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2017, Sci-fi/Adventure, 2h 17m
301 Reviews 25,000+ RatingsWhat to know
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets uses sheer kinetic energy and visual thrills to overcome narrative obstacles and offer a viewing experience whose surreal pleasures often outweigh its flaws. Read critic reviewscritics consensus
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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets Videos
1:02
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Behind the Scenes - Big Market
1:17
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Behind the Scenes - Creating the Shell City
1:21
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Behind the Scenes - Rihanna as Bubble
1:14
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Behind the Scenes - Designing Alpha
1:06
Luc Besson on Casting Rihanna: Exclusive Interview
1:50
That Moment When You Realize You're in a Luc Besson Movie: Exclusive Interview
0:30
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: TV Spot - Attack
0:30
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: TV Spot - Imagine
1:44
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Trailer 1
2:30
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Teaser Trailer 2
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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets Photos
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Movie Info
In the 28th century, special operatives Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline work together to maintain order throughout the human territories. Under assignment from the minister of defense, the duo embarks on a mission to Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis where diverse species gather to share knowledge and culture. When a dark force threatens the peaceful city, Valerian and Laureline must race against time to identify the menace that also jeopardizes the future of the universe.
Rating:
PG-13 (Sci-Fi Violence and Action|Brief Language|Suggestive Material)
Genre:
Sci-fi, Adventure, Action
Original Language:
English
Director:
Luc Besson
Producer:
Luc Besson, Virginie Silla
Writer:
Luc Besson
Release Date (Theaters):
Jul 21, 2017 wide
Release Date (Streaming):
Nov 21, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA):
$40.4M
Runtime:
2h 17m
Distributor:
STX Entertainment
Aspect Ratio:
Scope (2.35:1)
Cast & Crew
Dane DeHaan
Major Valerian
Cara Delevingne
Sergeant Laureline
Clive Owen
Commander Arun Filitt
Rihanna
Bubble
Ethan Hawke
Jolly the Pimp
Herbie Hancock
Defence Minister
Kris Wu
Sergeant Neza
Rutger Hauer
President of the World State Federation
Sam Spruell
General Okto-Bar
Alain Chabat
Bob the Pirate
Aymeline Valade
Emperor Haban-Limaï
Elizabeth Debicki
Emperor Haban-Limaï
Voice
John Goodman
Igon Siruss
Voice
Luc Besson
Director
Luc Besson
Screenwriter
Luc Besson
Producer
Virginie Silla
Producer
Thierry Arbogast
Cinematographer
Julien Rey
Film Editing
Alexandre Desplat
Original Music
Hugues Tissandier
Production Design
Gilles Boillot
Art Director
Thierry Zemmour
Art Director
Stéphane Robuchon
Art Director
Christian Vallat
Art Director
Etienne Rohde
Art Director
Evelyne Tissandier
Set Decoration
Olivier Bériot
Costume Design
Nathalie Cheron
Casting
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Critic Reviews for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
All Critics (301) | Top Critics (66) | Fresh (143) | Rotten (158)
Full Review… Sara Michelle Fetters MovieFreak.comFull Review… Paul Byrnes Sydney Morning HeraldFull Review… Stephen Romei The AustralianFull Review… K. Austin Collins The RingerFull Review… Tara Brady Irish TimesFull Review… Wendy Ide Observer (UK)Full Review… Keith Garlington Keith & the MoviesFull Review… Fletcher Powell KMUW - Wichita Public RadioFull Review… Brian Eggert Deep Focus ReviewFull Review… Drew Dietsch FANDOMFull Review… Hosea Rupprecht Pauline Center for Media StudiesFull Review… Matt Brunson Film FrenzyView All Critic Reviews (301)
Audience Reviews for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Jan 14, 2019
Delevingne is an excellent actor if she can make me believe the horrible dialogue in this film. Using Aristotle, with 5 = best and 1 = worst: Plot 1, Character 2 (the secondary characters are interesting), Ideas = 1 (What indeed is this film trying to say?), Sound/Music = 3 (Average. I did notice the use of Staying Alive by the Bee Gees), Diction = 0 (This is the worst thing about this movie), Spectacle = 5. The film looks great. That's the most I can really say for it.
Morris N Super Reviewer
Jul 02, 2018
From Luc Besson comes the sci-fi adventure film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, a visual spectacle that's a fest for the eyes (but not much else). Based on a graphic novel series, the story follows a pair of special agents who are tasked with uncovering the source of a mysterious radiation that's infecting the space station Alpha and threatens to destroy it. Unfortunately Dane DeHaan is horribly miscast and has no chemistry with co-star Cara Delevingne. DeHaan lacks the charm and charisma needed to pull off the character, which is a fatal flaw of the film. Also problematic is the overload of weird aliens and futuristic technology (making the film incredibly convoluted and hard to follow). Yet, there are some amazing special effects and some really interesting set and creature designs. And the score isn't that bad either. But despite the imaginative aesthetic, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a clusterf***.
