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Post by ShadowSouL: Padawan of Yoda on Jul 28, 2017 5:29:10 GMT
Way better than critics are giving it credit for.
A major improvement on the concepts in The Fifth Element.
Visuals way better than recent Star Wars and Star Treks, especially in 3D. The best 3D movie in recent years. Not on the same level story- and character-wise as Star Trek or Star Wars, but combines some of the best elements of both, with some Avatar thrown in for good measure, and has a very Star Trek-/Avatar-type story.
Great opening credits sequence and accompanying song.
Fantastic score by Alexandre Desplat.
Decent performances by Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevigne.Not at all a fan of Rihanna, but a decent dance routine (which I normally don't care for), and equally decent acting from her.
Not at all the trash that is Transformers: The Last Knight (or any of the Transformers movies for that matter), and light years ahead of Jupiter Ascending in terms of quality.Plus, how can you not love anything with Herbie Hancock in it (not his music, but the man himself)? Agree with most of what you said (in bold). I didn't see it in 3D (I am so over the whole 3D thing). But this was a good movie and could be the start of a very good franchise if people would just give something new a chance to get started.I totally agree. But which would be the franchise to follow: Valerian or The City of a Thousand Planets?
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Jul 28, 2017 13:45:55 GMT
Good question.
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Post by lenlenlen1 on Jul 28, 2017 18:40:06 GMT
Did anyone actually see the movie? I didn't hate it and I thought it was visually and inventively amazing, but yeah the pacing was all wrong and the leads were miscast, though of the two I didn't think Delavigne embarrassed herself. She actually a moment or two where I thought "you go girl". If the disastrous box office is any indication then everyone who saw the movie might actually be on this thread. Did you really think "you go girl"? A moment or two.
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Post by transfuged on Jul 28, 2017 20:41:07 GMT
Hello, Just reading the newspaper critic was pissed of by not enought baddie in the movie... I had planned not to watch anything anymore about last year, and put it into action after february, this year (with a tiny exception for wonder woman, because I wanted to know how they could actually create a comic heroin on screen... And I waited two years, and, no, they could not). So yesterday I watched it, and there was no threat to the universe, no face sucking icky thing, (well, not a carnivorus one, ) No doomed future, no doomed suffering tragic humanoid robots, no queen of magic turning into sword killing people, no zombies, no blood suckers.... Well, you get the picture. It is not the least horrible, or frghtening. That would have been an insult to Christin and Mézière, the creators of the story. Actually, it is more a Valerian story than the comic ever was. And the performer's look doesn't prevent him from being very credi ble a Valerian. Paper Valerian is a hero, but moreover they are a team.The 'paper' Laurelin is far more interesting, and there never was a romantic subplot between them. They loved each other, point. Comics are not the place to find out about that, Christin and Mezière never were love instructors. So, what's the show about ? Action, unknown, color, graphics, and... Some respect for life and others.
I did not like the fifth element when I saw it. It was on screen in the time the invaders from mars attack were, and the contest was over. Burton won. I would not say I loved Valerian yesterday.
The story of the alpha station with the major tom music... I cried like a hog. I can't believe it but I actually cried. I do not recall crying watching science fiction. I know they compared themselves to the onu, by Marvel comic. (The proof is printed in the comic.) Dismarvel never will make anyone cry (or that's because someone had actually walked into a plot hole and broken bones). Some Star Trek litterature was very inspiring, and poetic. Not what they did on screen. Sorry, I can't say I would cry at anything dc did. Superman... I recall how I (over) reacted. Star wars ? Well made for the time. Three installments was just the fine number of them. Indiana Jones ? I was stuck in bed in june and re read the novelization. Holy cow. I'm begining to see an exorcism in progress in every horrible story that was ever written. Boring. Actually, there is a monster in Valerian, the movie. It's a small lizard, and he thinks he is a brontosaurus on his mother side. Everytime they want to see it, all they need is a mirror.
My guess is either the critic is a kill bill fan, and indeed, the philosophy of the Valerian movie is not for him(but actually, I ne er watched kill bill, so it's a wild guess), either he's a newbie in the newspaper, so he's the one locked in the office in the summer time.
Very watchable. Not sorry at all for the exeption that was made to my schedule.
Till later, T
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deeznutz
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Post by deeznutz on Jul 29, 2017 11:32:51 GMT
I thought valerian was a plant which is used to help you sleep let's hope the films different !
