Film Review - Valerian (2017)

Valerian is directed by Luc Besson who also made the 5th Element and the Professional and is based off of a French comic book and tells the tale of Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and his partner Laureline (Cara Delevingne) who are asked to investigate the capture of a top commander (Clive Owen) who may be hiding much more than they know.

I had a lot of fun watching this movie and there is no denying whatsoever how crazily ambitious Besson is as his direction has a real focus and energy that is reminiscent of his Sci-Fi classic the fifth element as the look of the two films are very similar but here it feels like he has the time, the money and the resources he never had on that film and it is a gorgeous film to look at from the sets, the colours, the various alien species, the worlds both planetary and the world of the Alpha space station itself which is like Deep Space Nine crossed with a high rise tower and I was never bored looking at it.

Seriously the visual effects work here is fantastic and it shows just how to spend 200 million dollars on a Sci-Fi spectacle and much like Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk it demands to be seen on the big screen but as much as Besson shoots for the stars in a major way there are 2 big faults that keep him from succeeding in his quest.

Firstly DeHaan is horribly miscast as Agent Valerian now I like him quite a bit as a young actor and he has done good work in films like the Place Beyond the Pines but here as a leading man he falls very short as his slightly gravely voice sounds horrible at times and he has very little chemistry with Delevingne as the romantic scenes between the two I found a little hard to believe at times.

And secondly Bessons script feels very clunky at times and though the film clips along at a nice pace some of the dialogue here is horrendous and falls very flat and it’s a real shame because his world building and his work overall on this movie succeeds for the most part perhaps much like Ridley Scott or Tim Burton he should have hired a strong right hand as his main screenwriter to make sure the storytelling matched the great visuals on show here.

And so that was Valerian a Sci-Fi spectacle I thought was fun and is well worth seeing on a proper big screen, 3 out of 5.