Review: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – Guildford Odeon

Published on: 5 Aug, 2017
Updated on: 5 Aug, 2017

By Dennis Harvey-Hepherd

This is a grand scale sci-fi movie based on the French graphic novels Valerian and Laureline and it reflects its origins very well.

The reviews for this film in the USA have not done it justice. However, that is not surprising. With no American accents or big names and a complex, somewhat anti-establishment story, it was probably too complex.

For a European audience, steeped in literature and especially rich sci-fi story telling, this is a very satisfying tale of high jinks and treachery.

But it is not perfect by any means. The Gallic humour is almost completely lost, with most of the humour coming from the comic appearance of most of the alien races (is this racist if the race is imaginary?).

The two leading actors are somewhat young in appearance for the roles, as I had imagined them. Even so, they give lively and compelling performances.

The love story between them is a slow burn rather than a hot affair but doesn’t it make a nice change from having the characters immediately falling in love as in most films.

So I would recommend this for anybody who loves science fiction, enjoys complex story lines and interesting ideas. I award it 4 out of five stars.

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