Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: von Lucky on August 03, 2017, 11:17:19 AM
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Out recently/soonish depending where you are.
Trailers (1 & 2 combined):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZMRvxBclGM
I have a German copy of the graphic novel (Empire of a Thousand Planets) that I only looked at the pictures as a little kid. I loved the imagery. I dug it out when I realised today Luc Besson was doing this (I didn't click by looking at the poster it was Valérian and Laureline). I can't work out if it's going to work, but I love The Fifth Element, so I'm going to check this out.
Only one that has mentioned it is Chris:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=98314.msg1219310#msg1219310
Anyone else at least a little excited? Or seen it? Thoughts?
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Saw it last week, wanted to love it but it was a bit dissapointing, it looked great, but the story is only just okay, they do a nice bit of world building but the actual story could use a bit more, but the my major complaint is the cast, Dane Dehaan and Cara Delevigne just have no Chemistry together, which is a shame, I've seen and liked dehaan in other stuff, but as Valerian he's not great, and especially the scenes with Lauraline just fall flat
Still it looks great and is worth a look for that alone, but ultimately this feels like a missed opportunity
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It is a beautiful movie. Worth the 3D admission price, but story wise, it's just ok.
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Nice movie, but unfortunately also for me more presentation than content.
Consequently I fully agree with the above statements.
A big downer for me were also the two main actors, both are IMO total wrong casted for the roles.
In no way I would believe them both to be tough agents.
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To be honest, it's the cast that's putting me off going to see it. I've got the graphic novels (and they are superb in a retro sort of way 8)) but the two leads just don't fit :?
cheers
James
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I still want to go watch it on the big screen, but didn't have time so far and didn't want it to divert my motivation from a current (non-Sci-Fi) project (I know I'll have to go back to my catch-all Sci-Fi project once I see it, but there's too much Bundeswehr still to be assembled and painted...).
I'll go watch it for the visuals, the same as with watching and re-watching The Fifth Element. I've had reservations since I read about Besson "taking liberties" with the source material, but I hope it is pretty enough to watch on its own and reserve a critique until then.
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Have to agree about the lack of chemistry to a point, but the 'romance' had put my friends off, probably no matter who did it. It was that sense of artificiality that fit for me.
Personally, I found the aliens and alien culture, , some of the grand tech, AND an actor I really admire as a cardboard 'secret' villain, telegraphed almost from the beginning of the film, more problematic.
I have to admit I was expecting having to put myself in a different place to 'get it', I pretty much got what I went to see, had a good time.
Doug
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I liked it, except for the "romantic/seductive" scenes between the 2 leads. Enjoyed the story, which had a beginning, middle and end (without plot-twists and such); the visual effects and I thought it was a nice adaptation of the comics at least in visual terms(which if I remember correctly, are from the 60s).
The movie seems to be based in two of the comics "The Empire of a Thousand Planets" and "Ambassador of the Shadows" and I suggest that anyone interested in some good old-fashioned space opera.
Unfortunately, the distributor here in Portugal didn't made the movie available in either 3D or IMAX :(
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I saw it today. I enjoyed it. It was certainly pretty (I only saw it in 2D).
I agree there was a lack of chemistry between the two leads, but that only affected the bits where they were interacting. The other parts were fine.
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I saw it at the weekend. I went for the visuals as reviews hadn't been promising. That lived up to expectations.
I disagree about the supposedly disappointing chemistry between the leads. It's a comic-book bubble-gum romance, and the leads do that perfectly.
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I finally managed to see it yesterday.
I'm happy I did go to see it on the big screen, and I will probably also get it on Blu-Ray later on. Very nice visuals and translations of the various alien species, although at times a bit irritatingly colourful.
Still, while not disappointed (in a way I was with the Kong: Skull Island thing where I had high hopes, too), I'm a bit indifferent to it after the event. Not inspired to do anything hobby-related based on it.
I won't go too much into spoiler territory, but my main issue were the various liberties Besson took to small elements of the canon, such as names, future-historical background, and most egregiously the couple dynamics between the two leads. I does work on the level of the film, but it reduces their original relationship and its dynamics to something merely generic.
I appreciate that you may have to update a very 1970s franchise drawing its origin story from a nuclear apocalypse in 1980 and having strong socio-aesthetic influences from that era (notably, second-wave feminism and geopolitics) to make it palatable to a modern audience, but a movie like this, made by a self-proclaimed "fan" of the franchise, just HAS to be aimed at (some of) the original audience as well.
