Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E...

Valerian even includes a nod to the earlier film with a shop called "Korbens". Reception and Legacy

Nearly $200 million, making it one of the most expensive European films ever made.

With a staggering budget of nearly $200 million, Valerian stands as one of the most expensive independent films ever made. The investment is fully visible on screen, handled by top-tier VFX houses including Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Weta Digital, and Rodeo FX. The Big Market Sequence

The film is set in the 28th century. The story begins with a beautiful montage, set to David Bowie‘s “Space Oddity,” showing the International Space Station expanding over centuries, welcoming more and more alien species until it becomes a sprawling, independent mega-city known as —the “City of a Thousand Planets”. Alpha is a utopian hub of shared knowledge and culture, where thousands of species coexist. Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E...

The opening montage alone—a wordless sequence set to David Bowie’s "Space Oddity," depicting the construction of a space station and the gradual handshake of humanity with alien species—is a masterclass in visual storytelling. It establishes a tone of utopian optimism that is refreshingly absent from modern dystopias.

This is the film's crown jewel. Valerian must retrieve a converter from a creature in a parallel dimension. To do so, he dons a special suit that allows him to exist in "our" dimension while his hand reaches into the other. The editing is frantic, the colors are neon-drenched, and the choreography (mixing live-action with motion-capture) is flawless.

This backstory ties into the film’s deeper meta-narrative. Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières’ original comic, upon which the film is based, began in 1967. It is widely acknowledged that Star Wars borrowed heavily from the aesthetic of Valérian and Laureline . When Valerian the movie was released, critics called it a Star Wars rip-off, ignoring the irony that the progenitor was being accused of imitating the imitator. The film’s design—specifically the design of the Pearls and the spaceship—is a reclaiming of a sci-fi visual language that originated in French bande dessinée. Valerian even includes a nod to the earlier

Alpha represents the pinnacle of cooperative sci-fi worldbuilding. Besson divides the city into distinct environmental zones catering to thousands of species:

Are you interested in the production details behind ? Share public link

Valerian dared a studio system that increasingly favors IP-safe computations: it spent lavishly on originality rather than formula. The film’s commercial underperformance is often discussed as a cautionary tale, but it’s more instructive to read Valerian as proof that large-scale originality still exists in mainstream cinema and that such projects, even when flawed, expand the grammar of cinematic possibility. The investment is fully visible on screen, handled

Unlike cinematic universes that feel manufactured for sequels, Valerian feels like a snapshot of a vast, existing world.

However, the narrative structure, while serviceable, is merely a skeleton to hang these visual marvels. The plot follows Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne), special operatives who uncover a hidden genocide against the peaceful Pearls of Mul, a humanoid species whose habitat was destroyed by human negligence. This eco-political message—a critique of militarism and colonial hubris—is timely and mature. Yet, the urgency of this plot is constantly undermined by the film’s tonal inconsistency. Besson treats the story with the earnest, swashbuckling pace of a 1980s adventure serial, complete with quippy one-liners and a jarring, unnecessary detour to a tropical beach resort for a shape-shifting subplot. The film never decides whether it wants to be a grave indictment of imperial violence or a light-hearted romp, leaving the audience emotionally adrift.

While the film received mixed reviews for its casting and dialogue, it is universally praised for its . From the "Big Market"—a multi-dimensional bazaar that exists in a different frequency—to the bioluminescent beauty of the planet Mül, every frame is packed with intricate detail. Besson’s vision offers a refreshing alternative to the "lived-in," gritty look of Star Wars , opting instead for a lush, psychedelic aesthetic.

Under assignment from the Minister of Defense, the duo embarks on a mission to the breathtaking intergalactic city of . Alpha is a vast, ever-expanding metropolis, a sprawling hub where thousands of species from all corners of the universe converge to share knowledge, intelligence, and cultures.