Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 3D Movie Review
Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets
3D Movie Review Written By: Adolph Vega
Watch my video review for Valerian below :
3D
The 3D visuals for this movie are very impressive and make an enjoyable yet flawed experience. This movie mostly uses the diorama 3D visual effect. This visual effect gives the viewer a perspective into the screen and makes great use of 3D depth. Occasionally the movie uses pop out 3D and it looks nice. I do feel like the pop out 3D element is muted and not as pronounced as it could have been. The 3D doesn’t look good in a few scenes within the darkness of space. Those dark scenes look slightly out of alignment and give the viewer a disorienting ghosting double effect. Fortunately those dark disorienting scenes are rare. Overall the 3D is definitely a worthwhile addition to this movie, but it’s far from a perfect 3D visual presentation.
Final Verdict: Good 3D
Movie
Prior to watching this movie I had no knowledge of Valerian and it’s comic book history. Sadly this movie does a pathetic job of introducing this universe to a wider audience.
Valerian is actually the name of the male lead character that works with his partner Laureline. Valerian and Laureline work together for the galactic federation. Dane DeHaan plays Valerian and Cara Delevingne portrays Laureline, and sadly I didn't like these lead characters. This movie shows them working together as a team and sadly they have zero chemistry together on screen. I also question the acting ability for both individuals. The acting is bland and wooden for both of the main characters. Dane DeHaan as Valerian sounds like a bad impression of Keanu Reeves throughout this movie. Cara Delevingne as of Laureline seems bored throughout this movie. Laureline will often become frustrated at Valerian and his antics and she is always criticizing him. Many times the criticisms are justified but regardless I found this back and forth banter between these characters to be tedious and annoying to watch. Sadly this movie is focused on two very unlikeable protagonists.
The movie throws the viewer into the deep end and doesn't do a decent job of setting up this universe. This movie is a science fiction movie that is set several hundred years into the future. In some ways the movie is similar to “Star Trek” and humanity has joined an intergalactic federation of planets. Unlike most “Star Trek” stories (excluding Deep Space Nine) this movie is set mostly within one location, which is a gigantic intergalactic space station. This space station is called Alpha and is home to over a thousand planets and cultures that live together in peace. This movie has a massive cast of characters that are not properly introduced. It’s really hard to keep track of all these characters and their motivations. The main story is about Valerian and Laureline discovering the truth about an alien species that was thought to be extinct. The story flies by at the speed of light and the movie rarely takes the time to give the viewer an explanation to what is going on. When the movie does try to explain itself it feels forced and inorganic. The movie is extremely rushed and underdeveloped and I felt like they crammed too much into one movie. The premise within this movie is interesting and captured my imagination with many fascinating elements. One scene within this movie has a character interacting with a parallel invisible dimension while being present in a visible dimension. This inter-dimensional scene is very creative and is fun to watch. The alien designs are inspired and look unique and new. The movie introduces a trio of small brown aliens called the Shingouz. These aliens’ trade secrets for money are full of personality. These aliens looked similar to the 1980’s “Alf” character and I really loved these silly aliens and they were a wonderful element of this movie. Another alien named bubble can morph itself into different forms, and makes for a very fun strip tease scene. Many aliens within this movie are not bipedal humanoids and I appreciate that element of the movie. Too many works of science fiction portray space aliens that look extremely similar to humans or other earth approximating creatures. So I applaud when works of science fiction take some effort and make creative creature design. Even the aliens that look humanoid do look distinctive. I really enjoyed the ideas represented within this movie; I just wish it were better executed.
Before I conclude this review I must discuss the visual effects. The visuals for this movie are simply gorgeous. The special effects are a real treat and are the definition of eye candy. Many scenes look lush, with rich vibrant colors that look appealing and attractive. The visual style is distinctive and it works well for this sort of movie. I enjoyed the computer graphics and how they presented other worlds, and other dimensions. This movie looks beautiful and compliments this movie perfectly.
In closing this is a movie that I wanted to love, but I couldn’t get over it’s many flaws. I was entertained by this fun action sci-fi movie. Miserably the awful wooden acting and the poor story development hamper a remarkable premise. The ideas within this movie are compelling but are poorly executed within this movie. Unfortunately this is a beautiful mess of a movie.
Final Verdict : 6 / 10
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