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Post by outrider127 on Jul 30, 2017 14:21:46 GMT
I still intend to see it for the great visual effects,but it sure is bombing--Luc Besson said he'll be very happy if it does"Lucy" type business, his biggest worldwide hit,at $484 million gross(2017 dollars)(Fifth Element did $404 million in 2017 dollars),but I doubt this movie will even come close to either--We'll see how Europe and China(Aug 26th opening) react to it later--Chief complaint on reddit is the male lead
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Post by Commander_Jim on Jul 30, 2017 19:08:59 GMT
not as good as ghostbusters from 2016
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2017 21:58:48 GMT
not as good as ghostbusters from 2016 Agreed, that movie was a goddamn masterpiece.
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Post by Nora on Aug 2, 2017 1:12:23 GMT
I was pleasantly surprised with Valerian. Not a return to form for Besson, no, but very enjoyable and totally decent movie. Maybe even more than decent for me. I would even go see it again. And I may now have a small crush on Cara too…
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2017 0:45:53 GMT
So I just saw this.
I didn't HATE it. But I also didn't love it. I... kinda liked it. But I have the feeling it won't have a great deal of rewatch capability.
Okay, the good. yes, it is visually stunning. And extremely creative. Alpha is an amazing place full of amazing things, and the galaxy at large is equally amazing. I love the way Alpha's history is shown in brief at the beginning. It's worth a watch just to see all the cool stuff on display.
The story is... well, it's serviceable.
But then there's the downside. Mostly, this involves the main characters.
There's some fairly minor spoilers following...
I find myself comparing it with Fifth Element a lot. Think about Bruce Willis's Corbin Dallas. We meet him when he's kind of down on his luck. He's driving a cab, he's on his last few license points, he gets grief from his mother, he's a former military type, he gets fired... and most importantly, we see that he is a desperately lonely man.
And Leelu, we see how special, or at least weird, she is, yet how frightened and vulnerable and out of place she is. She collides with Dallas - literally! - and they begin to bounce off one another throughout the plot. We see them falling in love, and we believe it, because we know enough about them to see why it would happen.
Valerian is a womaniser. Who is in love with his partner, and wants to marry her. And good at his job. And that's all we ever learn about his character.
How do we know he is in love with his partner? He just says so, right up within the first ten minutes or so of his introduction at the start of the movie. There's never any hint of WHY he might be in love with her. He wants to give up his womanising ways... why? The only reason he ever gives is "because I'm in love with you now and want to marry you".
And she's even shallower. She's also good at her job. And... that's about it. The entirety of her character arc is that she doesn't believe he's really in love with her, and then at the end she does.
And then the bad guy. Remember how Zorg would do evil stuff, but he seemed to have a kind of sad awareness of it? "You're a monster, Zorg." "...I know." He came across as a guy who was, perhaps, in over his head with the whole situation. Character depth!
The bad guy of Valerian is... a bad man, who does a bad thing because that's what a bad man would do. He never tries to justify it, never really has any reason why he did it other than that it was convenient for him and he didn't care about the consequences.
So yeah... simplistic character, simplistic story, but amazing backdrop. Worth a watch, but I don't think I'll see it again.
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Post by Nora on Aug 6, 2017 3:53:06 GMT
So I just saw this. I didn't HATE it. But I also didn't love it. I... kinda liked it. But I have the feeling it won't have a great deal of rewatch capability. I find myself comparing it with Fifth Element a lot. Character depth! I agree the characters were not too deep. Especially the bad guy seemed like a miss. (character-wise, the acting was good/ok). I also compared a lot with 5th Element, even though I told myself not to BUT - I went to see it again and surprise surprise, there actually was a Great Deal of "rewatch capability" for me. I would highly recommend it. I noticed plenty of little things i didn't catch the first time. totally worth it.
