Discussion: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

The visuals look spectacular, but it takes more than that to win an audience in 2017, and the most expensive indie film in history, based on the French-language comic, has underperformed at the box office.

Has anyone here watched it?

3 replies on “Discussion: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”

  1. No, but my wife and I are both thinking of going to find a big screen, IMAX, 3D version to appreciate the beauty of it. We’re fans of The Fifth Element, so we’re hopeful for this. We’re not expecting a GotG kind of movie, but as long as it’s really pretty, we’ll be happy.

  2. I saw it (in plain old 2D no less). There’s actually a plot and even some character development. In fact, based on my single viewing, it all hangs together pretty well. (That’s not surprising given some of the behind the scenes stuff that’s come to light.) Quite a lot is played for laughs but there is a definite serious tone as well. Indeed, the inciting incident for everything is *very* dark.

    Generally, I found it entertaining and the plot points didn’t make me cringe. The usual “luck as a superpower” thing is present in spades along with a lot of other tropes typical of the genre, but I think those are there consciously. I did find it somewhat predictable as far as general plot points went, but that’s not necessarily a significant downside for this type of story.

    Oh, and the visuals are amazing.

    This may be one of those “underperformers” that builds up a steady stream of revenue over a longer time frame as people realize it isn’t just another “superhero action shaky-cam extravaganza”.

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