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The French director Luc Besson has two gears — outlandishly eye-popping and ridiculously convoluted — and he hits both hard in the whack-a-doodle space adventure "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets."
The source material for Besson's script is a goldmine: The French comics series "Valerian and Laureline," which is turning 50 this year. The series is sometimes cited as an inspiration for "Star Wars" — particularly the cantina scene, with its varied alien species — and Besson himself hired founding artist Jean-Claude Mézières to create concept art for his 1997 science-fiction movie "The Fifth Element."
Besson doesn't get to his title character, Maj. Valerian (Dane DeHaan), and his partner, Sgt. Laureline (Cara Delevingne) for a good 15 minutes into the movie. First, he must establish how centuries of add-ons to the International Space Station led to the creation of Alpha, a floating home to 30 million creatures from thousands of species. And he gives us the beautiful and chilling sight of the planet Mül, an idyllic land of tall, iridescent humanoids (kissin' cousins of the Na'Vi of "Avatar") who are all but wiped out by a cataclysm from space.
After that set-up, which Besson handles with breathtaking images, we get to see 26th-century interstellar spies Valerian and Laureline in action. They've been ordered by the defense minister (played by musician Herbie Hancock) to infiltrate a multi-dimensional marketplace, steal a rare object from a bulbous alien criminal (voiced by John Goodman), and bring it back to Alpha's commander, Arena Filitt (Clive Owen). The mission is a breakneck affair, with lots of action, "Blade Runner"-style visuals and a heavy dose of banter between our feuding heroes.
En route to the mission, Valerian declares his love for Laureline and proposes marriage, but she's not falling for it. She has seen his "playlist" of past female conquests, and doesn't think Valerian will ever be ready for commitment.
This all happens in the first 36 minutes, which is as sharp and spectacular a stretch as you'll see in the movies. Then, the rest of the movie happens, and it's a witless mess — a tangled knot of police procedural, romantic comedy and military conspiracy, with enough computer-animated splendor to fill a dozen movies.
The results border on incoherent, but they do produce some gorgeous moments. One of the best is the extended cameo by Rihanna, who plays a shape-shifting cabaret performer in a seedy nightclub. Her ever-shifting fashion-plate looks, and her character's heartbreaking backstory, make a viewer wish there could be an entire movie about her.
Unfortunately, DeHaan ("A Cure for Wellness," "The Amazing Spider-Man 2") is too lightweight an actor for Besson to use in the center of this science-fiction cyclone. Delevingne ("Suicide Squad," "Paper Towns") fares somewhat better, as she brings some gravity to the partnership, even when Besson is using her runway-model looks to boost the costume department's work.
The action in "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" gets lethargic after that opening section, which is a surprise coming from the guy who made "La Femme Nikita" and "Lucy." Perhaps Besson's lifelong obsession with Valerian and Laureline intimidated him too much, and kept him from going full-throttle with a rousing, intelligent story.
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'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets'
Interstellar spies banter while investigating a threat to their space station, in this eye-popping and head-scratching science-fiction tale.
Where • Theaters everywhere.
When • Opens Friday, July 21.
Rating • PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action, suggestive material and brief language.
Running time • 137 minutes.