For this matter, I did not get the impression that these many small changes did actually add anything worthwhile or necessary to the movie and so would most likely only alienate viewers familiar with the franchise. Worse than that, I don't see any clear-cut reason for the changes, which in the case of names leads me to suspect some copyright shenanigans. To put it into perspective, I think the changes made for the Watchmen movie made it far more enjoyable than a more direct translation of the comic book might have been.
In any case, it works OK as a movie, but falls short as a movie adaptation of its source material. The visuals are excellent, plot and writing average, but that was also my impression of The Fifth Element back in '97. I would distill it to the phrase "it was nice, but it could have been great".
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Finally saw it too. It was better than I thought. I thought the lack of chemistry between the leads was the obvious failing. That, and the last 15 minutes was dragging it all out when it didn't have to go on for that long. Rihanna was surprisingly good, and the visuals were a treat. And Rutger Hauer!*
* Is still alive!**
** Am I bad for thinking that?
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Only wargaming potential was creating some K-Trons for the tabletop:
http://iearths.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/halt-neca-valerian-k-tron-figure.html
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I liked it a lot. The imagery was beautiful. I liked the story as well, saw it as unnecessary alternative storywriting at first (the story is nothing like the comic Empire of a Thousand Planets) until I realised it was the story from Ambassador of Shadows.
There are some changes to the original material that in my opinion add nothing but don't harm either. The Valerian-Laureline relationship could have been presented a bit more subtle but well; it is a movie after all.
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Saw it in the cinema a few days ago. Agree with what has been said before. Looks fantastic (happy i saw it on the big screen) but no chemistry between the leads and the original score (soundtrack) was somehow wrong, like it was outdated or something.
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I enjoyed the film but not as much as I could have. I think the critics have it about right... "Lack of chemistry between the leading characters, simple/shallow plot but spectacular visuals"
I left with the same feeling that I got with Avatar... it was a visual spectacle but story-wise, there was nothing new.
That said... I went in with no expectations and I enjoyed the film. I would happily go and watch it again... even if it is just to see Cara :-*
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Luc Besson’s movies are really thin "storywise" and this one is no exception… I liked it though. I think all the best parts of the movies were those closer to the graphic novel series. It could have been A LOT better if Besson had followed the general story and universe of the graphic novel series more closely. I saw the "regular" version not the 3D one. It was OK I guess… Still I’ll probably buy the DVD… maybe I’ll just wait for it to hit the 5$ bin…
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What do folks think of the animated series? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Jam:_Valerian_%26_Laureline Been grinding through the episodes slowly, not exactly faithful to the graphic novels but I've seen worse.
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How/where are you watching this?
Doug
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How/where are you watching this?
Doug
It's online in several places, legally through Crunchyroll.
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Search 'Valerian animation' on You-tube as well.
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Thanks, lads!
Doug
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Up to episode ten at this point. Not sure I'll finish the series, but it's had enough ideas worthy of stealing for gaming projects that I feel like the time was spent constructively - especially since I've been painting while it plays as usual.
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I saw the film last week. I wanted to like it , I really did. The lead male was the big letdown to me. Right from the start he just seemed to be following Laureline around like a weak puppy dog.
The plot and everything else was fine. It was just the "romantic" scenes that were cringeworthy.
The soldiers on the desert planet at the beginning- the two sets of SF minis by Trent miniatures are perfect for these:
http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=483
http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=484
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The plot and everything else was fine. It was just the "romantic" scenes that were cringeworthy.
That's the weak point of the anime series as well IMO, although some of that may be the dub voice acting. From what I remember of the graphic novels (which I didn't read all of, and what ones I did were years back) there wasn't as much romantic tension between the leads, and whet there is in the show and movie feels both forced and clumsy.
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I finally saw this yesterday. I have been working through the comic books for a year. It reminds me a bit of John Carter of Mars. I liked it, although not entirely faithful to the original, it wasn't necessarily the worse for that IMHO. I thought the story was OK, better than the 5th Element. Brilliant visuals. Leads dissointing, especially De Haan. When you have a comic adaptation you have to get the leads spot on. He didn't seem mature enough. Laureline didn't have her iconic red hair. I enjoyed it enough to welcome a sequel, should one materialise, but I suspect it hasn't done well enough.
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As of right now it hasn't even earned it's budget back, so far $172 million earned worldwide (with only $39 million domestic) on a $177 million budget, I guess it's close enough that it will probably break even but I'd be very surprised if anyone would give besson more money to make a sequel
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=valerian.htm