Growing up, my father had an entire wall of our garage devoted to science fiction novels. On the lowest shelf were a series of books from his childhood, stuff written in the 40’s and 50’s, so they were the easiest for me to reach and see. Generally they were stories of young boys in space, making their way from world to world. As I got older, I could reach higher on the shelf, and found novels of the more contemporary era, the world’s expanded, the philosophy deeper, the characters more varied, but there was just a bit of something missing. At an early age, I found an appreciation of film and comics, all of course from the same source of influence, my father. I grew up a fan of Star Wars, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Flash Gordon; comics of that ilk and fantasy worlds like Conan The Barbarian. Valerian is a product of the late 60’s itself. They all had this sense of awareness of their universe and comprised of that missing piece not found in most sci-fi of the late 80’s, 90’s, even to this day. In Valerian, I found out what that missing piece was: ceaseless confidence in a seamless world.

Luc Besson painted a picture we have all come to love in his film, The Fifth Element. That film effortlessly makes the improbable believable, sci-fi’s greatest strength and its toughest height. When painting these backdrops with words alone, a lot relies on the imagination of the reader, not just the words of the writer. In visual stories, like films and graphic novels, we get an image of our artist’s mind on paper, allowing us to be utterly surrounded by the atmosphere while our character’s tale unfolds before us. Now we are not only engulfed in a story, but a completely defined world. Because this visual world stands in front of us, we sit behind a fourth wall. Great sci-fi has a tangible, but transparent wall that wraps around us. In Valerian, we get a chance to be a part of a series of concepts that, until this era of film technology, seemed daunting and on screen often looked flimsy and unrealistic. Like the novel, so much depended on your own ability to comprehend the artist’s interpretation. But not only did Besson get the balance of his universe correct, his actors move through it so fluidly and vividly, there is rarely a point you don’t believe they are there. The ground beneath them has grit, the hulls made of metal, the gravity ebbs and flows from one area to the next. All trademarks of a Besson sci-fi world.

As for the film as a whole, although it appears dense and, like its subtitle implies, full of different species, it doesn’t take many detours to explore them. As easily as the actors interact with the world, they somehow spend little time interacting with anything specifically foreign to us as an audience. A double edge to the effortless world, because they are not impressed by anything, the audience in turn is relegated to whatever the story forces them to interact with. On the other hand, what they do interact with I found to be satisfying, so maybe in wanting more, I am being a bit greedy. It’s other main issue is its length. It tends to linger a bit longer here and there than necessary, but when it moves, baby it moves, and it’s a joy to watch. Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne have this amazing chemistry, him a just the right amount of lovable cocky, her the tsundere waifu dreams are made of. And they chew the world around them up, all while lobbing cheesy cheeky adventure story antics around, which now are often found only in parodies of sci-fi yesteryear, but it fits completely with the level of dramatic scale found throughout the film. It just wants to have fun. Even while its story is a bit well tread, a blend of military subterfuge and mystery, you get to enjoy it to a completely different background.

Honestly, I was completely surprised how much I enjoyed this film. It reminded me a lot of a mistake I made in my jaded college years. Angry after seeing the trailer for Speed Racer, directed by the Wachowski’s (The Matrix, Cloud Atlas), I refused to see it. About a year later, by chance, I caught it at a friends. I was blown away. Something so far from the source material was never closer to its spirit. It made me a believer of the power to remake and rebuild, even under heavy layers of CGI. Done right, it can be an incredible tool. Today, Speed Racer is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. I know it has flaws, but it makes up for them in so many ways. And here, in some spirit, is how I see Valerian. It’s better than the sum of its parts. It treads back into the world of physical sets, strange costumes and set pieces, but also steps forward and builds a tangible world with CGI. A bit long, maybe even a bit clunky, but it makes up for it by taking you on a real space oddity.

~* 9/10 *~