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Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets Analysis

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Luc Beeson's massive $180 million science-fiction spectacle, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, inspired from the favorite comics of his youth, is a gorgeous-looking, borderline disaster of a film. At times, the film feels epic, clever, and original. In other moments, especially in the film's final 30 minutes, everything devolves into laugh-out-loud ridiculousness and cringe-worthy acting and writing. Though never boring, even at 140 minutes on screen, whether dazzling to witness or stiltedly awful to endure, you simply never know what is coming next.

Beeson's latest film earned that production budget largely through crowd-sourcing and the writer/director's own money. It has been reported that this is the most expensive …show more content…

Feed a pearl to a conductor, and suddenly countless pearls come pouring out of the animal. This regeneration serves as the necessary ingredient for a peaceful, perfect lifestyle.

One particular day, the Pearls fall victim to an attack, which unceremoniously combusts their planet and leads to a sudden and immediate genocide. A handful of Pearls, away from the planet, did survive and though they have tried to replicate their inter-dimensional world, there are things they need: An energy pearl for replicating more marble-sized pebbles, and the last remaining conductor, which has just been recovered from a nasty villain and rests in the possession of our (not so) humble protagonists.

Perhaps it should be mentioned that at this point, Beeson seems unclear on what exactly our protagonists do for their jobs. DeHaan is a fine actor, but a poor choice to try and carry a two-plus hour science-fiction adventure which is saddled with nebulous focus and immature scripting. His lack of charisma in this role is jarring, as he opts for a weird 1990's Keanu Reeves-style affect to his voice, and comes off as often smug or manipulative.

Opposite him, Delevingne equips herself well, though Beeson clearly has no idea how to write dialogue that makes us believe that she could truly love this guy, or that

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