Streaming Today: The Sci-Fi Movie Eclipsed by Christopher Nolan Even Though It’s a $200 Million Sensory Spectacular – Film News

It started with the ambition of starting a powerful franchise and in the end it ended up becoming one of the biggest recent failures in cinema.

A space where dreams become space operas, futuristic adventures and megalomaniac journeys, cinema is an artistic manifestation guided by good stories and visual possibilities. Although many films are born with gigantic potential, few filmmakers manage to execute their ideas effectively.

Sometimes, the best idea and the most innovative project can be overshadowed simply by an overlay of the industry itself, which puts giants in the spotlight to the point of overshadowing other narratives. This is the case of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, science fiction released in 2017 directed by Luc Bessons (Lucy). With the idea of ​​being just the beginning of a powerful franchise, the film was marked by becoming one of the biggest recent cinema failures.

“A great spectacle”: The first opinions about this science fiction film are very positive!

Set in the 28th century, the plot follows Valérian (Dane DeHaan), a time and space traveling agent who fights alongside his partner Laureline (Cara Delevingne), with whom he is in love, in defense of Earth and its allied planets, which are continually attacked. by intergalactic bandits. When they arrive on planet Alpha, they will need to put an end to an operation commanded by great forces that want to destroy the dreams and lives of the planet’s seventeen million inhabitants.

Intergalactic adventure with great potential

Although it was never the perfect film, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was more underrated than it deserved. Several things went wrong in the film, but it was especially criticized for its lack of narrative solidity, considered poor and uninteresting and in no way up to the impressive visual effects that were at its service.

The issue could be briefly summed up in the fact that the film had a lot of ambition. Luc Besson decided to adapt the famous French comics Valérian and Laureline created by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières with big plans for the future and few economic barriers, but the reality is that the comic series was not well known outside of France to the point of catching the attention of viewers. However, in its favor was having a very captivating cast led by Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne, with Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke and Rihanna.

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The reported budget of around $200 million also gave the director the ability to bring his greatest fantasies to the screen. However, a bloated budget can be a double-edged sword, and in this case it was. Despite having grossed 226 million in theaters, the amount was far, far from reaching the point of profitability, causing huge losses and being seen as a huge failure. Of course, the bad result also ruined the plans to start a franchise.

With a score of 2.5 in I love cinema, the film is described by the site’s critics as, simultaneously, “a visual delight and an endurance test for neurons.” Furthermore, the science fiction film had to face stiff competition, starting with Christopher Nolan, who at the same time released the impressive Dunkirk.

Two other titles that opposed the film’s success were Spider-Man: Homecoming, the solo debut of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the acclaimed War for the Planet of the Apes, which has just received a sequel .

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is available in the Max catalogue.

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