Me and my brother still have our tickets from seeing it in theaters. It's a precious memory of being the only two other people in an empty theater and just laughing at how bad it was. It did get us to read the original comics at least.
Having the original author smack talk Fifth Element only for his own story's adaptation to get savaged is kind of cathartic to be honest. Fifth Element is amazing, screw that guy.
Valyrian failed because its two lead actors had as much chemistry together as a block of wood. I have never, ever seen two actors- at least one of whom had a pretty good track record- do so badly in each others' presence. I could easily have believed that they actively hated each other on the set.
The reason why VALERIAN feels like three different movies is because the director Luc Besson took sequences from different Valerian and Laureline storylines mainly because the more iconic moments of the comic series were from those stories. This would be like someone making a Batman movie with plot elements from BATMAN YEAR ONE, THE KILLING JOKE, DEATH IN THE FAMILY, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and KNIGHTFALL and expect it to make sense. The movie would have been best served sticking to one story. By the way the character of Valerian in the comic book never had an origin story perse, he's already established as an intergalactic dashing hero, however Laureline is the one who does get an origin as she is from medieval times who Valerian encounters while on a time travelling mission. Although Valerian is supposed to maintain a cover so as not to alter the timeline ( ala Star Trek and the Prime Directive) Laureline discovers the truth about him, aides him on his mission and to preserve the timeline Valerian whisks her back to the future with him. Many storylines focused on Laureline and her fish out of water reactions to the world of Valerian and would soon develop into a storyline of Laureline exposing the political corruption surrounding Galaxity.
Using that Beatles song in the trailer was a stroke of genius. As someone who'd never heard it before, experience that paired with the visuals absolutely blew my mind and I knew I had to see it in theaters.
This film deserved better,the most expensive INDIE film and European film,throughout all its ups and downs it still remains an underappreciated gem.(And in some ways the pinnacle of European filmmaking...)
Dane DeHaan is not a leading man - he's a perfect tortured weirdo. Also Laureline is supposed to be a medieval French girl; it should have been played by Isabella Adjani when she was 20.
I really appreciate your honesty with not knowing the source material enough to make a full judgement, but you did a fantastic job! I do recall reading an article ages ago saying that several plots from the original comics were jammed together to make this film, which explains the odd side quests arranged into the plot's overall narrative.
I love this movie so much! It's so charmingly dorky. Once you learn to shake off the secondhand embarrassment you unavoidably get while watching it, it's very enjoyable. This movie is to me what Sahara is to you. Thanks for covering it! 💜
It always hurts when I see a bad movie that doesn’t flop due to obnoxious studios. Making a movie is hard! I’m glad it has some fans and most people acknowledge how cool the world/effects are. Shame it has a bad/cringy script.
Not to mention, the leads were complete charisma black holes. Maybe he was going for making them unflappable professionals who've seen it all, but it just made them boring and not half as interesting as the world around them.
7:35 you have an inaccuracy. The novel that Disney's 'John Carter' was developed from is not titled "John Carter of Mars". E.R. Burrough's novel was titled "Princess of Mars", John Carter is the protagonist but is in no way titular. Edit: syntax
As someone who read the comics i can tell you that Valerian is a lovable jerk, sometimes a bit dumb and all the hard work ends up in the hands of Laureline who is always pretty bad ass. At least that's the dynamic of the duo in the first adventures, Pierre Christin eventually made Valerian a bit less dumb and more heroic. Sometimes it's a bit like in the Get Smart TV series, where Maxwell Smart is a dumb and the agent 99 does all the job. The Valerian comics are famous for being material from inspiration for Star Wars and are panels from "The empire from the thousand planets" that were practically stolen by Star Wars and the sequels. This movie it's a big meh, I watched on a big screen but it was a bit boring to my taste. The initial sequence it's astonishing and the little bit where they stole something on that weird dimension at the beginning it's really amazing and visually original. After that the movie drags a lot and I think that the casting was really bad, no one fit really well. Maybe Cara Delevingne looks a bit like Laureline, but just the looks. The reason you found the plot so convoluted and episodic it's because it's a mishmash of different stories or sequences/ideas from the comics. Like a greatest hits. It's sad because Valerian and Laureline are some of the best science fiction comics ever made and this movie does little justice to the original material.
Ive very rarely seen a film where i thought "this 1 scene was more enjoyable than the rest of the film" and the opening of this Film followed by what happens next is a textbook example. Also this film/A Cure for Wellness/and Amazing Spiderman 2 proved 3 strikes for trying to make Dane Dehaan happen when it wasnt gonna happen
Valerian: *Proposes to his gf. Okay I don’t know these characters. Tell me why I should care. Valerian: *Has a saved record of all the girls he’s been with No, I said why I SHOULD care! May be the fastest a movie has destroyed my investment in a title character.