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bb15
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Post by bb15 on Aug 7, 2017 4:47:08 GMT
So I just saw this. I didn't HATE it. But I also didn't love it. I... kinda liked it. But I have the feeling it won't have a great deal of rewatch capability. Okay, the good. yes, it is visually stunning. And extremely creative. Alpha is an amazing place full of amazing things, and the galaxy at large is equally amazing. I love the way Alpha's history is shown in brief at the beginning. It's worth a watch just to see all the cool stuff on display. The story is... well, it's serviceable. But then there's the downside. Mostly, this involves the main characters. There's some fairly minor spoilers following... I find myself comparing it with Fifth Element a lot. Think about Bruce Willis's Corbin Dallas. We meet him when he's kind of down on his luck. He's driving a cab, he's on his last few license points, he gets grief from his mother, he's a former military type, he gets fired... and most importantly, we see that he is a desperately lonely man. And Leelu, we see how special, or at least weird, she is, yet how frightened and vulnerable and out of place she is. She collides with Dallas - literally! - and they begin to bounce off one another throughout the plot. We see them falling in love, and we believe it, because we know enough about them to see why it would happen. Valerian is a womaniser. Who is in love with his partner, and wants to marry her. And good at his job. And that's all we ever learn about his character. How do we know he is in love with his partner? He just says so, right up within the first ten minutes or so of his introduction at the start of the movie. There's never any hint of WHY he might be in love with her. He wants to give up his womanising ways... why? The only reason he ever gives is "because I'm in love with you now and want to marry you". And she's even shallower. She's also good at her job. And... that's about it. The entirety of her character arc is that she doesn't believe he's really in love with her, and then at the end she does. And then the bad guy. Remember how Zorg would do evil stuff, but he seemed to have a kind of sad awareness of it? "You're a monster, Zorg." "...I know." He came across as a guy who was, perhaps, in over his head with the whole situation. Character depth! The bad guy of Valerian is... a bad man, who does a bad thing because that's what a bad man would do. He never tries to justify it, never really has any reason why he did it other than that it was convenient for him and he didn't care about the consequences. So yeah... simplistic character, simplistic story, but amazing backdrop. Worth a watch, but I don't think I'll see it again. This is very close to my view of Valerian. About half of the establishing character dialogue seems to be missing. - First, set up the two main protagonists as agents/cops. Show them doing their jobs. Show them getting the instructions for their mission including with a clear description of the gerbil (which is the McGuffin). After the basics of the characters / story are set up, then begin the back and forth of the romance. * Also, the villain's motivation needed to be much better explained. SPOILERS about the villain; - The paradise planet with the magic pearls/gerbils is valuable (for power / energy generation). The villain knows this but the villain also destroyed the paradise planet. (Needs more explanation.) - The villain is worried that the genocide of the paradise planet will be known. Did he kill the crew of his ship to eliminate witnesses? He shoots his second in command and no one figures that out with security footage? Make that death look more like an accident. - The villain wants to kill all the survivors of the paradise planet. But some of them remain alive in the center of the space station. Why does the villain allow them to live? Solders were sent to investigate the center of the station and the soldiers disappeared. Who killed them? The villain? - The villain has a survivor of the paradise planet tortured / interrogated. Why? * The villain's story is very underdeveloped. * My rating; 7/10 for great visuals, Luc Besson's interesting/weird sci-if and because while the film's story was sometimes a mess it was still entertaining. BB ;-)
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Post by transfuged on Aug 14, 2017 18:46:50 GMT
Hello, That was how I thought about it first time I watched it... Then, the newspaper article that got me very curious and hopefull had another part. It said that the dialogs had probably been written in english then translated in poor french. So I watched it a second time but in french. And... Shoot, the opening alpha story had the same effect... Dripping hog, crying all over. But that time I got smtg I missed in the first session. The birthday memory lapse. Which explains why Laureline looks so pissed of in the most part of the show... And there was also some bad critic about the show performed by 'bubbles'. Well, in the comic, that part is a bit different, but its essence is well translated on screen. An ambassador gets to 'Point central', the name of alpha, and is abduced. With him, Valerian, his bodyguard. Laureline, with a grumpy transmuter from Bluxte in tow, follows. And she saves the day, all by herself. (And thinking of it, it looks pretty 'feminist' a plot, but... It might be that Valerian, deep down, is a handsome lazy cow, and it shows in some of the books. Not a bad one, but definitely lame a hero, which is fun on paper. Now, as a result, who gets the garbage out ? Yes, the second element of the team. Ah ah.) Back to'bubbles', laureline, in a journey that could be compared to Dante's inferno, ends into some place where she finds a being that helps her to look the way valerian does in the movie. In both comic and movie, the place is a ... Pleasure palace. Paper Laureline even reflects that she should get more time for recreation... 'bubbles' show is just the right show for the place.
And some critics complains about the quasi nazi outfit they wear when not suited for space...
Well, to sum up the spirit of the comics, their bosses are not exactly cool people. The terran got expelled of point central.
Now, it feels I've done the homework of those darned critics, who obviously did not get a fig about Mézière and Christin.
Just the way it is for books, this show I will watch a third time. Not for words, notfor notions, just for myself. I like it, even when I can put a label on it that I do not care much for.
Till later T
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