'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets' Review

With a budget coming in at around $200 million, 'Valerian' is one of the most expensive films of the summer despite being mainly independently produced. Director Luc Besson has had the thought to adapt the comic book series for years, trying to find a way to make this adaptation possible ever since 'The Fifth Element'. Unfortunately, this project will go down as one of the biggest flops in summer movie history.

In the 28th Century, Valerian (Dane De Haan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) work together as special operatives who look to maintain order throughout the human territories. On a mission, the pair are assigned to Alpha, a striving community that hosts thousands of different and diverse species, each learning off of one another. As a mysterious force looks to disrupt the harmony of the community, it is up to Valerian and Laureline to stop them before it is too late.

'Valerian' looks set to join the miserable fate of films such as 'Jupiter Ascending' and 'Sucker Punch' by flopping tremendously at the box office. It is being reported that with the $200 million production budget, the film would have to make $350-400 million to make the film a success and merit further films. However, 'Valerian' doesn't deserve to be in the same category as those films in terms of quality. 'Valerian' isn't a good movie but it's nowhere near the terrible standards of those aforementioned. The biggest problem is that 'Valerian' provides an overall feeling of 'meh'.

The main story of 'Valerian' is a mystery surrounding a planet that was recorded as being uninhabited and was destroyed.  Simply enough, it is up to Valerian and Laureline to undercover what really happened and what is currently underway within 'Alpha'. Now make this makes for an easily understandable and fun adventure for the characters to go on. Unfortunately, the film is bogged down heavily by many sub plots that just weigh it down completely. The film's runtime comes in at 2 hours and 17 minutes long which feels closer to 3 hours due to its long drawn out story. There are many unmemorable sub plots that the film really could do without as the film really drags throughout each individual short story. None of these stories are enthralling or compelling at all as the film lacks that special something.


What doesn't help the film in any way is the script written by Luc Besson. The script is a tonal mess as it switches from serious to cheesy to comical before it establishes any form of identity or tone. Besson seems to have looked at the most recent sci-fi hits like 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and even 'The Force Awakens' and looked to use the quippy dialogue that will help build character whilst making interesting and fun conversations. To the dismay of the film, this does not work at all as the jokes and quips fall flat and when the story gets serious, it is tediously dull. There are some decent interactions between characters in the film but really nothing to get overly excited about. Again, the sub plots do not help this at all as we jump back and forth between many different situations and none are that exciting to demand your attention. Ideally, the film could've focused on fewer sub plots and dedicated the time to make them worthwhile rather than fitting as much in as possible.


'Valerian' is led by the duo of talented actor Dane De Haan and model-come-actress Cara Delevingne who seem to be horribly miscast. I believe that De Haan is a great talent, having loved his performance in 'Chronicle' as well as other serious roles in 'A Cure For Wellness' and 'Kill Your Darlings'. However, his character is meant to be a badass, cocky playboy which he is not believable as. De Haan isn't awful but he doesn't possess that wit or seem like a womanizer which are main traits of this character. Delevingne isn't terrible as Laureline but the character is much more level headed than Valerian. The two actually seem better suited for each others roles in terms of the characters traits which do not receive much development throughout the story. Rihanna also makes a brief appearance in what seems to be no more than a publicity stunt as her weak acting ability takes away from a moment that could've been more powerful.

If you have seen the trailer, you will know that this is a truly beautiful looking film, with a wide palette of colours providing stunning settings. The huge budget has been put to good use in this aspect as the world is incredibly detailed, with the use of different elements creating many interesting locations. With this aspect being handled so well, it makes you want to really explore this world and get to know the different species and the many stories that go along with it. It doesn't look like this will happen due to this film bombing which in itself is a real missed opportunity. The opportunities with this world are endless and make it even more frustrating that the filmmakers were unable to capitalise and start the building blocks for a new world we haven't seen on the big screen.


Time will look back at 'Valerian' as being a huge missed opportunity to create something truly special. The film isn't that bad to be known as one of the biggest failures of all time, it's just unmemorable and lackluster. There are many worse films out there but when you spend around $200 million, you expose yourself to heavy criticism. 'Valerian' could have done with a whole lot more care and with a better focus on the story and characters, this could've easily succeeded. It wasn't meant to be this time for Luc Besson as 'Valerian' is one of the most underwhelming films of the year.