This is a french movie with a hollywood budget. And by french I mean the vibe and the sense of humor, and even the casting. Those two are not Hollywood attractive - they are french attractive - (good looking but kinda sickly and ordinary). Even the lack of chemistry and the arrogance are french. I had the feeling I was watching some old french comedy about love and existentialism. And I love those type of movies, but the clash with the Hollywood blockbuster part of it was too strong.
The leads have what I would call anti-chemistry; a reaction that causes nausea. The movie tells you they are close but when together, they feel like they just met 10 minutes before the first scene started and they actively hate each other. I've never seen anything like it before, it is on the level of The Room.
Could have been bad directing. They were constantly serious. Shooting a rat they had the same look as if they were longing for a kiss. What actor could be that untrained? Director.
They look weirdly related like siblings and they act so unlikable and disinterested. It's such a shame considering how beautiful the special effects and worlding building was
Very intriguing history of this Luc Besson joint. 🤔 With this having a budget of $180 million, and _Megalopolis_ having a budget of $120 million, why is _Megaolopolis_ still usually described as “the most expensive independent movie”? 😮
And in addition to that, not making Laurali’s hair red was another minor mistake. (Also; 4:47 the proper syntax is “must’ve GONE well.” 😉) But I totally agree with the “video game” assessment; that summed up the feeling I got perfectly. Great video!
I love this movie! Not because it's necessarily good, it just looks so good! The two things they nailed are the visuals and the lore/world. If someone made another movie set in this universe I'd watch it.
Although I didn't watch this movie or read the comics, I did watch the cartoon series "Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline" based on those comics when I was younger. According to Wikipedia, this show has a different tone and story from the source material, but I still think it's great. Time Jam has a very interesting plot, Valerian and Laureline have a much better relationship, sometimes the tone of the show gets really dark and what I liked the most about this cartoon is how it cleverly explained various political actions which could happen in real life, so the younger viewers could understand them, which somehow I didn't notice them at first when I was a kid. Apparently, on TH-cam there are all episodes available in English dub, but I can't tell if the voice acting is good or if the voices are matched well to the characters because I watched Time Jam in Polish dub. I can recommend this show if anyone is interested, because I think it's worth its time.
I know this movie's got a ton of flaws but since I'm a sucker for these types of films, of course I enjoyed it! I would've liked it more if it had a better director to be honest
I actually liked Valerian, yeah some characters were a bit cliche, but that is part of the film's soul, so if you and watch it as a Space Opera that is serious, nope, thats not the way to enjoy it. I think it was a fun film, entertaining, and of good quality 👌🏼 Could have been better, but wasn't bad by no means.
@7:40 I have to say, the French original title of the graphic novels is just “Valerian, agent spatio-temporel”. The title comes from the episode “The Empire of a Thousand Planets”.
I recall watching this film on its opening weekend after getting a $5 movie ticket coupon from buying The Giver (another bad film, by the way) on DVD. I recall being so bored and almost sleepy while watching it, only being woken up by the explosions.
I might not think it's a great movie, but I had fun seeing it in theaters. Particularly the first five minutes felt wonderful. But the issue I had with it is it didn't feel very cohesive, more like it should have been a short series instead of a movie.
For my part, I think it failed because for all its awesome sci-fi imagery, world-building, action, and some fun characters, the main character was the most unlikable, whiny, useless, annoying, incelly sack of box office poison possibly ever. Had it just been Laureline it might've been a classic to rank alongside The Fifth Element. I look forward to the video!
The writing and especially the leads killed it for me, which made the eye-catching spectacles overwhelming. It has its moments, but this ain’t ‘Avatar’. By the way, I think you nailed perfectly about overly ambitious director-driven films.
Watching this made me realize that in a vacuum a lot of these moments are absolutely stunning I still think the opening 5 minutes of the movie is incredible and if it's just a short film I think It's perfect and then the rest of the movie happens and there's so much that just jumps around with an interesting plot points uninteresting characters with no chemistry. But man just seeing individual clips of stuff it is truly stunning.
I hate posting this because I love your work and celebrate the fact that a live human is narrating a youtube anymore, but it's pronounced "sim-IL-arity" not "sim-YOU-larity." (I'm not trying to be a grammar you-know-what, I'm just trying to spare my ears!) Love you and your content.
