So, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets... Dane DeHaan doesn't nail the 'infuriating but lovable jerk' Han Solo thing his role needs, Cara Delevigne's okay on her own but doesn't really bring a lot of chemistry to her side of the pairing either (the two of them have a few moments, but what it really needed was to be swimming in so much sexual tension that any time they so much as look at each other it becomes R-rated just because of what you know they're both thinking), the script in general could've used another pass to streamline some exposition, and quite a lot of the dialogue fails to impress (again, the flirtation misses the mark as often as not).
Nevertheless, I loved, loved, LOVED this movie - even DeHaan, I think I kind of get what Luc Besson saw in him when he reportedly decided that this guy is totally Valerian, despite it not working on screen, in my mind's eye I agree with him, and in my personal fantasy world where the French government funds Besson to make as many sequels as it takes for the rest of the world to admit this is awesome, he'd still be Valerian. As even the unimpressed critics are saying it's visually magnificent, just a stunning avalanche of space opera light and sound. I haven't read Valerian & Laureline itself (although I will - I got into a preview screening and the cinema gave out booklets with the start of Ambassador of the Shadows in it, which was nice of them) but I've read a fair bit of French sci-fi comics and other European ones in the same family, and even when the movie was flailing around missing the mark, it was doing 'French sci-fi comic' perfectly. I want films like this for miles. (So it's sad it's doing poorly, and my proposed solution is a UN resolution so every time Paramount makes another godawful Transformers movie, they have to give Besson enough money to fund a Valerian sequel by way of reparations.)
