as those that move the arm in all directions and multiply the sound effects at the mouth when they invent a story. This probably explains the unique place that it holds today, this entrepreneur is ambitious in the production hex. Suvs of its successive projects, the financial would be tempted to believe that, by inviting the guy Besson to sit in the salon bourgeois French cinema, they might find the decor scattered fashion puzzle, with a grand child sixty brooms smile guilty, in the midst of his new playground.

With VALÉRIAN AND THE CITY OF a THOUSAND PLANETS, Besson has the merit to open the playing field to a wider audience, which will no doubt be amazed at his entry into a world so rich and polymorphic. If Besson is a great kid, one can recognize that his approach is not that of a child spoiled rotten, devoid of generosity. But be careful, it is not because it invites friends in the games room that these are going to be fun, especially if we just play the proud in presenting in detail a monstrous collection of toys without notice that visitors start yawning copiously. This is the sin of pride that productions opulent, not to say overloaded, betray once past the first half hour of the mise-en-place. The syndrome Jupiter Ascending, so to speak. The way to a visual feast including all dishes would be served at the same time, disgust threat quickly enough the retina, especially as the whirlwind of colors and pop / comic book / video clip / video games / candy stores is not there to save our stomach.Let’s be clear on this point, since it is there that lies the bet VALÉRIAN AND THE CITY OF a THOUSAND PLANETS : yes, the visual richness and the technical mastery are the hollywood productions with similar budgets of the pharaohs. It is esbaudit at the sight of the slightest thing futuristic appearing two seconds on the screen, the less hair defying the laws of gravity, an extra in the third plan, and even if each one of these unnecessary elements appeared only five seconds on the screen, they manage together to deepen the representation of the universe, while keeping paradoxically, their status as a nice little delusions fétichisés, straight out of the toy box that takes the place of the brain to the director.

But then why does the boredom end, he point the tip of his nose, while Besson was trying to load the image details to try to keep the viewer awake ? Well precisely because it is too much to want to attack the americans on their own ground, VALÉRIAN AND THE CITY OF ten THOUSAND PLANETS adopts the same conventions, and show progressively the same weaknesses that entertainment is formatted across the Atlantic. To gauge the problem of formatting, it is sufficient to study the pace with which the narrative is driven ; and therefore, we regret that it accelerates to the chosen moments to emphasize the action, and patina when it comes to calm down to complete the program dramatically by a little emotion.

“Valérian and the City of ten Thousand Planets appears to be like a roller coaster manic, neglecting the moments of grace.”

It makes you wonder whether Besson, swept up in the excesses of the production design, such a creative crazy deploying his collection for spring-summer-fall-winter 2017 – 2740, had not neglected the passage of the key points in the development of a film, including the importance of write, and represent characters believable and endearing. It is right to ask this cruel question, when we look at it with an eye of doubt, the interpreters of Valerian and Laureline, try to form a couple worthy of interest on the screen. If Cara Delevingne plays his role without much subtlety, it can be assumed, giving proof of good will, the temperament of the heroine is there to draw a character. The case of Dane DeHaan is clearly more problematic, because the actor to the next haunted, and the build of a fragile young man, immediately appears as an error of casting, in complete discrepancy with the archetype of the hero’s arrogant, charming and casual.

To want to measure constantly the cocktail’s usual blockbuster between action, adventure and touches of humor Besson sacrifices inevitably the emotional intensity that should link the characters. Most of the fans of this category of general public entertainment will answer me that it has long been mourning the loss of this component, and she enjoys the cocktail with these ingredients for fun and juvenile. If we consider VALÉRIAN AND THE CITY OF ten THOUSAND PLANETS from this point of view, then the contract is fulfilled, but if we keep in a corner of his memory of the viewer, The Fifth Element of the same monsieur Besson, in this case, one cannot help but see a face puzzled. In The Fifth Element, the filmmaker left the time for a moment of poetry to settle when a curtain of the opera rose on a diva alien. Before the music does drift towards experimentation with electro to accompany the choreography of the battle of Leeloo vs. the Mangalores, the song had had time to be born, to tremble and then rise with pain and passion.

As Bruce Willis was being seized by this moment of grace, suspended out of time, Dane DeHaan attends also to an artistic performance that is harvested. This time it is Rihanna who is on stage ; she’s not singing, she’s dancing on a changing appearance multiple times, brunette, blonde, sexy nurse… The rhythm of the number that leaves no respite to the viewer, the music is irrelevant ; the sequence is the image of a party taken of the entire film : a roller coaster with moments of grace are not in the program. It would have been a good idea to keep a poetry settle more on the screen, the wavelength of the thanks from the people of the planet Mül, bringing in extremis the emotion that longed to express itself.

Arkham

Your opinion ?