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f13.net General Forums => Movies => Topic started by: HaemishM on November 10, 2016, 03:14:33 PM



Title: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: HaemishM on November 10, 2016, 03:14:33 PM
So Luc Besson has a new movie coming out. Science fiction/space opera thing in the vein of Fifth Element.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnx9jtDTYa8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnx9jtDTYa8)

I'm there. Just gorgeous.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: apocrypha on November 10, 2016, 11:05:20 PM
Looks great, much anticipation.

But... anyone else getting fed up of leading actors all being children these days? Or is that just me being old?  :geezer:


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Rasix on November 10, 2016, 11:26:00 PM
You being old. The girl is young (24), but the teen looking boy is 30.

It's Besson. I give it a 50/50 chance of being a complete mess.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: satael on November 10, 2016, 11:36:42 PM
Unfortunately with Besson my guess would be boring more than a mess these days (based on his work lately). But then again Fifth Element was great and the source material for this is interesting (and nostalgic for me though I'm sure most Americans haven't even heard of it before since it's European) so this could turn out to be good movie.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Raph on November 10, 2016, 11:59:19 PM
My worry is that everyone will say "but that's just Star Wars and Avatar imagery." Not knowing that the graphic novel is where those guys lifted the visuals from.

I'm cautiously excited -- lots of bits in the trailer are panels from the comic -- but not crazy about the casting, for Valerian in particular.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: apocrypha on November 11, 2016, 12:48:09 AM
You being old. The girl is young (24), but the teen looking boy is 30.

Jesus wept, really? They both look about 14 to me.  :uhrr:


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: calapine on November 11, 2016, 12:18:10 PM
You being old. The girl is young (24), but the teen looking boy is 30.

Jesus wept, really? They both look about 14 to me.  :uhrr:

I am with you. It didn't bother, but it it looked like the adventures of two teenagers.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Pennilenko on November 11, 2016, 03:11:53 PM
I am with you. It didn't bother, but it it looked like the adventures of two teenagers.
I am in my late 30's. It looked like a regular adventure movie to me with normal aged actors.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Viin on November 11, 2016, 03:42:23 PM
They aren't teenagers, bu they do look "idealistically" young for 25/30yos.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Abagadro on December 11, 2016, 01:58:08 AM
I was worried that Delevigne was just a vacuous model type trying to act, but after watching Suicide Squad I think she actually has some chops.  I hope Luc gets a Leeloo Dalllas Multipass level performance out of her for this as it looks pretty cool.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Raph on December 11, 2016, 05:44:59 PM
They just don't look/act like the characters from the comic :(


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Raph on December 11, 2016, 05:46:12 PM
BTW, for those who don't know, the albums have been getting reissued one by one in English, about one every four months, for the last couple of years. They are up to around Hypsis now. Pretty nice editions.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Father mike on April 01, 2017, 06:07:44 PM
The first volume of the 60's comic source material is free on Amazon Kindle right now.

Search for 'City of Shifting Waters' and you should find it pretty easily.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Raph on April 02, 2017, 02:26:56 PM
Unfortunately, that's actually not a great entry point for the series as a whole... it was a bit before they found their footing, I think. (It's also technically the second book -- there's a book zero, which I have never actually found. Starting around book 2-3 is where it really clicks.

The movie looks to be based on Ambassador of the Shadows, which is book 6.

The new trailer has me a bit more optimistic.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Ard on April 02, 2017, 09:55:37 PM
Good news then Raph, take a look at the description on this.

https://www.amazon.com/Valerian-Complete-Collection-Pierre-Christin/dp/184918352X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491195217&sr=1-1&keywords=valerian


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Raph on April 03, 2017, 02:38:23 PM
Actually already ordered it in French. I have been getting the individual volumes in English, and it doesn't look like they'll do that one outside of the hardcovers... and I don't know if I want to get the hardcovers on top of the softbacks. Curse them!


