City of a Thousand Planets
Jul. 27th, 2017 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dhampyresaSaw it VOSTFR 3D.
Way back when I first saw the trailer for this movie, I went HOLY SHIT THEY'RE ADAPTING L'AMBASSADEUR DES OMBRES? THAT'S MY FAVOURITE. Well. I was right, but also, I was wrong.
It has a lot similarities with L'ambassadeur des Ombres, but some major changes make it a story with a different theme/message. I'm not saying the new story has a bad theme/message -- it's a good message and I can understand the reasoning behind the changes -- but it is 100% a different message. Idk, the original Ambassadeur des Ombres comic (especially the ending!) blew my tiny mind when I read it as a child and this movie would not have. Although these changes gave us the opening scene, set to Bowie's Space Oddity, which is pretty lovely.
It's a decent movie, I guess, but it's a bad adaptation.
For example, the movie implies Laureline is from the future, which NO. The really cool thing about Laureline is that she's from the mid-Middle Ages, circa 1000CE, and used Valérian as her ticket out of that hellhole. Then she becomes a space-time cop. She is the best.Also she's a redhead.
Not sure why the Shingouz go by a different name. That seems like a pointless change.
In a way the changes -- Laureline's hair colour, the names (not how you say Valérian, Alpha vs Point central), etc -- made it easier to think of this as its own thing, rather than an adaptation.
I came out of the movie shipping Laureline/Bubble the most out of everything. I did not ship Laureline/Valérian at all. I would ship Laureline/Neza first (he recognised her temper, hahaha).
I was kind of really disappointed that Laureline seemed to be one of only two women in the Earth military. Nice future there :/ There are some vaguely sexist moments that rubbed me the wrong way, as well. (Also the comic is SO MUCH MORE Laureline's story.)
GOOD STUFF:
Way back when I first saw the trailer for this movie, I went HOLY SHIT THEY'RE ADAPTING L'AMBASSADEUR DES OMBRES? THAT'S MY FAVOURITE. Well. I was right, but also, I was wrong.
It has a lot similarities with L'ambassadeur des Ombres, but some major changes make it a story with a different theme/message. I'm not saying the new story has a bad theme/message -- it's a good message and I can understand the reasoning behind the changes -- but it is 100% a different message. Idk, the original Ambassadeur des Ombres comic (especially the ending!) blew my tiny mind when I read it as a child and this movie would not have. Although these changes gave us the opening scene, set to Bowie's Space Oddity, which is pretty lovely.
It's a decent movie, I guess, but it's a bad adaptation.
For example, the movie implies Laureline is from the future, which NO. The really cool thing about Laureline is that she's from the mid-Middle Ages, circa 1000CE, and used Valérian as her ticket out of that hellhole. Then she becomes a space-time cop. She is the best.
Not sure why the Shingouz go by a different name. That seems like a pointless change.
In a way the changes -- Laureline's hair colour, the names (not how you say Valérian, Alpha vs Point central), etc -- made it easier to think of this as its own thing, rather than an adaptation.
I came out of the movie shipping Laureline/Bubble the most out of everything. I did not ship Laureline/Valérian at all. I would ship Laureline/Neza first (he recognised her temper, hahaha).
I was kind of really disappointed that Laureline seemed to be one of only two women in the Earth military. Nice future there :/ There are some vaguely sexist moments that rubbed me the wrong way, as well. (Also the comic is SO MUCH MORE Laureline's story.)
GOOD STUFF:
- BUBBLE WAS GREAT. Bring back Bubble for the sequel!
- The heist was pretty cool.
- THE VISUALS ARE AMAZING.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-02 04:18 am (UTC)I'm a little disappointed that the ship was that far down on the page because the ship is one of the first references to Valerian I usually see mentioned and was one of the main problems in people thinking Valerian ripped off Star Wars when Star Wars ripped off Valerian first.
But unfortunately, this is me as a Star Wars and film geek having that knowledge and most people in this country are ignorant...which I totally blame on not properly marketing the source material; availability, translation, new adaptation, etc.
I have been able to think of a few Science Fiction comics from US or Canadian creators...
Descender
http://comicsalliance.com/jeff-lemire-dustin-nguyens-descender-review/
Bitch Planet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitch_Planet
Southern Cross
http://readcomicbooksonline.net/southern-cross
and there's ODY-C but it's based off the Odyssey so I'm not sure it counts even if it's a reimagining but damn, is it so pretty...
http://www.npr.org/2016/11/30/503067759/in-ody-c-a-greek-hero-worthy-of-women
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-03 10:31 pm (UTC)