There’s one thing we can say for sure about Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – it’s going to be spectacular to look at. Luc Besson‘s adaptation of Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières’ comic books appears to be a visual treat and the latest trailer offers enough eye candy to fill an entire movie. But is that enough to grab the attention of audiences in a summer filled with more recognizable faces and movies with numbers in their titles? After all, your average moviegoer probably isn’t familiar with Valerian and Laureline.
Honestly, that’s a question better saved for the marketing folks, because this one really has my attention. While I don’t love every Luc Besson movie, I always admire his work and the amount of imagination he puts into his storytelling. No one else could have made The Professional and The Fifth Element. His movies are him through and through and this is his biggest and most expensive movie to date. It’s a gamble for sure, but at least it’s a beautiful gamble that really does look unlike anything else hitting theaters this summer.
While the studio may wince at the comparison, the footage in the new trailer reminds me of Jupiter Ascending, another personal, unique and uncompromised science fiction vision that I love with all of my heart…that was also a box office bomb. I hope that the final film is filled with as much wonder and detail as glimpsed in this trailer, which is stuffed full of alien species, wild technology, nutty spaceships, and bizarre action. I hope that the marketing angle, that this is a Major Event, isn’t empty hype and is promising us something truly special and unique. We shall see.
Starring Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, Kris Wu, and Rutger Hauer, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets opens on July 21, 2017. Here’s the official synopsis:
In the 28th century, Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are a team of special operatives charged with maintaining order throughout the human territories. Under assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two embark on a mission to the astonishing city of Alpha—an ever-expanding metropolis where species from all over the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence and cultures with each other. There is a mystery at the center of Alpha, a dark force which threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.
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