Dann M Super Reviewer
Feb 14, 2018
(2 1/2 stars) Luc Besson, the visionary behind some major staples in the film industry such as The Fifth Element, Leon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita, The Transporter, and Taken (just to name a few), has always been a director/screenwriter/producer with eyes bigger than his stomach. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets falls perfectly into that category of a film full of visual splendor and technical marvel but without a solid story to build around. Besson had major tent-pole actors like Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson, or Jason Statham to build and start these journeys with in his other films. For Valerian, one he self describes as his 'life's work', it feels most of the budget went to everything but the actors. Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne deliver staccato performances because of chopped and skewered dialogue reserved to one liners. One of the major problems of the film is its tonal shifts from syfy goofiness, to life-or-death seriousness, flipped to a romantic comedy before finishing with an action-heavy, save-the-day style climax. It's all over the place. The plot follows much of the same bounciness. Perhaps it's because Besson wanted to follow the comic and include as much as he could from the first issue, or maybe he just felt like showing off as much of the universe as he could, but while each 'side mission' may have some some small relevance to the overall story, it's tough to care about a pretty bland tale when you spend 30 minutes venturing off the path. But even with all the commotion between the themes shifting every so often and the plot never staying true to its course, Valerian (a title given for the main character's name), is a beauty to watch. You can tell there was meticulous time spent crafting each character in real life and CGI. Valerian won't match any of the previous films Besson bestowed upon us in the past despite him thinking this was his magnum opus, but it will leave you with a pleasant feeling should you decide to watch based on an a relatively clean outcome and a visual roller coaster ride to take you there.
Lane Z Super Reviewer
Jan 15, 2018
Awesome name right, flippin' awesome. This attractively titled movie is based on the French comicbook series [i]Valérian and Laureline[/i]. I've never heard of this comicbook series but apparently its one of the biggest Franco-Belgian titles around. There is also an animated series of this comic too, who'd of thought it. I really liked the basic setup for this movie. Via flashbacks in the opening credits we are told the story of the International Space Station (ISS). It starts off historically accurate showcasing the station being placed into Earth's orbit, and then slowly over the years sections being added and different countries joining the crew. But as we progress further into the future things obviously become more fictional with the station growing larger and larger and eventually alien creatures greeting humans on-board in diplomatic, historical events. It gets to a point where ISS is so big it becomes a danger to Earth, so its moved off into deep space and renamed 'Alpha'. And thus we have the massive space city of a thousand planets (referring to all the alien species that live within the city). This one concept is fantastic, love it. The rest of the films plot not so much. Essentially what we have is yet another Avatar-esque story surrounding a primitive race of aliens that have their home planet unceremoniously wiped out by nasty humans. It wasn't an intentional act mind you but whatever. These aliens infiltrate the massive Alpha city to assimilate human knowledge in order to build a new ship that can recreate their home world (I didn't understand this part). This also involved finding a couple mcguffins and some kidnapping hijinks, which in turn brings in our human protagonists, Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne) to solve the case. Right lets look at the best part of this movie, in fact its the only good thing in this movie. So Valerian and Laureline have been tasked with finding the 'Mül converter', a creature that can clone anything it eats, and it can apparently eat anything? This meant going to a vast open desert which is the location of an extra-dimensional market place, and tourist attraction. Within the extra-dimensional marketplace they must infiltrate an alien gangsters lair to steal said converter. So basically what this means is, somewhere else in the universe (and in another dimension) there is this huge Tatooine-esque town and market. But the only way to reach or visit it is via special attire that allows the user to cross space and time in an instant. The user is basically a projected hologram in the distant extra-dimensional market place; whilst back in the desert the user walks around almost like they're using a virtual reality headset. At the same time Valerian is able to use smaller versions of this technology in the form of a simple cube device. This allows him to simply put his hand into the cube which contains a portal of sorts. So on one side of the cube his hand is in the extra-dimensional market place, like a dismembered floating hand; whilst the rest of him is still in the desert in relative safety. It all sounds quite complex and its hard to explain in writing, but trust me its a fantastic bit of futuristic visual fantasy. In short what we get for the first half of this movie (after a rather soppy beginning involving the primitive alien race) is a superb slice of science fiction that encapsulates amazing imagination, mind boggling futuristic technology, wonderfully designed alien beings, an atmospheric setting, and a thrilling rollercoaster of a ride. Admittedly