Nice review. I watched it and I got lost in the middle and was asking myself, what are these guys looking for again? Like you said, it looked like a bunch of smaller stories smashed together like if they had collected a few second highlights of a whole TV series
This was another of those movies that I saw trailers for and went, "Eh." Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought so. Though I must say, hearing about this movie's backstory got me thinking about how oddly it mirrors that of Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer. Both were passion projects by filmmakers who loved the source material and did everything they could to make it happen their way but Snowpiercer ended up being the better movie and having a (modestly) better box office return. Also, missed opportunity for you to call the duck guys Hewey, Dewey, and Lewey.
When I stop to think about it, I can only associate this Cara Delavigne girl with big commercial or critical failures, so why is she even considered an A-list star? 🤔
Writing before watching. For me, the two leads were very bad casting choices. And it's been a while since I watched the film and I don't remember who the antagonist/villan was. Now let's see what you think. Also, thanks for the video.
I love the film despite all its failings because even years later in retrospect it doesn't just feel like another generic slop sci-fi film and actually has stuck in my mind as unique even if I cant remember anything about the plot or characters lol
He makes pretty nonsense movies. I have no idea why he's been given all these chances to make a good movie. He's just Uwe Boll with better production values.
Why Tut Failed In 2015 Spike TV Aired The historical Miniseries Tut starring Avan Gogia who you know as Beck from Nickelodeon's Victorious who plays the titular King Tut While the show tries to portray Ancient Egypt Accurately especially the Incest part but comes off more 300 less Ancient Egypt and that's people turned on the show also Gogia acting was MID at best trying to be King Leonidas leaning on the 300 comparisons some more the point Spike TV's heart was In the right place but didn't pay off at the end now It's lost media It could muster the same rating as IZombie, Into The Badlands or Dark Matter
I enjoyed the film in the theater, purchased it when it came to home video and have watched it several times. Wonder how well it was received in Europe?
Remember seeing this movie, Not in theaters, cause I didn’t care for it. Just like in my phone or something and I was like the visual looks great and all, but the acting in the story didn’t make no sense to me
I saw it in the theater and it lost me at the very beginning of the movie with Big Market. It's a cool idea, but my brain could just not shut off on how that action sequence couldn't work in the rules of the reality as they set them up. Valerian did that all over the place. Huge big world building, then immediately broke it's own rules. I'm watching a scifi action adventure, I'm not expecting reality. But I do expect the movie to at least adhere to it's own world building. I get that the rule of cool is a thing, and sometimes breaking it's own rules works in that context, but the movie has to earn it first. Valerian broke it's own rules 10 minutes into the movie when it should have been earning my trust.
Concerning John Carter and this getting compared to Star Wars... since the adaptations came after Star Wars (despite their source material being earlier), it really is on them to make those shared elements feel fresh. Take the recent Dune movies. Despite Lucas shamelessly stealing from the book, the Dune movies still look very different from Tatooine. With JC, I never thought they did enough to make their shared scenes look and feel different... and I can't unwatch Star Wars. The source material is ahead of its time, but the adaptation was well behind the curve and tried cruising off the legacy of the source material, and that seldom ends well.
I still find it amazing that they somehow made a 25 year old Cara Delavingne look 15 in that suit. I enjoyed her and Bear Grylls. She should do more survival shows! I never saw the movie, but it did interest me enough to read a chunk of the source material. I'm not crazy about it but it's enjoyable enough that I can see why kids could really like it
I really liked this movie and the two protagonists a lot. Very different from the kind of heroes we're used to seeing triple A movies. Just a fun adventure all the way. But I remember at the time this movie got hate from the get go. When there's a compaign of thate like this to something, you don't have a chance.
Maybe it's the scale or the costumes, but the leads look like kids and combined with the bright colors and cgi, it looked like a weirdly high budget kids movie. That's why I never saw it (until last year). Aside from that, the ads kinda just made me want/dread a Mass Effect movie, but oh boy does the leads' armor look just a hair away from being perfect for such.
I genuinely love this movie. It has flaws, no doubt about it, but I always see myself coming back to it more than any other Sci-Fi movie or series. As much as I adore DeHaan, he doesn't work as a heroic lead, however he does fit the profile of the character so it's really. We may be getting a sequel anyways.
That whole holo travel thing is confusing as heck and indeed this could be several movies. I disagree on the character stuff, though. This is simply "French casting" where everyone has to have some quirk and unexpected trait in some sort of subversive against type casting. The problem is more that there just isn't any time to properly introduce and explore them due to the movie being so overstuffed. Besson is basically sabotaging himself by not having planned this as multiple movies. The hero characters could for instance have been introduced in a first movie with a less dramatic mission exploring what makes them these super agents. In a similar way a lot of the good ideas and visuals go to waste because you only see them for seconds at a time. It's just all too rushed...
