Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E... -
Beneath the neon lights and laser fights, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets has a surprisingly heavy conscience. The Pearls of Mul are not warriors; they are peaceful, empathetic creatures destroyed by human greed. The human general’s excuse—"We thought they were enemies"—is a direct allegory for real-world military mistakes, from My Lai to drone strikes.
Reviewers universally lauded the world-building, imagination, color palette, and sheer audacity of the visuals.
However, this praise was vastly overshadowed by a tidal wave of negative criticism. The overwhelming consensus was that the movie was a case of “style over substance.” The most damning complaints were reserved for the chemistry between the two leads, Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne. Many critics deemed them , noting that they looked too young and lacked the charisma needed for action heroes. One scathing review wrote that their chemistry is “nonexistent” and that the film “would be fantastic on mute”.
: Dispatch ships to various galaxies and scan them to uncover missions and encounter new alien lifeforms. Diplomacy & Missions Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E...
Unanimously praised for unparalleled creativity, vibrant color palettes, and rich alien designs.
Meskipun gagal di bioskop, Valerian perlahan-lahan menemukan kehidupan barunya sendiri. Film ini mendapatkan status kultus di kalangan penggemar fiksi ilmiah yang menghargai ambisi visualnya dan daya tarik dunia yang dibangun Besson.
It is the kind of movie that 15-year-olds will discover on Netflix, fall in love with, and defend forever. It is messy, flawed, and occasionally cringeworthy—but it is also beautiful, heartfelt, and bursting at the seams with ideas. Beneath the neon lights and laser fights, Valerian
While the leads struggle, the supporting cast soars. delivers a delightfully slimy performance as Commander Arun Filitt, the human leader with a dark secret. Ethan Hawke steals his entire scene as Jolly the Pimp, a flamboyant, frog-like alien running a shape-shifting cabaret club (featuring a memorable cameo by Rihanna as Bubble, a polymorphic entertainer). Rihanna’s dance sequence, where she shifts through ten different forms in two minutes, is genuinely breathtaking—a silent film-era performance within a CGI blockbuster.
Keajaiban datang hampir satu dekade kemudian. Pada Januari 2025, hampir delapan tahun setelah debutnya yang mengecewakan, film ini melesat ke puncak tangga lagu film di platform streaming Max. Film ini debut di posisi ke-10 sebelum naik ke posisi ke-5 dalam beberapa hari, menunjukkan bahwa ada pemirsa baru yang siap menemukan kembali, atau mungkin untuk pertama kalinya, menikmati dunia Alpha yang aneh dan indah. Keajaiban platform streaming ini memberikan kehidupan kedua yang tidak pernah didapatkan film tersebut saat pertama kali dirilis, membuktikan bahwa terkadang film yang gagal total di bioskop bisa menjadi hit besar di rumah.
What follows is a breathtaking time-lapse of architectural and cultural accumulation. We watch as modules from every nation, then every species, latch onto the original station. Besson uses no exposition; we simply see the station bulge, morph, and bloom like a coral reef in zero gravity. By 2040, it’s a sprawling metropolis. By 2150, it houses reptilian warriors, aquatic farmers, and cybernetic merchants. The sequence visually answers the question: How do you build a city for a thousand species? You let them arrive, one by one, and give them a dock. Many critics deemed them , noting that they
Besson‘s journey to making Valerian was long and arduous. He had originally considered adapting the comics in the 1990s, but the technology of the time was not advanced enough to realize his vision. Instead, he channeled his ideas into a smaller, more manageable project: the 1997 cult classic The Fifth Element , which itself bore many stylistic similarities to the Valerian universe. After two more decades of advancements in CGI and digital filmmaking, Besson finally felt the technology had caught up to his imagination.
The most famous and technically complex sequence in the film is the “Big Market” interdimensional chase. In this sequence, Valerian dons special goggles that allow him to see and interact with a bustling, crowded alien marketplace that exists in a parallel dimension from his own. This required meticulous planning, with Besson and his visual effects team from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) mapping out every shot to seamlessly blend the physical set (a desert) with the fully digital market world. The scene is a masterclass in spatial storytelling and visual inventiveness, showcasing an immersive world that feels truly alive and alien.
Valerian and Laureline are special operatives for the , tasked with maintaining order throughout human-governed territories in the 28th century.
To watch Valerian is to witness a filmmaker who loves the medium of science fiction with a childlike intensity. It is a reminder that cinema should be about showing us things we have never seen before. For all its narrative shortcomings, Valerian shows us a thousand things we have never seen, and for that, it deserves to be remembered not as a flop, but as a beautiful, expensive, and utterly unique mistake.
