I think the french cominc was named ' the adventurs of Delorian and Leelou" but I never read it.

I saw the movie.  It was pretty cool but need a better script.  It felt very much like an Anime I would have watch in the late 90's.  As an example in the 2nd scene Delorian asks Leelou out on a date, she turns him down so he asks her to marry him instead.  I mean come on.  

That said of all the middleschoolness of the dialogue.  It was good.  The effects were spectacular, the direction and pacing were good.  The actors were game.  

John Goodman was in it.  He's been working more lately.  He was in Atomic Blond.  Another good comicbook movie.  A much better movie than Delorian.  

They should have kept the name though.  "The coldest city" would be much more accurate.  That movie was rough.  Atomic blonde sounds like a fun action movie.  This was rougher than Bourne, and more Spiey than Tinker Tailor.

Quote from: Headless;981779I saw the movie.  It was pretty cool but need a better script...

That pretty much sums up every film Luc Besson has ever made.

I read the sample issue (first issue? First issue of a story arc? Some shit done by Besson to hype his movie??? I dunno) that came with a free advertisement for the movie several months ago, before I'd heard anything about it.

It was... interesting? Enough to make me think some day I'll try to get a graphic collection (HEY!!! I got Amazon working again!!!) to give it a better go, but not interesting enough to make me desperate to read more.

I saw the movie, and it wasn't anything like as bad as some critics made out. It's clearly driven by effects, but the story and script isn't that bad - no different to your usual sci-fi affair - the acting is OK and it does have beautiful visuals. It has a tidier script than either Lucy or The Fifth Element.

Fifth Element is now treated as a cult classic but I recall most people thinking it sucked too when it first came out.

Q: Anyone read Valorian and the city of 1000 worlds?

A: Never even heard of it until now.

Quote from: Voros;981880Thay pretty much sums up every film Luc Besson has ever made.

Didn't he make that awful Three Musketeers with flying galleons and kung fu fighting?

Don't think so. He may have written it. His adaptation of Tardi's Adele Blanc-Sec was not bad at all but it didn't really get much of a theatrical release in North America.

Quote from: Voros;982378Don't think so. He may have written it. His adaptation of Tardi's Adele Blanc-Sec was not bad at all but it didn't really get much of a theatrical release in North America.

I checked IMDB, someone named Paul W.S. Anderson directed it. Luc Besson didn't write it either.  I must have been confused due to Milla Jovovich and her dreadfully bad Milady. Too bad they dragged Dumas' name into it; he is not to blame for all the hamfisted "improvements" they made to his novels. In fact the 2011 version seems more like they skipped reading the books entirely and just made an even worse adaptation of the godawful 1993 Disney version which had nothing at all to do with the books.

'The Adventures of Delorian and Leelou" was referenced in the end titles, and may end up being a sequel maybe (although if the box office is low, maybe not).

The Fifth Element and Lucy were a bit sentimental and messy in their scripts, but I suspect the source material for Valerian may be more that way inclined anyway - so the writing and direction may be more in tune. There were some elements of confusion through the movie - 'what's going on?' sort of thing - but the denouement generally holds it together. The virtual marketplace on the desert world is quite clever and I didn't actually think the dialogue or the acting from the two leads was anything that bad, really. They didn't annoy me as characters, as some other sci-fi characters can do. I could see a franchise being built on it.

Sure they can build a franchise on it if they evolve the gender roles beyond "this is what 12 year old boys from the 70s thought was cool."

Quote from: Headless;984612Sure they can build a franchise on it if they evolve the gender roles beyond "this is what 12 year old boys from the 70s thought was cool."

Here you go again, spouting stuff without doing a single lick of research.  

So, in the sample Valorian I have, the dude is captured and the chick is the one who sets about rescuing him (denoument is not in my sample), and everything I've read about Valorian since then suggests a partnership of equals between the male and female leads, rather than the usual romantic 'male dominant' paradigm.


So. How, exactly, do they need to evolve these gender roles away from 1970's norms?    Ooh, I know: Maybe they should have Valorian change his name to Susan and be constantly begging Leeloo (or whatever her name is) to do him up the ass?

Because there's a HUGE market for those characters.

I was talking about a movie franchise.  They already built a comic franchise.  

Did you watch the movie?  In the movie Delorian and Leelou suit up to protect a VIP. While wearing the suit Delorian, smashes his way in a straight line through everything in his path.  Market stalls, walls, bulkheads, water, preasure walls holding back 1000s of pounds persquare inch of said water. While wearing the same suit Leelou get captured in a wicker basket.

Why would I watch a movie that all and sundry agree is bad?   Also, this thread started by asking about the original series, not the movie so much.

And lastly: if that is your only example of regressive sex rolls favored by 12 year old boys you are going to have to do much much better.  Inconsistency regarding the power of technology for reasons of plot is an all too common, and utterly gender neutral, failing of the entertainment industry.  You seem to be unaware just how impoverished the writing landscape is these days.   Show me that Leelou's wicker basket capture suit failure is due to her gender.  Show me more than 'male character did this one thing, female character did this one thing', as a single data point is not a compelling argument...


.... unless, of course, you believe that no female character should ever be less than perfect unless, gasp!, sexism.  

Because that is as stupidly boring as no male characters ever being less than awesome. There is a reason why the 80's action hero mostly died out after only a half decade or so of glory.

two other things I meant to say that I left out, because I'm a sloppy undisciplined fool.

First, I'm off to the Post Office to see if my amazon order of Volume 1 of Valorian has arrived, so I can weigh in on the original source material.

Two, I should remind you that Luc Besson, the guy behind the film that you are accusing of pandering to the sexual politics of 12 year old boys, pretty much invented the Action-Chick with Leeloo Dallas, or even La Femme Nikita, even beating famous Hollywood Feminist Joss Whedon (of the Waif-Fu addiction) to the punch by several years.  

Ok, so kung fu flicks probably got him beat by about forty years or so, but that's irrelevant to my point: I highly doubt Luc Besson made a film with Leelou as a regressive, sexist 'Damsel' in any meaningful way, since his style has been, for thirty odd years now, to heap plot and action on his female characters to an almost absurd degree.  


Of course: Action-Chick is actually a male power fantasy, rather than meaningfully empowering to women, but if the feminists are okay with Action Chick empowerment, who am I to point that out, eh?