I saw this in the theater when it came out. I liked it a lot. You don't see expensive sci fi movies very often and this one was fun. The leads were unfortunately miscast. But the world was awesome. This movie and Alita will always be movies I wish did better. Had they made money then maybe we would get more big budget sci fi. Hopefully Dune will cause a shift in more big budget sci fi films.
I wanted to love Valerian. It looked fantastical in the best way possible and it wasn't yet another sequel/prequel/spin-off that have dominated Hollywood for years now. Then the reviews rolled in and were largely underwhelming, so I just pushed it out of my head until it came to Netflix and I gave it go. I've never seen a movie dragged down so completely by how deeply unlikeable the protagonists are. It's like they were specifically crafted by scientists in a lab to grate on my nerves. So much so that it's kind of incredible that that wasn't their intent. Sometimes you can imagine a fix for a sub-par movie For Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets -- keep the actors, keep all the people who worked on the CGI and sets, keep all the creature designers and make-up artists, and maintain the plot outline... but just throw out the script.
Though Star Wars its shelf is technically not full true original creation it borrows elements from pre existing ip some more obscure so it was less likely for legal actions to be taken.
I dunno, Maybe I am stoopid. But I liked the film, and how it acted like a video game where you have an adventure within an adventure and then everything comes together.
This feels like it would've worked better as a series.
agreed, especially since the plot feels so episodic
There's a Valerian and Laureline animated TV series and apparently it's pretty decent.
For me I think the male actor is not right
Me and my brother still have our tickets from seeing it in theaters. It's a precious memory of being the only two other people in an empty theater and just laughing at how bad it was. It did get us to read the original comics at least.
Having the original author smack talk Fifth Element only for his own story's adaptation to get savaged is kind of cathartic to be honest.
Fifth Element is amazing, screw that guy.
100%
Must be some kind of meat popsicle
Valyrian failed because its two lead actors had as much chemistry together as a block of wood. I have never, ever seen two actors- at least one of whom had a pretty good track record- do so badly in each others' presence. I could easily have believed that they actively hated each other on the set.
I think you nailed it. The movie is stunning to look at but as soon as the characters open their mouths, it's just cringey. So much wasted potential.
Trying to sell DeHaan as a suave action hero for starters lmao
Heroin addicted villain sure , f-able leading man , don’t think so … I mean vanilla sells look at Chris Pratt
That's honestly what tapped me out from paying attention to the rest of it.
Paired him with model Cara Delevingne, they look like malnourished brother and sister on ozempic
It always weirded me out how the two leads look related.
They definitely look like the most attractive sibling pair at the home for people with Downs Syndrome
They both clearly have FAS
The reason why VALERIAN feels like three different movies is because the director Luc Besson took sequences from different Valerian and Laureline storylines mainly because the more iconic moments of the comic series were from those stories. This would be like someone making a Batman movie with plot elements from BATMAN YEAR ONE, THE KILLING JOKE, DEATH IN THE FAMILY, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and KNIGHTFALL and expect it to make sense. The movie would have been best served sticking to one story. By the way the character of Valerian in the comic book never had an origin story perse, he's already established as an intergalactic dashing hero, however Laureline is the one who does get an origin as she is from medieval times who Valerian encounters while on a time travelling mission. Although Valerian is supposed to maintain a cover so as not to alter the timeline ( ala Star Trek and the Prime Directive) Laureline discovers the truth about him, aides him on his mission and to preserve the timeline Valerian whisks her back to the future with him. Many storylines focused on Laureline and her fish out of water reactions to the world of Valerian and would soon develop into a storyline of Laureline exposing the political corruption surrounding Galaxity.
Batman v Superman took elements from The Dark Knight Returns and Death of Superman so there's that lol
Using that Beatles song in the trailer was a stroke of genius. As someone who'd never heard it before, experience that paired with the visuals absolutely blew my mind and I knew I had to see it in theaters.
Since we don't have movie stars anymore, they went with...Dane DeHaan as leading man action hero 😬
This film deserved better,the most expensive INDIE film and European film,throughout all its ups and downs it still remains an underappreciated gem.(And in some ways the pinnacle of European filmmaking...)
Also the director is DISGUSTING. He dated teenage girls and got one of them PREGNANT??? HOW DID HE NOT GO TO JAIL?
Dane DeHaan is not a leading man - he's a perfect tortured weirdo.
