To start with the obvious: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is visually stunning, to the point where it even becomes overwhelming, bordeline overkill at times. The main aliens are beautifully crafted, very reminiscent of the Na'vi from Avatar. Pretty much all the other creatures are also very well made, as are the environments and general world-building. Major props to the overall production and art design, and the creators for giving us a visually distinct and unique universe that sadly gets underexplored. Still, I'll take underexplored over generic anytime of the week.
To continue with the second obvious: The acting is terrible. Although he doesn't do anything particularly wrong, Dane DeHaan is flat and monotone throughout. Considering I've seen much better from him in some of his previous roles (particularly in Chronicle), I'm going to chalk that up to poor directing and the difficulties of acting in an all green-screen environment.
Cara Delevigne on the other hand is simply not an actress. She does not come close to having the acting chops to carry a whole film. She's alright if she just does some quick witty banter, but anything requiring any type of range is, well, out of her range. The same goes for Rihanna, who was simply awful and delivered all her lines the way you'd expect someone with very limited acting experience and talent to deliver them: choppy and wooden, as if they're read directly from the page. Again, that is not really her fault, because she simply is not an actress. That is down to the producers, who thought that bringing in a model and an actress would boost ticket sales.
Spoiler: it didn't. Had they gone for better actors, it would have still probably bombed at the box office, but at least potentially could have gained the same sort of respect as something like The Fifth Element. Instead, it brings down what could have been a cult classic: a movie with an average script, but stunning visuals seeping with originality and vitality, and creatures and environments that can only have been been made up under the influence of some sort of hallucinogens. I still thoroughly enjoyed it, but I can see why others thoroughly wouldn't.
To continue with the second obvious: The acting is terrible. Although he doesn't do anything particularly wrong, Dane DeHaan is flat and monotone throughout. Considering I've seen much better from him in some of his previous roles (particularly in Chronicle), I'm going to chalk that up to poor directing and the difficulties of acting in an all green-screen environment.
Cara Delevigne on the other hand is simply not an actress. She does not come close to having the acting chops to carry a whole film. She's alright if she just does some quick witty banter, but anything requiring any type of range is, well, out of her range. The same goes for Rihanna, who was simply awful and delivered all her lines the way you'd expect someone with very limited acting experience and talent to deliver them: choppy and wooden, as if they're read directly from the page. Again, that is not really her fault, because she simply is not an actress. That is down to the producers, who thought that bringing in a model and an actress would boost ticket sales.
Spoiler: it didn't. Had they gone for better actors, it would have still probably bombed at the box office, but at least potentially could have gained the same sort of respect as something like The Fifth Element. Instead, it brings down what could have been a cult classic: a movie with an average script, but stunning visuals seeping with originality and vitality, and creatures and environments that can only have been been made up under the influence of some sort of hallucinogens. I still thoroughly enjoyed it, but I can see why others thoroughly wouldn't.