I liked it. Only real complaint is that the title Valerian and the City of A Half Dozen Worlds would have been more accurate. Luc Besson gave us some pretty amazing things to look at, but not quite as much as I thought I was going to get. Going off of the trailers, I thought that I was going to have the most complete triptastic experience ever. It was still triptastic...but it actually focused more on story than I thought that it would. I also thought that the story would be as simple as that in his previous space opera, The Fifth Element, where the conflict was so silly that it could literally be described as "big ball of pure evil is heading toward Earth." The conflict in this one? Still fit for a space opera, but not quite as silly. Depending on your point of view, that may or may not be a good thing.

Another thing that surprised me was that Valerian and Laureline had a surprising amount of character. I'm not saying that they're as distinct as this year's Logan, Peter Quill, Wonder Woman, Peter Parker, or Caesar, but they had actual personalities. The advertisements didn't suggest anything of the sort. I thought that they were going to be simple avatars for getting us through this world, but they were slightly more than that. Another thing that surprised me is that I thought that Dane DeHaan had an annoying voice. Cara Delevingne is an actress who's only just getting into modeling, and a ton of people were complaining about that in the Youtube comments section, so I thought that if either of the characters would be a little less enjoyable to watch, it would be hers. Not that I expected that, because I didn't think that her acting ability would be that important to the plot. You know, kind of like in those old 80's flicks, where the bad acting of action heroes like Arnold Schwartzenegger was part of their charm. However, Dane DeHaan, who has legitimate acting credentials, gave Valerian a slightly obnoxious voice. I'm not entirely sure why. Given who his character was, it would have made a little bit more sense for him to play the part like David Tennant.

That's where my criticism of the film stops. One guy had a slightly annoying voice, and the film wasn't as jam-packed with silly, extreme spectacle as the trailers were. I think that the main reason for the latter criticism is that in the films third act, they really begin to focus on one planet in particular. However, that story was actually fine. I liked it. It was still entertaining.

But speaking of entertainment, I would love to talk about my favorite parts of the film. For what I went to see, I particularly enjoyed the first act, which involved a tour guide who reminded me of everyone's favorite nuisance from The Fifth Element, and a very creative chase scene through an interdimensional market. It utilized a science fiction idea that I had had for a while and never thought anyone else would think of, and I admired the technical thought process of the director that allowed for this scene to happen. It played off of a real great scientific "what if" and also gave me a cool adventure at the same time.

Right before the first act really starts, during the prologue, there's a truly beautiful sequence about the founding of the futuristic society that the film is set in. I won't give much about it away, but I found it tearjerking, and it reminded me of some of the things that I absolutely love about being born in this era of history. You'll have to watch it in order to understand why.

I liked when Laureline went on a submarine with some guy with a crazy mustache and differently-colored eyes. That was an awesome sequence, and I love that everyone in this film is just generally weird. This especially is especially true in the part of the adventure that included Rihanna. The only thing that I would have changed about that part of the movie would be to make Ethan Hawk play a mo-cap alien, because everything's better with more aliens.

There were a couple of generals. One of them is obviously the bad guy who did something evil and is trying to cover it up (think of the movie Serenity), and the other is a general who thinks what the audience is thinking. You know, stuff like "Information on a destroyed planet is classified and can only be read by the other guy. I don't know what to think of that yet, but that probably isn't a good sign."

For those who know me, they know that I pay attention to the score in every film that I watch, basically as much as the story. I don't remember the notes, but I remember the score being vibrant and keeping the world colorful, which is definitely one of the things that I wanted going in to this movie.

Too bad it's bombing at the box office. This is Luc Besson's lifelong passion project. It cost a lot of Euros to make, and I ran them through the converter to estimate that it cost $223 million. It's not going to make its money back, so I'm guessing that he's decided that he's going on with a bang. It could very well be that this is his last film. But I don't want it to be. I would love sequels to this. I'd love to see him get even crazier. This is one of the OG space operas, and he's one of the best directors for that genre. I would love to see this make enough money to give Europacorp some incentive to take a risk on him again.

One of the reasons I found this so entertaining was because, even though we already had a space opera earlier this year, this one feels a little more fresh, because it's a spectacle film that isn't part of a major franchise. Even though I enjoyed all of the superhero movies this year and think that they were all slam-dunks, they all sort of cancel each other out. They all bleed together. This experience stood out to me a little more.

By all means, go see it.