Also Laureline is supposed to be a medieval French girl; it should have been played by Isabella Adjani when she was 20.
What an infuriating response from Busson. I laughed out loud until I realized the dude wasn't joking.
I really appreciate your honesty with not knowing the source material enough to make a full judgement, but you did a fantastic job!
I do recall reading an article ages ago saying that several plots from the original comics were jammed together to make this film, which explains the odd side quests arranged into the plot's overall narrative.
I think the two main actors look too much alike, too young and have no chemistry with each other.
I love this movie so much! It's so charmingly dorky. Once you learn to shake off the secondhand embarrassment you unavoidably get while watching it, it's very enjoyable.
This movie is to me what Sahara is to you. Thanks for covering it! 💜
It always hurts when I see a bad movie that doesn’t flop due to obnoxious studios. Making a movie is hard! I’m glad it has some fans and most people acknowledge how cool the world/effects are. Shame it has a bad/cringy script.
As bad as the movie is the first five minutes are wonderful.
Moved me to tear a little when I first saw it (the alien encounters scene)
Not to mention, the leads were complete charisma black holes. Maybe he was going for making them unflappable professionals who've seen it all, but it just made them boring and not half as interesting as the world around them.
7:35 you have an inaccuracy. The novel that Disney's 'John Carter' was developed from is not titled "John Carter of Mars". E.R. Burrough's novel was titled "Princess of Mars", John Carter is the protagonist but is in no way titular.
Edit: syntax
As someone who read the comics i can tell you that Valerian is a lovable jerk, sometimes a bit dumb and all the hard work ends up in the hands of Laureline who is always pretty bad ass. At least that's the dynamic of the duo in the first adventures, Pierre Christin eventually made Valerian a bit less dumb and more heroic.
Sometimes it's a bit like in the Get Smart TV series, where Maxwell Smart is a dumb and the agent 99 does all the job.
The Valerian comics are famous for being material from inspiration for Star Wars and are panels from "The empire from the thousand planets" that were practically stolen by Star Wars and the sequels.
This movie it's a big meh, I watched on a big screen but it was a bit boring to my taste. The initial sequence it's astonishing and the little bit where they stole something on that weird dimension at the beginning it's really amazing and visually original.
After that the movie drags a lot and I think that the casting was really bad, no one fit really well. Maybe Cara Delevingne looks a bit like Laureline, but just the looks.
The reason you found the plot so convoluted and episodic it's because it's a mishmash of different stories or sequences/ideas from the comics. Like a greatest hits.
It's sad because Valerian and Laureline are some of the best science fiction comics ever made and this movie does little justice to the original material.
The romantic leads look like siblings, it was a very uncomfortable watch at times.
Ive very rarely seen a film where i thought "this 1 scene was more enjoyable than the rest of the film" and the opening of this Film followed by what happens next is a textbook example.
Also this film/A Cure for Wellness/and Amazing Spiderman 2 proved 3 strikes for trying to make Dane Dehaan happen when it wasnt gonna happen
No one wants to admit it but Pixar's Up also suffers from the opening montage overshadowing everything else.
Those character designs go hard ngl. Dang. I feel like even now this would do better then it did, but maybe with some more focus.
I like the actors in this but omg, very hard watch, needed few more drafts
Valerian: *Proposes to his gf.
Okay I don’t know these characters. Tell me why I should care.
Valerian: *Has a saved record of all the girls he’s been with
No, I said why I SHOULD care!
May be the fastest a movie has destroyed my investment in a title character.
i like dane dehaan, he's the reason i watched the movie. i also believe he was horribly miscast.
he just works better when cast as a villain, or at least a pretty troubled hero. the quippy, star lord-type hero does not fit him.
This is a french movie with a hollywood budget. And by french I mean the vibe and the sense of humor, and even the casting. Those two are not Hollywood attractive - they are french attractive - (good looking but kinda sickly and ordinary). Even the lack of chemistry and the arrogance are french. I had the feeling I was watching some old french comedy about love and existentialism. And I love those type of movies, but the clash with the Hollywood blockbuster part of it was too strong.
I really like the movie for its Art Design, visuals and jokes. Its So much more creative than all those superhero movies
Worst-Casting-Ever. That's it. That's all.
The leads have what I would call anti-chemistry; a reaction that causes nausea. The movie tells you they are close but when together, they feel like they just met 10 minutes before the first scene started and they actively hate each other. I've never seen anything like it before, it is on the level of The Room.
@Ghostsprey no just two weird looking unlikeable nobody's. Cast two good looking cool people and the movie had a chance.
