More on Valerian

[kutsuwamushi]

I 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.

Comments

[nenya_kanadka]

My wife muccamukk linked me here (I've seen Valerian and she hasn't):

one of the things that dashes this movie is how much it's covered in typical straight man gunk

Christ, thiiiiis. It took it from mediocre to at points actively annoying. It was so visually pretty, but then....

SIGH.

(And I mean, queer woman here. Far be it from me to fail to appreciate Rihanna's dancing. And yet, the context.)

[kutsuwamushi]

Yeah, the context. I could watch Rihanna all day but that's the only thing the scene has going for it - they at least picked someone I want to watch.

But it's just so... so ... derivative. It's not even an imaginative fantasy. The world has so much potential for imagination and what they do is put Rihanna in a nurse costume?

I think one of the things that frustrates me about it is how much this kind of derivative, low-effort bullshit gets a pass because it is by and for straight men. It's particularly obvious in this movie because the sci-fi setting highlights how it could be different, but it's really all over the place.

[nenya_kanadka]

Exactly, exactly. Low-effort tropefic isn't necessarily a bad thing per se (unless it's stepping on other people by being racist/sexist/homophobic/etc), but you run into problems when ONE group of people's default playing-to-my-id-and-prejudices stuff is assumed to be what EVERYONE wants. Also too since straight white guys are so high on the privilege ladder, there's a lot that does stamp on other people that they don't notice, and that too gets everywhere.

I love shapeshifters as a trope--especially ones like Rihanna's character who can be just about anything (I imprinted hard on Odo on Star Trek DS9, okay)--which makes it annoying when they don't do anything interesting with it.

Of course if she hadn't had to die for drama points, that would probably have made it less of a pain in the ass too. Sigh.

I would watch a whole movie with her as the protagonist, though!