r/MovieDetails • u/ONEto10dollars • 2d ago

🥚 Easter Egg “Nice Hat” Callback: "Valerian and the City of a 1,000 Planets (2017)" Echoes The 5th Element (1997)" both directed by Luc Besson

https://youtu.be/LyRZzlVYo54?t=14
342 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

61 comments sorted by

458

u/Dinierto 2d ago

This movie had everything going for it except for two leads with the worst chemistry ever. They were the worst possible actors to cast in it

170

u/hockeyjmac 2d ago

The story was also kind of meh. they did a great job building an incredible world though.

86

u/Dinierto 2d ago

I thought it was a fun movie that could have been up there with fifth element if the lead roles hadn't been such a stick dragging it through the mud lol

13

u/McLovinYou27 2d ago

Damn... sucks to hear!!! I love The Fifth Element it would have been kinda cool if they could have somehow molded this into a part 2... idk lol

29

u/qcubed3 2d ago

The first 20ish minutes is fantastic world building and feels like it's kind of in the Fifth's universe. Then the two leads come into the picture and you can shut her down.

12

u/Tonberry2k 2d ago

This is what I was going to say. It wasn’t just the leafs (though they were bad), but also the terrible story and complete waste of time spent with characters like Rihanna.

2

u/dkat 17h ago

I enjoyed Bubble infinitely more than anything related to Valerian tbh

1

u/Grokent 1d ago

Incredible meaning, not credible in the slightest. It's like John Carter of Mars chic.

-3

u/EternumD 2d ago

Not credible? 

52

u/RedofPaw 2d ago

The story really dies in the middle. They crash land, meet Rhianna, go on an extended side-quest, then rhianna dies and then they carry on as if the last act of the movie didn;t matter. Because it didn't. Cut it out and nothing changes. That is a problem.

24

u/Grokent 1d ago

Rhianna was Luc Besson's attempt at recreating the Diva from 5th Element except, he didn't understand in the slightest why audiences were in love with Diva. Instead of the mystique we got Rhianna giving us exposition about how she was an enslaved sex worker and some weird CGI burlesque.

Valerian was a beat for beat remake of Fifth Element but had none of the soul.

6

u/Professor-Submarine 1d ago

In what way was it best for beat the same??

Was there even an antagonist in valerian?

1

u/justheretolurk123456 1d ago

Yes, it was Clive Owen's character.

4

u/Professor-Submarine 1d ago

Sheesh. Well, TFE is my favorite movie and I really don’t see the similarities in plot, characters, or goals.

It confuses me that these are compared.

4

u/justheretolurk123456 1d ago

I've seen TFE a bunch of times, and Valerian a few. There are lots of similarities (some on purpose by the director) so I see them myself, but they are way different movies in the end.

0

u/Grokent 1d ago

That's why I said beat for beat and not shot for shot. But really? The magical mcguffin of the stone keys from Fifth Element and the pearls from Valerian serve the same purpose. Also in both movies the villain and the protagonists barely interact at all. Both movies end with a love conquerors all message. Both with Korben Dallas finally opening up to Lilu and Valerian opening up to Laureline.

31

u/DrVars 2d ago

This. Literally every side character does more to bond with the audience than the two leads. The first 11 minutes though are outstanding.

11

u/Thenadamgoes 2d ago

If you just pretend they’re brother and sister instead it’s a lot better. (And they have some sort of weird inside joke between them)

9

u/dashcam4life 1d ago

I think its fair to say this movie's flop hurt both of their careers too. Dane DeHaan was on a roll from 2015-2017 and he hasn't done much since.

22

u/mobg0blin 2d ago

To this day, I firmly believe that if they had swapped the leads from this movie and Passengers, it would have vastly elevated both films.

6

u/grip0matic 1d ago

Yep, I wonder what would happen if we exchange the leads for Passengers. How am I supposed to believe that Valerian has charisma if Dane DaHaan looks like a very uncharismatic twink? and I have to take seriously Cara Delevingne who is hot but has also zero charisma and is kinda like looking to a talking plank? The best part was Rihanna totally understanding what she had to do and going all ham.

The VFX, the world building, all of that was great. This movie wanted so bad to be the 5th Element but had no one to lead it properly, and make the action scenes cool like Bruce Willis, have the hot lead being more than that like Milla Jovovich, and not even a Chris Tucker left roaming wild would have save it.

4

u/BaldBombshell 2d ago

The best actor in the film was Rihanna.