Could have been bad directing. They were constantly serious. Shooting a rat they had the same look as if they were longing for a kiss. What actor could be that untrained? Director.
I remember enjoying this when I first watched it but I was drinking quite a bit back then...
I genuinely believe this would have been better as a Tvshow, the characters would have been fully fledged out and the story might have been cohesive
This movie and Birds of Prey are the two movies I can remember falling asleep to in the theater.
Doesn't help that the main title of the movie, Valerian, sounds like some kind of STD. 😅
Should have been a series tbh...also 💯 on the leads feeling more like siblings, cause I was like "huhh?" when I saw them kiss.
The man who made Leon the Professional has a history of dating kids? Well color me surprised, what a mysterious world we live in....
I loved that movie... But yeah... When you put into perspective that it was written by a creeper it certainly hits a little 'different'...
At least he is not puff diddy.
Separate art from artist, far far apart on this one.
loved the concept of this movie
I hated the two leads. Could not stand them. I didn’t care what was happening to them.
They look weirdly related like siblings and they act so unlikable and disinterested. It's such a shame considering how beautiful the special effects and worlding building was
Very intriguing history of this Luc Besson joint. 🤔
With this having a budget of $180 million, and _Megalopolis_ having a budget of $120 million, why is _Megaolopolis_ still usually described as “the most expensive independent movie”? 😮
12:57
Cara Delevingne, IMO, can’t act to save her life.
the only thing i remember from this movie is the rihanna dance and transformation
Gave me great 5th Element vibes at first, but damn, I just couldn't stand both protags...
And in addition to that, not making Laurali’s hair red was another minor mistake. (Also; 4:47 the proper syntax is “must’ve GONE well.” 😉) But I totally agree with the “video game” assessment; that summed up the feeling I got perfectly. Great video!
I love this movie! Not because it's necessarily good, it just looks so good! The two things they nailed are the visuals and the lore/world. If someone made another movie set in this universe I'd watch it.
Although I didn't watch this movie or read the comics, I did watch the cartoon series "Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline" based on those comics when I was younger. According to Wikipedia, this show has a different tone and story from the source material, but I still think it's great.
Time Jam has a very interesting plot, Valerian and Laureline have a much better relationship, sometimes the tone of the show gets really dark and what I liked the most about this cartoon is how it cleverly explained various political actions which could happen in real life, so the younger viewers could understand them, which somehow I didn't notice them at first when I was a kid.
Apparently, on TH-cam there are all episodes available in English dub, but I can't tell if the voice acting is good or if the voices are matched well to the characters because I watched Time Jam in Polish dub.
I can recommend this show if anyone is interested, because I think it's worth its time.
I know this movie's got a ton of flaws but since I'm a sucker for these types of films, of course I enjoyed it! I would've liked it more if it had a better director to be honest
Relasing on the same weekend as a Nolan movie is crazy!
I actually liked Valerian, yeah some characters were a bit cliche, but that is part of the film's soul, so if you and watch it as a Space Opera that is serious, nope, thats not the way to enjoy it. I think it was a fun film, entertaining, and of good quality 👌🏼 Could have been better, but wasn't bad by no means.
even in 2017, i dont think Dane Deehan and Cara Delevigne alone have enough star power as a lead actor to sell this film.
@7:40 I have to say, the French original title of the graphic novels is just “Valerian, agent spatio-temporel”. The title comes from the episode “The Empire of a Thousand Planets”.
Passion Project is an instant kiss of death. What do you mean you're only making this movie for yourself. That's literally the opposite of your job.
I personally felt it was okay. In terms of animation and those weird Platypus things, it was amazing. But as a movie, it could’ve been worse.
I recall watching this film on its opening weekend after getting a $5 movie ticket coupon from buying The Giver (another bad film, by the way) on DVD.
I recall being so bored and almost sleepy while watching it, only being woken up by the explosions.
I might not think it's a great movie, but I had fun seeing it in theaters. Particularly the first five minutes felt wonderful. But the issue I had with it is it didn't feel very cohesive, more like it should have been a short series instead of a movie.
agreed
For my part, I think it failed because for all its awesome sci-fi imagery, world-building, action, and some fun characters, the main character was the most unlikable, whiny, useless, annoying, incelly sack of box office poison possibly ever. Had it just been Laureline it might've been a classic to rank alongside The Fifth Element. I look forward to the video!
Having just watched it, 100% agreed with you, and very well said!
The writing and especially the leads killed it for me, which made the eye-catching spectacles overwhelming. It has its moments, but this ain’t ‘Avatar’. By the way, I think you nailed perfectly about overly ambitious director-driven films.
