Review of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) by Mitch C — 13 Nov 2017

When I saw Dane DeHaan, my first impression was that he didn't really look the part of a Harrison Ford or Tom Cruise, but he really won me over. I thought he had great chemistry with Cara Delivingne, and I enjoyed the idea of a secret agent space team.

I enjoy movies like "Knight and Day" with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. The visuals were spectacular. I did recognize similarities to some of the goofy creatures that director Luc Besson used in The 5th Element.

As others have mentioned, there were also similarities to the creatures in Avatar. But as an avid sci fi fan, I really enjoyed the experience and some of the lighter moments. I loved the concept of how the space station grew over the years with all of those handshakes.

There were some obvious political overtones, but it wasn't a major part of the movie for me and didn't get in the way. After all, if you can't give your opinion on ethics and making the world a better place when doing sci fi, then why do it.

I had some issues with a few holes in the plot and I was confused a bit on the very end with how something happened. I won't spoil it. Otherwise, I would have given this a fifth star. I thought Rhianna was awesome as Bubbles.

I got into Cara Delivingne's character and enjoyed her strength and her spy skills. Her performance got me to care for her and I bought into her strong bond to her partner "Valerian". I have to say, I'm a big Game of Thrones fan, so I when Valerian had a sword battle that made my day.

Of course in Game of Thrones it's spelled "valyrian". This was definitely worth the purchase streaming on Amazon for me and was the best movie I have seen in awhile.