Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E... May 2026

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: A Maximalist Sci-Fi Odyssey

This disconnect creates a vacuum in the center of the film. The audience is asked to care deeply about their romance, yet the most magnetic presence in the movie is not the leads, but Rihanna, playing a shapeshifting entertainer named Bubble. Her performance, tragic and visually kinetic, highlights what the main duo lacked: genuine pathos. Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E...

However, the narrative structure, while serviceable, is merely a skeleton to hang these visual marvels. The plot follows Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne), special operatives who uncover a hidden genocide against the peaceful Pearls of Mul, a humanoid species whose habitat was destroyed by human negligence. This eco-political message—a critique of militarism and colonial hubris—is timely and mature. Yet, the urgency of this plot is constantly undermined by the film’s tonal inconsistency. Besson treats the story with the earnest, swashbuckling pace of a 1980s adventure serial, complete with quippy one-liners and a jarring, unnecessary detour to a tropical beach resort for a shape-shifting subplot. The film never decides whether it wants to be a grave indictment of imperial violence or a light-hearted romp, leaving the audience emotionally adrift. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets:

To watch Valerian is to witness a filmmaker who loves the medium of science fiction with a childlike intensity. It is a reminder that cinema should be about showing us things we have never seen before. For all its narrative shortcomings, Valerian shows us a thousand things we have never seen, and for that, it deserves to be remembered not as a flop, but as a beautiful, expensive, and utterly unique mistake. Yet, the urgency of this plot is constantly

, an ever-expanding intergalactic metropolis where thousands of species converge to share knowledge and culture.