DeHaan looks like he's 16 years old. He definitely doesn't look like a hardened veteran.
Cara looks like a teenager, too.
I have to admit it was very unique and interesting. But just hard to watch and get through.
Watching this made me realize that in a vacuum a lot of these moments are absolutely stunning I still think the opening 5 minutes of the movie is incredible and if it's just a short film I think It's perfect and then the rest of the movie happens and there's so much that just jumps around with an interesting plot points uninteresting characters with no chemistry. But man just seeing individual clips of stuff it is truly stunning.
Robbie Williams is not just a super star in the UK but in many countries outside of the US 😂 pretty sure his biopic was not aiming in US audiences
But the movie flopped in the UK also? his hardcore fans wanted to see him in human-form not a cgi monkey lol
I have BEEN waiting on this video😁🍿!!!!!!
I grew up in Europe with the comics, this was sad to see when I went to the theater. And I had my hopes up when I heard Luc Besson was directing
I hate posting this because I love your work and celebrate the fact that a live human is narrating a youtube anymore, but it's pronounced "sim-IL-arity" not "sim-YOU-larity." (I'm not trying to be a grammar you-know-what, I'm just trying to spare my ears!) Love you and your content.
Nice review. I watched it and I got lost in the middle and was asking myself, what are these guys looking for again? Like you said, it looked like a bunch of smaller stories smashed together like if they had collected a few second highlights of a whole TV series
Have you heard of this film called Antebellum? You should cover that one next.
I haven't heard of that movie, I'll look into it
This was another of those movies that I saw trailers for and went, "Eh." Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought so.
Though I must say, hearing about this movie's backstory got me thinking about how oddly it mirrors that of Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer. Both were passion projects by filmmakers who loved the source material and did everything they could to make it happen their way but Snowpiercer ended up being the better movie and having a (modestly) better box office return.
Also, missed opportunity for you to call the duck guys Hewey, Dewey, and Lewey.
When I stop to think about it, I can only associate this Cara Delavigne girl with big commercial or critical failures, so why is she even considered an A-list star? 🤔
Because it is not the main actress'fault if a movie, the script, director etc, is bad
@LynnHermione yeah, I agree. But what good projects she had?
I guess that's why she rarely acts anymore, at least not leading parts in big budget movies. Her acting iin valerian specifically stands out awkwardly
@@undermoonstars and that witch or whatever from Suicide Squad? Cringeworthy at best
Writing before watching. For me, the two leads were very bad casting choices. And it's been a while since I watched the film and I don't remember who the antagonist/villan was. Now let's see what you think.
Also, thanks for the video.
I love the film despite all its failings because even years later in retrospect it doesn't just feel like another generic slop sci-fi film and actually has stuck in my mind as unique even if I cant remember anything about the plot or characters lol
He makes pretty nonsense movies. I have no idea why he's been given all these chances to make a good movie. He's just Uwe Boll with better production values.
Dane DeHaan is a good actor. But he was REALKY miscast as Valerian.
He was amazing in Chronicle
My brain says i shouldn't like this movie but i ended up enjoying. I just dont know why.
Not the best movie ever, of course, but it's a good movie.
Do king arthur 2017 pls
Biggest surprise for me in this video?
Robbie Williams is appearently unknown in the US! Damn who knew?! 🤣
"This movie was a bo bomb"
The movie: makes its entire budget back overseas alone
Why Tut Failed In 2015 Spike TV Aired The historical Miniseries Tut starring Avan Gogia who you know as Beck from Nickelodeon's Victorious who plays the titular King Tut While the show tries to portray Ancient Egypt Accurately especially the Incest part but comes off more 300 less Ancient Egypt and that's people turned on the show also Gogia acting was MID at best trying to be King Leonidas leaning on the 300 comparisons some more the point Spike TV's heart was In the right place but didn't pay off at the end now It's lost media It could muster the same rating as IZombie, Into The Badlands or Dark Matter
I enjoyed the film in the theater, purchased it when it came to home video and have watched it several times. Wonder how well it was received in Europe?
A big-budget sci-fi/action film not based on an already popular IP? Crazy.
dehaan is such a good actor. he excels in actually indie projects. i thought he’d be huge still. what happened
Remember seeing this movie,
Not in theaters, cause I didn’t care for it. Just like in my phone or something and I was like the visual looks great and all, but the acting in the story didn’t make no sense to me
I saw it in the theater and it lost me at the very beginning of the movie with Big Market. It's a cool idea, but my brain could just not shut off on how that action sequence couldn't work in the rules of the reality as they set them up. Valerian did that all over the place. Huge big world building, then immediately broke it's own rules. I'm watching a scifi action adventure, I'm not expecting reality. But I do expect the movie to at least adhere to it's own world building. I get that the rule of cool is a thing, and sometimes breaking it's own rules works in that context, but the movie has to earn it first. Valerian broke it's own rules 10 minutes into the movie when it should have been earning my trust.
