Each new Luc Besson movie feels like a coin flip between too-silly and and deliciously silly. The Professional? Delightfully silly (if a bit creepy). Lucy? Too silly. The Fifth Element? Perfection incarnate. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets? Well, that’s the question, ain’t it? Will this be as stupid and daft and dissolve into nothingness like Lucy? Or can he really recapture the chaotic magic of The Fifth Element?
The first teaser trailer for Valerian certainly looks promising. I’m crossing my fingers so hard for this one my knuckles are bleeding:
‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ Teaser Trailer
As heartening as it was to have a new Star Wars movie that wasn’t rancid nonsense, The Force Awakens felt very stuck in the old ways. Surely space opera has made some advances since 1977?
So as excited as we are for Rogue One and Star Wars: Episode VIII, it’d be fantastic to see some competition that can push Lucasfilm past homage and force them to give us something genuinely new. It was an earnest effort, Jupiter Ascending, but not good enough. Maybe Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is that movie. Probably not, but we can dream.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is due out in theaters July 21, 2017.
