Valerian - LAURELINE!

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - Series 01 - Laureline - NECA 2017

I realized recently that I really don't trust Rotten Tomatoes scores one bit. I would say the majority of my favorite movies never rank above 40. I have never trusted critic reviews for anything - music, TV, movies, etc. - but I'll admit I was initially very optimistic when RT came along as an aggregate site for public film ratings. But then reality set in. People suck and they never like what I like. I don't mean to be elitist, but considering that the most popular film and TV franchises today are such vapid, hollow, and sensationalized productions says a lot. I really enjoyed Valerian. But I'm the only person I know who enjoyed it. It wasn't a perfect film, but I thought the majority of complaints were baseless. The two leads are relative unknowns in the acting world, their dynamic is intentionally weird, and their outfits are boring. But I didn't want a James Bond in space movie. I wanted lots of aliens, complex interspecies dynamics, and colorful imaginative settings, and Valerian delivered in spades. Let's check out Laurline below!

I think this figure is gorgeous. Sure, she is wearing the boring typical sci-fi outfit you see in every sci-fi movie these days. If you covered the face this could be anything from Hunger Games to Prometheus. Honestly I'm shocked the character selection for this first wave include none of the cool aliens that made the movie special. But regardless of that, I love this sculpt and the likeness to Cara Delevingne is terrific. Makes me realize that we never got a Suicide Squad Enchantress figure.

I should vent about my least favorite part of the movie. That would be Rihanna's voice as Bubble. I get that they wanted a big name tied to the film, but her role was a little awkward. She played a shape-changing alien showgirl (possibly a prostitute? I don't know if if outright said that, but it was implied). She can change her appearance on a whim to appeal to her clients. This basically meant Rihanna dancing in a bunch of different outfits. I think this would have been a great opportunity to have cameos from a bunch of random celebrities as she changed form. But that scene was fine. What I didn't like was when she revealed her true from - a blobby translucent blue cephalopod-looking creature... with Rihanna's unaltered voice. This character desperately needed a voice fitting the look. Something "aquatic" - if that's even a thing. That was by far my biggest complaint of the film.

I honestly never heard of Valerian and Laureline before this movie. But the property is an extremely long running and extremely popular French comic that ran from 1967-2010 and fills 21 volumes. I know this movie wasn't a box office success, but the sheer amount of potential cool sequels is an exciting, if unlikely, thought.

My other favorite Luc Besson movie is The Fifth Element, and Valerian rings a lot of the same bells.

Time for a Comparison Pic!

Cheers!