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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 AUGUST 2017 38 This Week BACK in 1997 the world saw the release of The Fifth Element, a loopy tribute to the science fiction comics of director Luc Besson's youth. It opened to much critical derision before eventual, arguably much deserved, cult favourite sta- tus. Now, twenty years later, Bes- son returns to the genre with the grandly named Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, an- other loopy tribute to the comics of, well, the director's youth. For the curious in the audience (and who isn't?) Valerian is the cinematic adaptation of Valérian and Laureline, a series of comic books (or bandes dessinées, as per the French) from author Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières whose combination of low-brow pulp adventure, grungy, lived-in worlds and weird aliens might remind of Star Wars even if it predates it by a full decade, hav- ing first appeared in the magazine Pilote in 1967. The comics are perhaps obscure outside of main- land Europe, but anyone who's seen The Fifth Element will be familiar with Mézières - after all he was responsible for that film's look, together with the late, great Jean Giraud (aka Moebius). And now, to Valerian the movie. As one might expect from both the aforementioned source mate- rial and the director in question, this is a film absolutely popping with life and colour. The direc- tion is lively and exciting, with a camera almost too restless to take the audience from one im- aginative locale to the other, be it a market set in an alternate real- ity or the various sectors making a massive space station hous- ing hundreds of alien races from across the universe. And just as well, since the opposite applies when it comes to the plotting. Simultaneously slight and need- lessly busy - making it, ultimately, true to the nature of the source comics - it involves the inhabit- ants of the planet Mül, a race of supermodel-esque androgynes who want to rebuild their beachy home world after it was blown up during a space battle. To do so they need a "Mül Converter," an adorable shrew-like creature capable of replicating anything it ingests. However, following an adventure involving a corpulent crime lord and hopping between two separate planes of reality (a stunning sequence that makes the film worth watching in 3D) the converter ends up in the posses- sion of Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne), a pair of agents working for what amounts to the military wing of the government running Alpha, the titular City of a Thousand Planets. The Mül attack the Al- pha security council, Valerian and Laureline set off on the chase, action set pieces ensue across en- vironments ranging from typical space station interiors to Blade Runner-style urban locales, sub- merged sectors housing massive creatures and what appears to be a red-light district planted right next to a series of caves housing a xenophobic tribal society. There is a density and imagination of visuals that hasn't been since the George Lucas-directed Star Wars prequels, and taken as such Vale- rian is an antidote to the overly conservative franchise tentpoles of recent years including, well, the two post-Lucas Star Wars films of recent years. It all sounds like good fun, but Valerian is marred by one major flaw - Besson's penchant for cast- ing elfin youths as his leads. One might assume model turned ac- tress Cara Delevigne would be the film's weakest link but that is not actually the case, even if this pos- sessor of the strongest eyebrow game in the galaxy is, ultimately, rather wooden. Instead, it's Dane DeHaan who absolutely fails to convince, with a dreadful perfor- mance turning what is supposed to be a roguish and charming space hero into something of a petulant manchild. And while the comics were famous for having a couple of protagonists in a flirty will-they-won't-they relationship, their cinematic equivalent is ab- solutely bereft of chemistry, and appear to near hate each other at points. Meanwhile the supporting cast fails to brighten proceedings, as Clive Owen sleepwalks his way through his role as military Com- mander Arün Filitt, Rihanna is oddly muted as shapeshifting al- ien performer Bubbles and Ethan Hawke makes a blink or you miss it cameo as what the credits tell is "Jolly the Pimp." While The Fifth Element re- mains the main point of reference, Valerian reminds a great deal of Jupiter Ascending, the Wachows- ki siblings' 2015 soap opera fea- turing a similar combination of dazzling visuals, awful acting and malnourished scripting. And like Jupiter Ascending, it is probably set to gather a minor cult among the fans of oddball science fiction cinema. For the likes of us, Vale- rian is strange and beautiful and exciting, but its flaws are reason enough for the non-aficionados to remain non-enthused. Which is a shame, really. IN CINEMAS TODAY Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Dunkirk (12A) 10:30, 13:45, 16:05, 18:25, 20:45 The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (U) 10:00, 12:05, 14:10, 16:15, 18:20, 20:30 Girls Trip (15) 16:00, 18:35, 21:10 Atomic Blonde (15) 10:30, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 Spider-Man: Homecoming (PG) 10:35, 18:10, 20:55 Despicable Me 3 (U) 14:00, 16:05 The Emoji Movie (U) 10:00, 12:10, 14:20, 16:30, 18:40, 20:50 Valletta Living History (U) 10:00, 10:45, 11:30, 12:15, 13:00, 13:45, 14:30, 15:15 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 Bob the Builder: Mega Machines (U) 11:05, 12:40, 16:25 Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 2D (12A) 14:30, 20:55 Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 3D (12A) 11:20, 18:00 Cars 3 2D (U) 11:20, 13:45, 16:05 Spider-Man: Homecoming 2D (PG) 11:25, 14:30, 18:00, 20:45, 23:30 The Emoji Movie 2D (U) 11:25, 16:10, 20:30 The Emoji Movie 3D (U) 14:05, 18:15 The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (U) 11:30, 14:15, 16:20, 18:25, 20:35 Fireman Sam: Alien Alert! The Movie (U) 11:30 Atomic Blonde (15) 13:45, 16:15, 18:45, 21:15, 22:45 Dunkirk (12A) 14:10, 16:30, 18:50, 21:15 Annabelle Creation (15) 14:05, 16:25, 18:40, 21:00, 22:40 Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (U) 14:05, 16:05, 18:15 City of Ghosts (TBA) 14:05, 18:30 Despicable Me 3 (U) 14:10, 16:15, 18:25 47 Metres Down (15) 14:20, 16:25, 18:30, 20:40, 22:55 Monster Island (PG) 14:30, 18:10 Williams (TBA) 16:10, 20:30 Girls Trip (15) 18:20, 20:55, 23:30 War for the Planet of the Apes 2D (12A) 20:30 Baby Driver (15) 20:35 Baywatch (15) 20:40 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Despicable Me 3 (U) 11:15, 14:00, 16:30, 18:40 Spider-Man: Homecoming 2D (PG) 21:00 Dunkirk (12A) 11:15, 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:00 The Emoji Movie 2D (U) 11:15, 14:00, 16:30, 18:40, 20:45 Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 3D (12A) 11:05, 14:05, 18:15, 21:05 Annabelle: Creation (15) 11:15, 14:00, 16:15, 18:30, 20:45 The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (U) 11:15, 14:00, 16:30, 18:40, 20:50 Atomic Blonde (15) 11:10, 13:45, 16:15, 18:45, 21:15 By Marco Attard ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ A STAR IS BORN ★ ★ ★ ★ STAR WARS ★ ★ ★ STAR BALLS ★ ★ STAR CRASH ★ STAR DUST FILM VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS ★ ★ ★ Another loopy tribute The trouble with shopping: following a visit to an interdimensional marketplace Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) find themselves in a spot of trouble en route to the City of a Thousand Planets