its not all perfectly original as we've all seen sandy alien marketplaces before...ahem, but that's being picky. But here lies the problem with this movie. After this mesmerising sequence of innovative action the entire movie literally falls to pieces, its crumbles under its own weight. For a start it won't have escaped your attention that the two protagonists are utterly terrible and miscast. Both DeHaan and Delevingne come across like emotionless robots with glazed over eyes. The duo don't gel together romantically or when the action kicks in. Its actually quite remarkable really, both come across like CGI characters devoid of any real human characteristics, its like they were both grown in a lab by Hollywood. DeHaan looks like a younger DiCaprio but with none of the talent; whilst Delevingne has one default facial expression she obviously learnt from her fashion modelling days. These main character issues obviously affect other parts of the movie. Naturally you as the viewer don't care about either of them; you know neither will die anyway but you couldn't care a less because they're so robotic. When we are first introduced to both Valerian and Laureline, Valerian proposes to Laureline, but she says no. This is supposed to make us feel emotion for Valerian, but because they are both so zombie-like in performance and we know nothing about them, its falls completely flat. In the fantastic marketplace action sequence the duo actually infiltrate said marketplace with a team of other elite police officers. All these guys get killed...but who cares? Well clearly Valerian and Laureline don't, just another day at the office. On space station Alpha during an important summit meeting to discuss the mysterious toxic zone at the centre of the station, the primitive aliens break in and kidnap Commander Arün Filitt (Clive Owen). This really made no sense because we are led to believe that technology is so advanced in this age that the sheer notion of anyone being able to sneak into an important area in the station and actually take out all the security...would be nigh on impossible. Yet the so called primitive race manage just this and kidnap the commander. They also managed to land their craft nearby, and no one detected this? The fact these primitive aliens also seem to be so very environmentally friendly, passive and perfect makes this political move even more unbelievable really. We're talking about half naked aliens covered in seashell jewellery here people. This leads to a large chase sequence where Valerian suits up in some other super hi-tech suit thing which enables him to smash through any and all walls. This gives us a brilliant sequence showcasing all the various environments within Alpha. Problem is these different environments include underwater sections and areas which are clearly finely balanced for their alien inhabitants. But none of that matters because Valerian smashes through walls, seemingly obliterating balanced environments yet not causing any major catastrophes such as huge leaks from the underwater areas. Things go from bad to worse as we are introduced to the three exposition aliens that try to simplify the plot for us when things get too ridiculous. There's an entire underwater sequence with a Captain Nemo type character that is completely pointless. There's the casting of Rihanna as a shapeshifting alien dancer called Bubble (pretty awful CGI effects). Much like the Captain Nemo character Bubble is also pretty pointless and could have quite easily been removed. Obviously Besson wanted Rihanna in for the star power. Speaking of wanting star power, there's also Ethan Hawke as Bubble's pimp, again pointless. There are jellyfish type creatures that can read your brain and show you pretty much everything that's ever popped in there, including dreams and visions. Huge sea creatures live in sections of Alpha apparently. And there are also entire undiscovered civilisations within Alpha, that's how big it is. There is so much I could write about this movie both good and bad. The reason being there is so much in-depth detail and world building in this movie, its quite an achievement really. Luc Besson has outdone himself here and easily bettered his other famous sci-fi 'The Fifth Element' in my opinion. Although I have no idea how accurate this is to the original source material. But the one huge sticky problem is...the movie just can't sustain itself and just collapses. It goes from being a reasonably intelligent, exciting and unique space opera into a formulaic, messy, incoherent, unoriginal snooze fest. Don't get me wrong, the movie looks incredible with its lavish other-worldly designs and vivid aliens, but talk about an anti-climax. So kudos for nearly everything, but maybe they should have focused the movie around that first marketplace location. Really wanted to love this but in the end I can't help but feel disappointed.
Is there a Valerian 2?
Valerian 2: Back to the Earth is a science fiction film directed by Luc Besson. It was released on Little Witch+, It's a sequel to the 2017 film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.Where can I watch Valerian 2022?
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, an adventure movie starring Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, and Clive Owen is available to stream now. Watch it on VGK IPTV NEW 2, Prime Video, Vudu, Redbox. or Apple TV on your Roku device.How many parts of Valerian movie are there?
Luc Besson has already written a sequel to Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and is now working on a third movie.Does Netflix have Valerian movie?
Space cops Valerian and Laureline embark on a mission to retrieve a near-extinct creature, rescue their kidnapped commander and protect the galaxy. Watch all you want.