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Ard on April 03, 2017, 07:43:53 PM
Well, I ordered the first two hardbacks based on your recommendation, so we'll see how they turn out in a few months.  Hope it's not too filled out with film related wank like it's sounding.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Raph on April 19, 2017, 02:12:46 AM
My copy of the original first book arrived. In French. I'm out of practice, but it wasn't too bad, I got 85% of it and never had to resort to a translation.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Ard on June 12, 2017, 12:15:57 PM
Alright, so Volume 1 showed up finally.  Movie wank is only a couple of pages, so not bad.  Now I just have to find the time to read it, would have been nice if it'd shown up on Friday when I was down sick  :oh_i_see:

edit:  Yup, you're right, the first couple of books are weird, but I'm looking forward to the next volume at least.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Soulflame on July 22, 2017, 08:10:49 PM
There is a very good hour and a half or two hour film in there.  You have an extra 15-30 minutes of skippable stuff to sometimes sit through though.

Overall - enjoyable.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Abagadro on July 23, 2017, 04:51:00 PM
Opinions ran the gamut. 12 year old liked it. Wife hated it. I was "meh, typical Besson."   A couple of better leads and another round of editing and it would have been solid.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Soulflame on July 23, 2017, 05:42:08 PM
I thought the leads were okay.  I could see replacing the guy, but the woman did a credible job, I thought.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Threash on July 23, 2017, 05:50:12 PM
This is bombing so hard.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Abagadro on July 23, 2017, 05:58:13 PM
Ya, but it wasn't made for this market.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Soulflame on July 23, 2017, 06:03:44 PM
It makes sense that it wasn't made with the American market in mind.  There are several slow interludes that I felt dragged.  I guess I'm too used to non-stop action from start to finish.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: RhyssaFireheart on July 23, 2017, 07:56:33 PM
I went and saw this today.  If you asked me what I'd just watched, I couldn't tell you.  It was visually gorgeous, the effects and world setup were great, IMO, but the plot was thin (and so predictable) at best and the romance felt just weird.  I had no problems with any of the actors, although Clive Owen felt out of place for some reason.  I loved the soundtrack though.  The opening montage was perfect as a way to show what Alpha actually was and why it ended up becoming the city of 1,000 planets.

Glad I went to see it in the theatres, especially since I got to see the Thor trailer in 3D.  :heart:


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: schild on July 23, 2017, 08:09:01 PM
I just want Fifth Element 2.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Megrim on July 23, 2017, 08:19:10 PM
I just want Fifth Element 2.

That's like wanting a good Blade Runner sequel.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Abagadro on July 24, 2017, 12:41:12 AM
Put in two better actors and this is a pretty good movie.  Think Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin with their Deadpool banter and it elevates it by an order of magnitude.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Hammond on July 24, 2017, 07:49:52 AM
Watched it Saturday night and the theater was empty cannot say that bodes well for this movie. I really enjoyed the special effects on this and the story was interesting.

However I will echo others thoughts that there was just no chemistry between the two main actors. John Goodmans 5 min of voice over was far more enjoyable than either Cara Delevingne or Dane DeHaan performance.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Merusk on July 24, 2017, 10:35:05 AM
It was always going to be too weird for American audiences. When you're in a geek-chique movie like Guardians and the Valerian trailer comes on causing people behind you ask, "Wtf is this?" there's no way it was going to do well.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: MediumHigh on July 26, 2017, 12:05:13 AM
My theater was packed.... It was an ok movie. Emphasis on the OK. While Avatar was 14 year old boy Pocahontas, this movie is more 21 year old male Pocahontas. Complete with a moral lesson about monogamy. Gag and fuck me. Shouldn't have enough plot meat to be remember fondly by anyone looking for scifi but enough world building to be "that first" scifi-flick.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Bunk on July 26, 2017, 10:06:58 PM
Just watched it. Half full theatre. Had a good time and thought it was visually stunning. Like Cara, thought guy was a little off, but it seemed kind of intentional. Chemistry between them could have been stronger. It really felt like a lot of random side quests jammed in to the story. The entire Rianna plot was fun, but served no purpose other than letting her give a speech about their relationship - and it took up at least 30 minutes. Tidy way they closed that sequence off was kinda dumb too.

