I'll be out to see this first day! He has a unique vision and as far as I'm concerned, he's hasn't made a bad film yet. Even something as fluff as Wasabi is better then most directors best by a country mile.
Sadly, we've not invented warp drive or time travel yet, so Luc was unable to seek out suitable planets and times for location work. He did ask SETI to canvass any species for acting talent though, they hope to get back to him before the 115th century and that the Screen Actors Guild won't kick off an intergalactic incident over them not having to work in LA restaurants first.
It does look amazing, but it also looks like a 5th element sequel. Valerian has its own aesthetics int eh books, and I see none of that in that trailer -- a bit of a lost opportunity there, even though the movie is bound to look awesome.
There are things like models than can be used though. It's the difference between the Star Wars prequels and TFA.
That's likely down to the fact Mezieres helped design the Fifth Element, even down to Dallas being partially based on a Valerian character.
Besson actually agrees with you, he's used models where he felt he could, but given how his imagination runs he probably sees CGI as the ultimate toybox for himself and just can't help overindulging.
Looks like it'll probably be a fun Summer flick. The name of the movie sounds like the name of one of Cedar Point's most badass & fun roller coasters: Valerian is also the name of a sleep aid herb.
Fun fact: Luc Besson didn't see his first movie until he was 15. His parents worked for Club Med as scuba instructors and that's where he was raised.
Am I the only one hearing a Queen influence in the background song? It'd make up for the lack of a [space] opera aria But... will there be a Chris Tucker/Ruby Rhod-esque character? It's one of the endearing features of Fifth Element.
Wait, that chick is Enchantress from Suicide Squad? It looks like she can actually act, it's a shame they wasted her in SS.
New trailer. This one focuses more on the visual elements, than it does telling the story of the movie.
Promo clip for the film, where Besson talks about his vision for the film, and we get some behind the scenes looks at how the movie was made. This starts off with two quick trailers for the film that I've not seen before, and then the rest are the other trailers.
Early reviews are mostly positive. The negatives aren't that harsh, either, and everyone is saying that the visuals and actions sequences more than make up for any flaws the film might have.
Rolling Stone seems to hate it. More at the link. I think that this guy was expecting something like The Winter of My Despondency.
Wow the reviews are surprisingly positive so far. I'll probably go see it this weekend. Been an interesting summer for movies so far. Had some fails like Transformers 5, Pirates 5, and the Mummy but also some huge successes. People are still catching Wonder Woman in the theater. Spider-Man was good. The Apes movie was very good.
I watched it last night. It wasn't bad. Not as good as The Fifth Element but it's a visually stunning movie for the most part. I think the biggest problem was the plot was very generic... kind of like something you've seen in multiple episodes of Star Trek. And there was no strong protagonist or antagonist. Valerian himself isn't all that compelling. Cara Delevingne's character is more interesting and singer Rihanna plays a surprisingly interesting character who isn't in the movie all that much, unfortunately. Most of the other characters aren't very interesting. Not bad overall but I don't think Dane DeHaan is interesting enough to carry a film like this. The Fifth Element worked better because of the stronger cast... Bruce Willis, Chris Tucker, Milla Jovovich. I think the movie is worth taking a look at but I already know it's gonna get slaughtered at the box office.
Hoping to see it some point this week. It's Luc Besson, so I'm not expecting story to have been first on his list of things to do, he is, basically, what happens when you leave Michael Bay too long in a party full of artists, actors, absinthe and mild acid being held in an art gallery and the discussions all revolve around abstract concepts. For him, the story is the housewife he'll eventually return to, proffering an apologetic bouquet of wilting flowers and a Gallic shrug, whilst the visuals are the mistress du jour, to be feted and showed in gifts until the unavoidable ennui sets in.
Finally saw the film tonight (rented the Blu-Ray from Red Box, because it was cheaper than streaming it from Amazon, but DRM issues were a PITA with the disc). There were two minor issues, IMHO, with the film. The first was that the trailers gave kind of a misleading impression of the movie. If I hadn't seen the trailers before I saw the movie, I would have been fine. Having seen the trailers, I was a bit confused by the opening minutes of the film, and it was only later on when I figured out that the trailers had shown things radically out of order, that I was able to ditch my confusion. The second issue, and it would have been really easy to fix, is for the editing to be a bit tighter. Rihanna's dance sequence in the trailer seems to move at a faster pace, for example, than it did in the film. The trailer had the right pace, so when you saw her sequence in the film, it seemed "heavier" than it did in the trailer. All-in-all, I liked it, and I'm sorry it didn't make more money at the box office than what it did.
Actually, the influence would have to be going the other way. That song was released in 1969. Queen didn't exist until 1970.