I would compare this movie to Jupiter ascending instead of star wars.
Way better, like WAY
Concerning John Carter and this getting compared to Star Wars... since the adaptations came after Star Wars (despite their source material being earlier), it really is on them to make those shared elements feel fresh.
Take the recent Dune movies. Despite Lucas shamelessly stealing from the book, the Dune movies still look very different from Tatooine.
With JC, I never thought they did enough to make their shared scenes look and feel different... and I can't unwatch Star Wars. The source material is ahead of its time, but the adaptation was well behind the curve and tried cruising off the legacy of the source material, and that seldom ends well.
I still find it amazing that they somehow made a 25 year old Cara Delavingne look 15 in that suit. I enjoyed her and Bear Grylls. She should do more survival shows!
I never saw the movie, but it did interest me enough to read a chunk of the source material. I'm not crazy about it but it's enjoyable enough that I can see why kids could really like it
I really liked this movie and the two protagonists a lot. Very different from the kind of heroes we're used to seeing triple A movies. Just a fun adventure all the way.
But I remember at the time this movie got hate from the get go. When there's a compaign of thate like this to something, you don't have a chance.
Maybe it's the scale or the costumes, but the leads look like kids and combined with the bright colors and cgi, it looked like a weirdly high budget kids movie. That's why I never saw it (until last year). Aside from that, the ads kinda just made me want/dread a Mass Effect movie, but oh boy does the leads' armor look just a hair away from being perfect for such.
I genuinely love this movie. It has flaws, no doubt about it, but I always see myself coming back to it more than any other Sci-Fi movie or series. As much as I adore DeHaan, he doesn't work as a heroic lead, however he does fit the profile of the character so it's really. We may be getting a sequel anyways.
That whole holo travel thing is confusing as heck and indeed this could be several movies. I disagree on the character stuff, though. This is simply "French casting" where everyone has to have some quirk and unexpected trait in some sort of subversive against type casting. The problem is more that there just isn't any time to properly introduce and explore them due to the movie being so overstuffed. Besson is basically sabotaging himself by not having planned this as multiple movies. The hero characters could for instance have been introduced in a first movie with a less dramatic mission exploring what makes them these super agents. In a similar way a lot of the good ideas and visuals go to waste because you only see them for seconds at a time. It's just all too rushed...
I pirated this one in 2017 then I watch this twice in 1 day, I like it actually
it failed because it was focused on CGI and not story or characters we gave a crap about... SIMPLE!
I saw this in the theater when it came out. I liked it a lot. You don't see expensive sci fi movies very often and this one was fun. The leads were unfortunately miscast. But the world was awesome. This movie and Alita will always be movies I wish did better. Had they made money then maybe we would get more big budget sci fi. Hopefully Dune will cause a shift in more big budget sci fi films.
I have a feeling this movie will be a cult favourite in years to come.
I wanted to love Valerian. It looked fantastical in the best way possible and it wasn't yet another sequel/prequel/spin-off that have dominated Hollywood for years now. Then the reviews rolled in and were largely underwhelming, so I just pushed it out of my head until it came to Netflix and I gave it go.
I've never seen a movie dragged down so completely by how deeply unlikeable the protagonists are. It's like they were specifically crafted by scientists in a lab to grate on my nerves. So much so that it's kind of incredible that that wasn't their intent. Sometimes you can imagine a fix for a sub-par movie For Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets -- keep the actors, keep all the people who worked on the CGI and sets, keep all the creature designers and make-up artists, and maintain the plot outline... but just throw out the script.
Never heard of this movie, but the movie looks pretty great in terms of CGI and presentation
Watch the first five minutes. That is the best part.
God damn really feeling the slow march of time. This movie is almost 10 yrs old. I sware it only came out like 2 yrs ago
Though Star Wars its shelf is technically not full true original creation it borrows elements from pre existing ip some more obscure so it was less likely for legal actions to be taken.
I dunno,
Maybe I am stoopid. But I liked the film, and how it acted like a video game where you have an adventure within an adventure and then everything comes together.
this was a great movie, sad it bombed at the box office
Because it's french 🥖🏳️🏳️