I'll call it a fun and gorgeous movie, with an oddly meandering plot.

Oh, and I'll add: It was pretty clear that the marketers for this movie were really confused on who it was for. The trailers I got went from Bladerunner 2 to Lucky Logan to Some Julia Roberts/Owen Wilson Triumph of Human Spirit Oscar Bait drek. Talk about random.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Stewie on July 27, 2017, 01:18:21 PM
The movie was absurd throughout. Sometimes fun absurd and others just head scratching absurd. The story (what there was of it) was basic and and obvious with no element intrigue at all. Many set pieces felt tacked on just because they might be fun but ultimately lent nothing to the movie. etc

That all being said, I can live with all of that as it never tries to be anything other than those elements.

My main issue though is that there was no memorable characters in the movie at all. Obviously a movie like the 5th element has all of the above but is littered with memorable character; Leeloo, Zorg, Ruby Rhod, and even Korben is done well by Bruce Willis. Having these characters is what ultimately sells that movie and missing them in Valerian is what does it in.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Hoax on December 04, 2017, 02:36:07 PM
Soooo

idk what this was, felt like I was supposed to know a lot about the leads that I didn't know. Was like the worst moments of the HP movies or GoT where people without a background in the books get kinda lost but times 100 and baffling considering nobody has read or even heard of these books.

The male lead was just odd, like a truly odd choice an odd way to play the character, everything about him was odd. The girl was attractive in the not so blazingly attractive that its distracting or makes things seem fucked up type of way that really really works sometimes. It worked for me this time and was the only thing that kept this mess sort of watchable. I'm fairly certain objectively her lines and the way she tried to convey the character to me was just as bad as the dude, which means the whole mess is probably Besson's fault.

The plot was just who gives a fuck but what made that so much worse was I was always a step or two behind what the hell was going on. Nothing was setup well, I was never enjoying the clever randomness because I was too busy trying to make sure I knew what exactly it was that was going on.

Bad movie sadly.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: MahrinSkel on December 04, 2017, 03:29:13 PM
My impression of the leads was that for the first time ever at a movie, I saw so little chemistry between a couple on screen that I wondered if both actors were gay. Seriously, neither one showed the slightest bit of actual attraction or warmth towards the other, and it made every subsequent scene involving one of them trying to save the other feel unearned and forced.

--Dave


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: MediumHigh on December 05, 2017, 11:15:15 AM
Oh crap already reviews this blah.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: TheWalrus on December 05, 2017, 12:19:23 PM
Shame. I haven't seen it yet, but I had high hopes. Besson tries hard to do outside the norm things, which I wish other folk would do, too. Gets tiring to see remakes and reboots and the same old shit time after time.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Khaldun on December 06, 2017, 04:08:26 AM
Besson has the same problem Tim Burton has: can't tell a story to save his life.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: TheWalrus on December 06, 2017, 02:03:27 PM
That and everything Tim Burton does has to be weird and DARK. Needs more DARK. He's as predictable as M Night Shamalamadingdong.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: schild on December 10, 2017, 04:59:07 PM
I just watched Split for the first time today and thought the Unbreakable tie in at the end was excellent. He's making a better dark universe than Universal.

Anyway, m night is less predictable than Burton is a laughable goth.


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: TheWalrus on December 11, 2017, 12:08:48 PM
I like it, if only because I'm not sure who that insults more.  :grin:


Title: Re: Valerian and the City of 1,000 Planets
Post by: Chimpy on March 07, 2018, 04:25:48 PM
This popped up on Amazon Prime, watched it yesterday.

I liked the visuals and the story seemed like it could be ok but overall the movie didn't do much for me. I guess the lead actor being pretty un-interesting was probably most of why. I liked the CGI alien characters (esp the three bat-aardvark things) better than I liked any of the human ones.