Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Luc Besson's sprawling space opera arrives bearing all the visual markers of contemporary progressive sensibilities: a cosmos where countless alien species coexist in harmony, a female co-protagonist with combat capabilities, and a narrative framed around peaceful multiculturalism. The film's Alpha station represents an idealized vision of interspecies cooperation, where difference is celebrated as cultural richness rather than conflict. Yet this veneer of inclusivity obscures a film fundamentally uncertain about its own relationship to gender and representation. Laureline appears as a competent action hero, yet her name was excised from the title, a detail that speaks volumes about whose story the film actually wanted to tell.

The representation extends beyond gender into more complicated terrain. The cast includes actors of various ethnic backgrounds, and the alien designs embrace visual diversity without fetishizing it, though such inclusion in a 2017 blockbuster registers as obligatory rather than organic. Rihanna appears as Bubble, a shapeshifting entertainer whose role oscillates between agency and objectification. The film labors to insert progressive dialogue about gender equality into scenes that undermine those very ideas through visual grammar and narrative emphasis. Besson has built a career on strong female characters, yet here the machinery creaks audibly, caught between impulses to modernize and an inability to fully commit.

The film's greatest weakness lies in its contradictions rather than its failures. It theoretically embraces a vision where species and genders work in equal partnership, yet stages nearly every significant action sequence around its male lead, relegating Laureline to supporting beats in her own story. The progressive infrastructure is present, but the film lacks conviction in its own stated values, resulting in a work that satisfies neither those seeking genuine representation nor those indifferent to such concerns. Besson's ambition outpaces his execution, producing something closer to aesthetic diversity than meaningful cultural commentary.