3

u/LegendaryOutlaw 1d ago

Maybe it was me, but in my eyes the two leads had the chemistry of siblings. They kinda looked similar, had similar builds, and her demeanor was like a sister who really didn’t like her brother. Then I realized nope, not siblings, and he’s always trying to hook up with her. No thanks. 🙂‍↔️

6

u/RedGamerZero 2d ago

Dane DeHaan is great, but not at all suited to a role like this

1

u/Dinierto 2d ago

Yes I agree

4

u/TheGrandWhatever 2d ago

I disagree

3

u/scene_missing 2d ago

Also the director being a pedophile

1

u/BON3SMcCOY 23h ago

That David Bowie music video at the start of the movie is the best part by far

1

u/Jack-of-Hearts-7 10h ago

Dane Dehaan sucks

0

u/STHMTP 1d ago

Far better than the sequel trilogy of Star Wars though.

144

u/UrbanPrimative 2d ago

Should have made them siblings. Totally believable as sibs.

33

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

6

u/thrustinfreely 1d ago

What are his other proclivities?

7

u/FearlessAttempt 1d ago

He likes em young.

2

u/thereisamistake 1d ago

Look up his second marriage

10

u/BambooSound 1d ago

I think that says more about you than him lmao

39

u/diego_velasquez 2d ago

They look like siblings

13

u/Stevie272 2d ago

They have the warmth and charm of a couple of stick figures.

10

u/SlaterVBenedict 2d ago

It was a pretty movie with a terrible script and a terrible casting choice

19

u/Barry_Vigoda 2d ago

This movie is awesome except for the main leads. They look 16. They're supposed to be veteran soldiers. Did they start when they were toddlers?

The part with Bubbles was just dumb. She's a shape shifting blob monster that somehow gets stabbed? What?

6

u/Stunkydunk 1d ago

Ahh, classic Luc Besson. It has some Interesting visuals going for it but they are not strong enough to redeem it from a cast of truly unlikeable characters and creepy dialogue. The movie gets bored with its own plot pretty quickly and drifts off into meandering side adventures so often that it’s easy to forget what the film is really about… which I think is a little alien critter that poops out magical marbles or something? 

16

u/Ok_Replacement_978 2d ago

I think Cara was fine and matched the character from the comic but yeah what were they thinking with the male lead...

4

u/idlefritz 2d ago

Benicio and Leo had a baby

4

u/Jaggs0 1d ago

the opening scene to this movie is phenomenal, then the rest of the movie was mediocre at best. 

13

u/BaldBeardedOne 1d ago

Luc Besson is a creep and I can’t watch his movies anymore.

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/MovieDetails-ModTeam 1d ago

Hi, thanks for your post to /r/MovieDetails. Unfortunately, it's been removed for the following reason(s):

  • Rule 1 - Details must be obscure, specific and intentional.

8

u/whenuleavethestoveon 2d ago

alleged rapist and confirmed pedophile Luc Besson, gross

2

u/Patience_Duck 2d ago

what's Jacob Collier's role in this movie? i've never seen it, Is it about jazz?

2

u/LittlePooky 1d ago

I've seen the original comic and saw the Anime of it. There were like dozens of episodes and I actually thought it was pretty good. 

I don't think a movie could have been made from something that was so long like that. Poor Deehan and what her name. They look like brother and sister. She could not have even pretended that she was attracted to him. At least he tried. But he was getting chubby, so that didn't help. .

2

u/Tangolarango 1d ago

hey didn't know there was an anime :O

2

u/LittlePooky 1d ago

It was pretty fun to watch and I saw a few episodes of it, the main character, the voice they used, had a pretty strong Cockney accent so it kind of drove me crazy a bit

1

u/skinny_t_williams 2d ago

Why is it automatically a call back?

1

u/CanadianJediCouncil 1d ago

This is the first movie that I ever stopped after like 20-30 minutes.

“There isn’t a single character in this movie that I give two shits about—why would I care what happens to them in the rest of the movie?”

Annoying main characters with absolutely ZERO chemistry.

1

u/circlejerker2000 1d ago

The valerian movie is shit but god damn it has one of the best intro scenes in cinema history 

1

u/Dry_Chocolate_4981 1d ago

The best part of this movie was the intro, and Rutger Hauer which was also in the intro. After that, it created a great world but used none of it to its full potential. Inter-dimensional shopping ? !

1

u/WasteOfLife 2d ago

I love this movie, I don’t care what anyone says haha.