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Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E... Work Review

Title: The Magnificent Failure: Why Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets Deserves a Second Look

Introduction: A Universe Built on Joy

In the summer of 2017, Luc Besson delivered Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a film that arguably stands as the most expensive independent movie ever made. Funded by European equity and fueled by a lifetime of adoration for the French comic series Valérian and Laureline, Besson crafted a visual spectacle that was audacious in its scope and colorful in its execution. Yet, upon release, the film became a cautionary tale of blockbuster economics. It flopped at the American box office, Critics carped about the casting, and the narrative was dismissed as derivative.

However, time has a way of smoothing the edges of box office failures. Years later, removed from the hype cycle and the financial context, Valerian emerges not as a catastrophe, but as a fascinating artifact of pure, unadulterated imagination. It is a "magnificent failure"—a film that reaches for the stars, grasps them firmly in its visual design, but stumbles in the chemistry of its human elements.

The Visual Masterpiece: World-Building as Art

If Valerian succeeds at nothing else, it succeeds as a feat of world-building. In an era dominated by the desaturated palettes of the DC Extended Universe or the cookie-cutter aesthetics of greenscreen backlots, Besson turned Alpha (the city of the title) into a riot of color and creativity.

The opening montage alone—a wordless sequence set to David Bowie’s "Space Oddity," depicting the construction of a space station and the gradual handshake of humanity with alien species—is a masterclass in visual storytelling. It establishes a tone of utopian optimism that is refreshingly absent from modern dystopias.

The film’s pièce de résistance is the "Big Market" sequence. Here, Besson visualizes a concept that could only exist in cinema: a dimensional marketplace where tourists in a barren desert wear virtual reality headsets to shop in a bustling, futuristic bazaar existing in another dimension. The interplay between the tactile desert reality and the digital overlay creates a heist sequence that is innovative, confusing, and utterly exhilarating. It represents the peak of the film’s ambition: using CGI not just to blow things up, but to bend the rules of physics and perception. Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E...

The Mül Converters and the Weight of History

The film’s emotional core rests on the shoulders of the Mül, a pearlescent alien species whose destruction drives the plot. The prologue depicting their demise is visually stunning and unexpectedly heartbreaking, lending the film a moral weight that contrasts sharply with the breezy, quipping leads.

This backstory ties into the film’s deeper meta-narrative. Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières’ original comic, upon which the film is based, began in 1967. It is widely acknowledged that Star Wars borrowed heavily from the aesthetic of Valérian and Laureline. When Valerian the movie was released, critics called it a Star Wars rip-off, ignoring the irony that the progenitor was being accused of imitating the imitator. The film’s design—specifically the design of the Pearls and the spaceship—is a reclaiming of a sci-fi visual language that originated in French bande dessinée.

The Casting Conundrum: Where the Cracks Show

The elephant in the room, and the primary reason the film failed to connect with a broad audience, is the central pairing. Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne are talented performers, but they were miscast in roles that required the swashbuckling charm of a Han Solo or the wry competence of a Princess Leia.

DeHaan’s Valerian is pitched as a roguish lothario, but his performance feels overly youthful and intense, lacking the easy swagger the script demands. Delevingne’s Laureline is arguably the more compelling character—smarter, sharper, and more capable—but the chemistry between the two feels fraternal rather than romantic. Their bickering, meant to evoke classic screwball comedies, often comes across as petulant.

This disconnect creates a vacuum in the center of the film. The audience is asked to care deeply about their romance, yet the most magnetic presence in the movie is not the leads, but Rihanna, playing a shapeshifting entertainer named Bubble. Her performance, tragic and visually kinetic, highlights what the main duo lacked: genuine pathos. Title: The Magnificent Failure: Why Valerian and the

A Legacy of Ambition

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a flawed gem. It is a film that prioritizes the quantity of its planets over the depth of its protagonists. The plot meanders, the dialogue clunks, and the tone shifts jarringly between childish farce (the alien duck creatures) and colonialist allegory.

Yet, it is precisely these idiosyncrasies that make it worth a deep write-up. In a cinematic landscape dominated by franchises owned by corporations and steered by focus groups, Valerian is a singular vision. It is the work of a director spending a fortune to paint his dream on the biggest canvas possible. It is messy, excessive, and beautiful.