Final Verdict = 

So have you seen 'Valerian'? If so, what did you think of the film? I hope that this review was useful for if you were planning on seeing the film or not. Once again, thank you for taking the tme to read my review, it is much appreciated!

By Angus McGregor

'Ballerina' Review

When the trailer for 'Ballerina' came out, it instantly became the target of a lot of jokes between those I go to the cinema with and I. There seemed to be no hope for this film but after seeing it, I was pleasantly surprised.

In 1879, a young orphan named Felicie (Elle Fanning) dreams of becoming a ballerina but she lacks any type of training. Alongside her friend Victor (Dane DeHaan), the pair looks to escape and flee to Paris to make their dreams come true. After gaining tuition at the Paris Opers Ballet, Felicie must now put in the hard work to achieve her goals.

'Ballerina' is a French-Canadian 3D animated movie which brings a different animation style to what we're used to recently. Due to this, the style of some of the characters in this form of animation seemed to lack in quality compared to those in other animated films. This can be said for nearly all of the human characters within the film as they stand out from the settings very poorly. It's possible that it's just a different style to what I'm used to but the characters looked to have been designed for a film in the 90's or early 2000's. In saying that, the film's animators do an incredible job of designing Paris pre the Eiffel Tower being finished. The locations and settings all look magnificent throughout the entirety of the film which is part of the reason to why the characters don't look as good. For the designs of the city and designs of inside the buildings, it will be hard to find animation any better than in 'Ballerina'. 

Amongst this animated tale is actually a fairly well-executed story of a young girl achieving her dreams. We see her motives very clearly and the opening scene shows Felicie's willingness to achieve her goals. The film handles the story as if it were any other sports movie. The story is actually very reminiscent of 'The Karate Kid', with several moments mimicking the 1984 film such as the training seeming to be pointless at first. We see some common tropes within this but the film does execute it and adapts it to ballet very well. We see a progression throughout the film from our protagonist as she is not good at all when first starting. At times, her training and trials did seem slightly rushed as the story looked to progress. With the runtime being shorter than an hour and a half, they could have taken more time on this aspect of the film. However, the message of you training hard and persevering to reach your goals is still evident. The film does its job by showing what to do when training for something but also does a great job in showing how it can be wasted. There are ups and downs along the way within sports and 'Ballerina' does a good job at showing this, whilst keeping it entertaining and amusing enough for small children.

Elle Fanning brings the character of Felicie to life, bringing that sweet side of her character to the film. Fanning interacts very well with Dane DeHaan who plays Victor, a hopeful inventor who is in love with Felicie. DeHaan brings an excitement to the film as he delivers a great performance in this film. His character is indeed a fun one which allows DeHaan to do some great work. Maddie Ziegler also deserves credit as she is the main rival to Felicie, Camille. The character was very well written which again allowed the voice work to come in and do a great job. As the film is a kid's animated film, it is expected for there to be some characters who are over the top. Camille's mother Regine (Julie Khaner) is the perfect example of this. Regine is a classic over the top cartoon villain who does bring some laughs. Whether that was the intent is debatable. There are other characters dotted about who our protagonists interact with who are there for random outbursts that will entertain the little ones but not so much for the adults.

The films clearly targeted for younger viewers and this is most evident during the more dramatic and emotional scenes. There are moments where the film builds up for some powerful moments but the film brushes over this very quickly. This was disappointing as the potential was there to create something powerful but the film just solves it instantly. Maybe I'm expecting too much from a film like this but the tools were there so there was no reason for it to not have been executed. This would've improved the story as a whole and wouldn't have taken up too much extra time which wouldn't have hurt either.

Overall, 'Ballerina' was much better than I expected. An adequate children's animated sports movie with some good animation as well as writing and voice performances. However, there are many inconsistencies within this film including in all of those attributes I have just praised. This is not a bad movie by any way and is entertaining enough for a viewing.

Final Verdict = 

So have you seen 'Ballerina'? If so, what did you think of the film? I hope that this review was useful for if you were planning on seeing this film. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read my review, it is much appreciated!

By Angus McGregor