Valerian et la cite des mille planetes

To have an appreciation for this movie, a background of where it came from is helpful. As is the case for most films these days, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is based of a comic book series, but not just any comic book series. Valerian and Laureline was a French science fiction comic series created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mezieres first published in 1967 and the final instalment was published in 2010. In the comic book series Valerian was a Spatio-Temporal Service agent born in 2713. Laureline was a peasant girl from 11th century France who rescues Valerian from the enchanted Forest of Arelaune. When she discovers that Valerian is a time traveler, he brings her back and she is trained as an Agent and assigned as his partner. They engage in the normal battles of good vs evil along with some helpful endeavors of making a little profit for themselves on the side.

The movie keeps them as partners and we are not told exactly where Laureline comes from except that she is his newest partner and that she can kick some serious butt while keeping their calendar in order and on time by being the level headed individual in the partnership. So it could tie back to the comics in future movies or they could use temporal distortions to explain away any inconsistencies such as Star Trek and X-Men series among others have done in the past.

The movie revolves around several different story lines, the aliens that have been harmed by humans normal ignorance and uncaring natures, the rare artifact, the Converter, that when feed any resource will multiply whatever it is, the evil human overlord/General, a romance, and of course the amazing Rihanna. Put it all together jumble it up, throw in some amazing graphics, sounds effects, a strip tease and lap dance from an alien that can shapeshift, a musical soundtrack, a whole lot of explosives, and of course some dark black evil robots who just want to kill everyone, and you have a great movie waiting to be seen. O did i forget to say you need to see it in 3D to truly experience it.

That all seems like a lot to jam pack into a movie and for the most part it works, the chemistry between Cara and Dane help shape and hold the various storylines together as they first complete one mission to collect the converter as they speak about and plan for a trip to a beach resort as Valerian attempts to woo Laureline. They of course narrowly escape and complete the mission as Valerian is a bit of a bone head about his actions. They meet the their commander and receive their next brief and we are introduced to the various conflicts in a brief but detailed history lesson of both Alpha and the Aliens who are both the antagonist and the victim. We see Laureline show all her strengths and dedication to both the mission, Valerian and being the moral high ground that holds the team together.

If you can’t wait to watch the movie, and just need a little something to keep you going till its released on the 21st, you can get “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets The Art of the Film” delivered to your home July 18th.

Until then go out and buy some comics!

Saw June 29 AMC Promenade 16

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