To watch Valerian is to witness a filmmaker who loves the medium of science fiction with a childlike intensity. It is a reminder that cinema should be about showing us things we have never seen before. For all its narrative shortcomings, Valerian shows us a thousand things we have never seen, and for that, it deserves to be remembered not as a flop, but as a beautiful, expensive, and utterly unique mistake.

The Visual Spectacle: Why This Film Demands a 4K Screen

If there is one reason to watch Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, it is the production design. Besson collaborated with the comic’s original artist, Jean-Claude Mézières, before his death, ensuring the film remained faithful to the source material’s aesthetic.

  • The Big Market (a dimension-hopping bazaar): In one of the film's most celebrated sequences, Valerian must retrieve the converter from a "big market"—a parallel dimension accessible only through a special visor. In this realm, agents can walk through walls, grab objects from other realities, and navigate a crowded market that exists in a different plane of existence. It is a three-minute sequence that contains more creativity than entire trilogies.

  • The Beach at the End of the Universe: The Pearls of Mul live on a stunning, hyper-saturated beach planet filled with gigantic, translucent jellyfish-like creatures that float through the air. This is Besson at his most painterly, blending CGI with practical light effects to create a paradise that feels alien yet familiar. The Visual Spectacle: Why This Film Demands a

  • The Creature Design: From the three-legged dog-like “Bling” (Doggy Dog) to the shape-shifting Lihominids, the film features hundreds of distinct alien species. Unlike modern blockbusters that rely on humanoid aliens, Besson insists on strange biology, odd gaits, and unique modes of communication.

Standout sequences (why you should watch)

  • The opening migration/gathering of species. A breathtaking montage that establishes scale and sets up the City’s ecosystem.
  • The bubble city and aquatic sequences. An interplay of colors and movement that marries architecture and biology; it’s an exercise in imagining living structures.
  • The final revelation and incubator scenes. Notable for visual metaphor and the way Besson stages cosmic morality as something almost childlike — wonder as responsibility.

Why it matters today

Upon release, Valerian was considered a financial disappointment (grossing only $225 million against its massive budget). Yet, in the streaming era, it has found a cult second life. Why?

Because no one else is making movies like this. In a Hollywood landscape dominated by IP franchises that play it safe, Valerian is gloriously, messily original. It prioritizes world-building over plot and visual wonder over character depth. For every clunky line of dialogue, there is a shot of a shapeshifting jellyfish alien or a VR marketplace that makes The Matrix look dated.

Guide: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Conclusion

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is not a perfect film. It is a flawed masterpiece of production design. If you watch it expecting Star Wars logic, you will be frustrated. But if you watch it as a sensory art piece — a gallery of impossible creatures, vibrant planets, and the boundless optimism of 1970s sci-fi — it is an unforgettable ride.

Verdict: Turn off your critical brain, turn your HDR brightness to maximum, and dive into Alpha. Just don't expect the romance to work.

Did you mean a different "E" (e.g., Ending, Evolution, or Extinction)? Let me know and I can tailor the write-up further!

3. Main Characters

  • Valerian (Dane DeHaan): A charming but reckless time-traveling agent.
  • Laureline (Cara Delevingne): Valerian’s partner; she is intelligent, pragmatic, and often the one solving the problems.
  • Commander Arün Filitt (Clive Owen): The commander of the human forces in Alpha, hiding a dark secret.
  • The Pearls: A peaceful alien race whose planet was destroyed, led by Emperor Haban-Limaï.
  • Bubble (Rihanna): A shapeshifting entertainer (Plür) who aids Valerian in a critical rescue mission.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Exploring Luc Besson’s Sci-Fi Masterpiece

In the pantheon of 21st-century science fiction cinema, few films have dared to be as visually audacious, colorfully bizarre, or genuinely ambitious as Luc Besson’s 2017 adaptation of the classic French comic series, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. While the film received mixed reviews upon its release, focusing heavily on its lead actors’ chemistry, time has been surprisingly kind to Besson’s magnum opus. To discuss Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets today is to discuss a work of art that prioritizes world-building over plot, imagination over restraint, and spectacle over subtlety.

This article dives deep into the making, the universe, the triumphs, and the shortcomings of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, exploring why it remains a cult classic in waiting.