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Jul. 27th, 2017 08:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynWent to see Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets last night. Things I disliked:
- The male lead's acting
- The female lead's acting
- The fact that I had to sit through previews for Pitch Perfect 3 and Daddy's Home 2 but did not get one for The Shape of Water
- The severe dearth of female speaking parts outside of Paradise Alley
- The severe dearth of human speaking parts for characters who were not white or European in origin given the repeated 'look at all the nations and cultures of Earth that are part of this Federation of Earth civilization' emphasis; I mean, did you see the flags on the wall behind Clive Owen?
Things I liked:
- Bubble
- General Akto-Bar, who I swear could have been General Hux's ancestor a few generations back
- Minister Herbie Hancock (I don't remember him being referred to as anything but 'the Minister', but he was played by Herbie Hancock)
- Space Orc John Goodman
- The Pearls, which I did not expect at all
- The Pearl Emperor
- The aesthetics, because whatever Luc Besson's flaws otherwise, the man knows how to make a movie look spectacular
- The people who were in on the plot vs. the people who were not in on the plot
- The SEVERE lack of prophecy, destiny, or Chosen Hero shit, because lord, that irritates me
- A subset of the aesthetics: the 'scrambled egg' elements of command staff hats was replaced by golden circuitry, which I thought was pretty neat
I mean, this was not a movie with an amazingly sophisticated plot, but it was also not a movie that made me want to put anybody through a wall for idiocy or for anviliciousness. I really enjoyed watching it and I had fun, and I am considering either watching it again or looking for an English translation of the original comic because there were a few characters I wouldn't mind trying out RP-wise somewhere. The two main characters were really the weakest point as far as I was concerned; the movie could have been vastly improved by replacing Valerian's actor with Keanu Reeves, or possibly with Zapp Brannigan from Futurama.
I would really have appreciated female characters beyond Generic Asian Aide In A Garrison Cap And Skirt who weren't working in the red-light district, though. (Bubble, Rihanna's character, was great once she got development beyond dancing for Ethan Hawke the Pimp. I mean, seriously, I really liked Bubble.)
- The male lead's acting
- The female lead's acting
- The fact that I had to sit through previews for Pitch Perfect 3 and Daddy's Home 2 but did not get one for The Shape of Water
- The severe dearth of female speaking parts outside of Paradise Alley
- The severe dearth of human speaking parts for characters who were not white or European in origin given the repeated 'look at all the nations and cultures of Earth that are part of this Federation of Earth civilization' emphasis; I mean, did you see the flags on the wall behind Clive Owen?
Things I liked:
- Bubble
- General Akto-Bar, who I swear could have been General Hux's ancestor a few generations back
- Minister Herbie Hancock (I don't remember him being referred to as anything but 'the Minister', but he was played by Herbie Hancock)
- Space Orc John Goodman
- The Pearls, which I did not expect at all
- The Pearl Emperor
- The aesthetics, because whatever Luc Besson's flaws otherwise, the man knows how to make a movie look spectacular
- The people who were in on the plot vs. the people who were not in on the plot
- The SEVERE lack of prophecy, destiny, or Chosen Hero shit, because lord, that irritates me
- A subset of the aesthetics: the 'scrambled egg' elements of command staff hats was replaced by golden circuitry, which I thought was pretty neat
I mean, this was not a movie with an amazingly sophisticated plot, but it was also not a movie that made me want to put anybody through a wall for idiocy or for anviliciousness. I really enjoyed watching it and I had fun, and I am considering either watching it again or looking for an English translation of the original comic because there were a few characters I wouldn't mind trying out RP-wise somewhere. The two main characters were really the weakest point as far as I was concerned; the movie could have been vastly improved by replacing Valerian's actor with Keanu Reeves, or possibly with Zapp Brannigan from Futurama.
I would really have appreciated female characters beyond Generic Asian Aide In A Garrison Cap And Skirt who weren't working in the red-light district, though. (Bubble, Rihanna's character, was great once she got development beyond dancing for Ethan Hawke the Pimp. I mean, seriously, I really liked Bubble.)
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Date: 2017-07-28 01:30 am (UTC)Bwahahaha!!! :D I'm considering watching this movie. :)
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Date: 2017-07-29 12:07 am (UTC)It was absolutely gorgeous as visual spectacle, the whole sequence at the Big Mart was actually amazingly clever, but the plot was full of plot-coupons, and was really annoyed that Bubble died before she and Laureline actually got to have a conversation. On the other hand, if Bubble and Laureline got to interact, it would have shown up just how competent they were and how useless Valerian was.
And they were really trying to sell a romance that didn't work. At all.
It does make me interested in tracking down an English-language translation of the original graphic novels to read, so there is that.
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Date: 2017-08-05 04:23 am (UTC)So, in other words...it's a Luc Besson picture.