More on Valerian
May. 9th, 2018 12:46 pmI think my favorite moment in the movie is this one:
Valerian has to find a disguise and it just so happens that the best place to find one is in a brothel (of course).
So he enters the brothel and is treated to an extended burlesque dance by Rihanna (of course). Because it's far-future sci-fi, Rihanna goes through each 20th century male sexual fantasy the director could think of - schoolgirl, nurse, etc (of course).
And then after the entire performance is over, Valerian says: "I don't have time for this."
You know what? I don't think the movie really had time for it, either.
I know this has parallels to the opera scene in Fifth Element, but (a) that was actually somewhat imaginative, and (b) the action actually advanced during that scene.
After thinking about it some more, I'm pretty sure that one of the things that dashes this movie is how much it's covered in typical straight man gunk. It's everywhere, from the hackneyed first scene with Valerian and Laureline, to the "romance," to the fact that the future world is apparently 80% male, 10% titties, and 10% assorted lazy stereotypes (e.g the shopping-crazy woman and her beleaguered husband)...
It's so artistically lazy.
Valerian has to find a disguise and it just so happens that the best place to find one is in a brothel (of course).
So he enters the brothel and is treated to an extended burlesque dance by Rihanna (of course). Because it's far-future sci-fi, Rihanna goes through each 20th century male sexual fantasy the director could think of - schoolgirl, nurse, etc (of course).
And then after the entire performance is over, Valerian says: "I don't have time for this."
You know what? I don't think the movie really had time for it, either.
I know this has parallels to the opera scene in Fifth Element, but (a) that was actually somewhat imaginative, and (b) the action actually advanced during that scene.
After thinking about it some more, I'm pretty sure that one of the things that dashes this movie is how much it's covered in typical straight man gunk. It's everywhere, from the hackneyed first scene with Valerian and Laureline, to the "romance," to the fact that the future world is apparently 80% male, 10% titties, and 10% assorted lazy stereotypes (e.g the shopping-crazy woman and her beleaguered husband)...
It's so artistically lazy.
