Luc Besson’s ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ is an Overstuffed, Underwhelming Sci-Fi Epic

The latest film from French action auteur Luc Besson sees the director bringing a comic book favorite from his childhood to the big screen in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, which is inspired by the comic series Valérian and Laureline by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières. The comic sensibilities and outlandish sci-fi setting of Valerian would seem like the perfect movie for The Fifth Element director to return to special effects laden crowdpleasers. However, Valerian sees Besson spinning his wheels for much of the film’s excessive running time, often trying retain a level of mystery to the story to an underwhelming effect. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets has a gorgeous look to it, but so many other factors of Besson’s sci-fi epic leave much to be desired.

The opening scene of Valerian is one of the film’s coolest moments. As David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” plays, we’re given a glimpse of the International Space Station over the years starting in the ‘70s. At first what is just different nationalities meeting in peace on the station soon expands over time as other worlds join in a gesture of intergalactic peace. Hundreds of years later, the space station is now known as Alpha, a city in space that has amassed segments from all corners of the galaxy. Alpha is so big that it must be pushed from Earth’s orbit and deep into the cosmos.

Then the Besson gets a bit carried away in building an expansive universe of various creatures and technology. We’re then taken to a world that looks like an untouched paradise and occupied by a race of creatures that could best be described as albino Na’vi from Avatar. Then a cataclysmic event occurs, flying debris falls from the sky wreaking all kinds of destruction. When one of them dies in the horrible destruction, she sends out a shockwave across the universe that awakens Valerian (Dane DeHaan) from his slumber. What this event means for Valerian and his partner in intergalactic police work, Laureline (Cara Delevingne), will not be answered for quite some time.

Valerian is a hot shot pilot and oozes arrogance as he tries to woo Laureline, who’s not falling for any of his romantic attempts. The two are slated to carry out a mission where they’ll secure a near-extinct species and return it to Alpha, which they eventually do after a pretty neat but lengthy sequence in an interdimensional shopping center. They’re successful and return the creature to Commander Arün Filitt (Clive Owen), though the commander seems a bit shady and ill-prepared to obscure his mustache twirling (even though he doesn’t have a mustache). The Commander is trying to figure out what’s behind a dead zone in the heart of Alpha that threatens the existence of the expansive space station city. But when he’s kidnapped, it’s up to Valerian and Laureline to solve the mystery, though they’ll have to make a number of unscheduled stops along the way.

The biggest problem facing Valerian is the screenplay by Besson, which wants to build a central mystery but that attempt backfires mightily. Besson playing the film’s story so close to the vest makes it hard to become invested in the characters and situations that make up Valerian, and it leads to the film’s bloated nature. Time and time again, Besson crafts a story that is increasingly frustrating to sit through, especially once the writer-director starts dropping reveal after reveal to shed the layers of mystery. The storytelling decisions from the famed filmmaker hold back Valerian from being anything more than eye candy, and at a certain point even the glossy sheen of the visuals lose their luster.

The other big hindrance for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is the chemistry void with the film’s two leads. There’s not an ounce of chemistry between Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne, the two actors seemingly chosen solely for their aesthetic values – though that’s not out of line with the rest of the film which is simply all aesthetics. The lacking chemistry between the two actors makes the film’s attempt at a romance between the two feel incredibly forced, and that only gets worse and worse as the film reaches its conclusion. Neither star is able to fare much better when their characters are separated, with DeHaan seeming out of his element as an action star and Delevingne delivering some dreadful one-liners.

And yet for its narrative issues and charisma vacuum in the leads, there’s still quite a bit of flavor in Valerian. Until it grows tiresome, there’s plenty of visual splendor as Besson presents a glorious mixture of practical and computer effects. There is also a great concept at the heart of Valerian with the city of Alpha and its multi-planetary population. Even some of the more oddball supporting characters are able to give the film moments of much-needed flavor, such as a Cabaret-inspired dance sequence involving Rhianna as a shape-shifting alien, Ethan Hawke as a drugged-out pimp, or an alien crime boss voiced by John Goodman. None these flavorful moments are able to pull Valerian above its numerous issues, though they do make it a sometimes engaging ride.

Valerian and the City of a Thousands Planets has no shortage of ambition. But there’s little to suggest that this mega-budgeted blockbuster is going to have enough enthusiasm to ignite demand for this movie to become a sprawling franchise. For everything that’s awe-inspiring about Valerian, there’s something just as equally frustrating about it, and most of those issues are a result of how Luc Besson decided to tell his expansive sci-fi adventure. Worst of all is how the film devolves into a dreadful allegory for the Holocaust, turning what was once an underwhelming sci-fi adventure into a ghastly piece of space exploitation. Luc Besson has often traversed in troubling, problematic territory, but every so often the scope and visuals can counteract those issues. That never occurs in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, as the film is just like its title – way too long and absolutely ridiculous.