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Author Topic: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)  (Read 2519 times)

Offline von Lucky

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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« on: August 03, 2017, 10:17:19 AM »
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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Offline Mr Tough Guy

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2017, 10:35:15 AM »
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

Offline Redmao

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #2 on: August 03, 2017, 11:12:19 AM »
It is a beautiful movie. Worth the 3D admission price, but story wise, it's just ok.


Offline Agis

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2017, 11:42:36 AM »
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.
cheers and keep on gaming, Agis - http://www.adpublishing.de

Offline OSHIROmodels

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2017, 12:08:26 PM »
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  :?

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Offline Westfalia Chris

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2017, 01:09:32 PM »
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.

Offline The_Beast

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2017, 01:25:58 PM »
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

Offline Predatorpt

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2017, 02:41:12 PM »
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  :(

Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2017, 09:45:31 PM »
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.


Offline Gundamentalist 5.56

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2017, 11:31:11 PM »
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.

Offline Westfalia Chris

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #10 on: August 12, 2017, 06:38:30 AM »
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".
« Last Edit: August 12, 2017, 06:41:03 AM by Westfalia Chris »

Offline von Lucky

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #11 on: August 15, 2017, 01:48:46 PM »
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?
« Last Edit: August 16, 2017, 11:19:01 AM by von Lucky »

Offline von Lucky

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #12 on: August 15, 2017, 01:51:34 PM »
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

Offline Pijlie

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2017, 03:00:28 PM »
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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Offline Steam Flunky

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Re: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson Film)
« Reply #14 on: August 16, 2017, 07:25:13 PM »
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.
laf medals by Robert  (steam flunky), auf Flickrhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/torq42/sets/

 

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