Dane DeHaan (left) and Cara Delevingne play the badass heroes.
French director Luc Besson remembers when comic books could be escapist and imaginative fun, but didn’t have to carry the burden of cinematic universes and Comic-Con culture. So he cobbled together $180 million to make the ultimate fan film, based on a favorite from his childhood.
Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element) hasn’t bogged down Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets with mythmaking or a multi-franchise story arc. While reverent to the source, the French comic series Valerian and Laureline, Besson delivers whiz-bang storytelling. And he cares little about what heroes we want or need.
Special agents Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) must save the titular cosmos-politan space station from a mysterious, growing dead zone. Twists are telegraphed in Clive Owens’ first reaction shot as Valerian and Laureline’s commander (hmm … he must be up to something). Simply connecting the genre dots provides Besson a framework for the visuals.
The adventurous production design delivers breathtaking images, even in 2D. The scenes on the doomed planet Mül deliver a visceral impact: Despite the dazzling sun, you can almost feel a cool breeze. Valerian works best when you can gaze deep into the screen, rather than ducking objects thrown at you. Unfortunately, Besson forgets this by creating one too many roller-coaster action sequences.
Costumes often trump digital effects in visual delight, like the pair’s undercover hipster vacation gear, and one of Laureline’s hats with a brim nearly too wide for the widescreen.
In one dazzling set piece, Valerian and Laureline infiltrate a multi-dimensional space bazaar to retrieve the film’s MacGuffin: a creature that replicates objects by eating them. The sequence plays like Inception without sleep. Besson balances sci-fi imagination, technical prowess, muscular staging and anti-consumerist satire to make the sequence soar.
Valerian and Laureline are not American fanboy friendly. Instead of Joss Whedon-esque witticisms (such as the ones DC has been forced to reintroduce to their films), we get two characters only interested in their duty and each other. Foreplay tussling in their first scene doesn’t set up a will they/won’t they scenario. They do. And they like it rough. Their romance is the mission.
Laureline’s name should be in the title, like the comics. Delevingne brings a wide-eyed but deadpan seriousness to Laureline, and she has more screen charisma than DeHaan. Smarter, more disciplined, and just as badass, Laureline is my hero in Valerian.
