Valerian & the City of 1000 Planets - Movie Review

Starring Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke, Rihanna, Herbie Hancock, Kris Wu, Sam Spruell, Rutger Hauer and John Goodman.
Written & Directed by Luc Besson.

★★½

The director of The Fifth Element gets even more crazy in this visually wonderful, narratively clunky movie that goes to some weird corners of the galaxy to tell its unique tale. In many ways, I admire some of the original avenues it wanders down, though ultimately its shallow story and questionable casting prevents it from being a hit.

I'm debating whether or not to even explain the plot. The plot doesn't really matter. We see an alien homeworld where everything is peaceful, like the Na'vi on a beach. Then a space battle above results in ships crashing into their ocean, on to their shores. Most of them are wiped out. That's the prologue. We cut to Valerian and Lauraline, a boyfriend-girlfriend unit where he also outranks her, and they're basically space cops. Eh, it doesn't matter. It's an excuse to go from world to world, retrieving a Macguffin to save the universe. Something like that.

The fun parts are the detours. Ethan Hawke popping up as some sort of space pimp, introducing Valerian to a shape-shifting erotic dancer whose favorite form happens to look just like Rihanna. There's another scene where Lauraline gets stuck in the cosmic kitchen from hell. There's a dimension-hopping chase scene. This is a video game I want to play.

Dane DeHaan is usually best as creeps. He doesn't have the Young Indiana Jones charisma the role of Valerian would call for. Let's just say Cara Delevingne as Lauraline fares better here than she did as Enchantress in Suicide Squad. There's not much chemistry between them, and I would have been cool with Valerian getting killed off halfway through and letting Lauraline finishing the adventure herself. I should be rooting for these two like Han and Leia, or Wesley and Buttercup, or Clark and Lois. Didn't really care.

If you missed it on the big screen, and you still want to see it, see on the largest TV or monitor you can. Otherwise you'd miss its point of existing.

A Cure for Wellness - Movie Review

Starring Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth, Harry Groener, Ivo Nandi and Celia Imrie.
Written by Justin Haythe.
Directed by Gore Verbinski.

★★½

This isn't a smooth journey. It's a meandering journey with peaks and valleys, with some elements that work better than others. Nevertheless I was along for the gothic ride.

(Stefon voice): "This movie has everything! Corridors, swimming eels, catacombs lit by hundreds of candles!..."

It starts with Dane DeHaan (Chronicle), an actor who usually resembles a younger, skinnier meth-addicted Leonardo DiCaprio. He's an ambitious executive at a large soulless Wall Street firm. He is tasked with going to Switzerland and finding their CEO, who disappeared there three weeks ago to a spa retreat. He gets into an accident after arriving, thus making him a patient in need of recovery. Jason Isaacs play the suspicious doctor who runs the facility.

Parts of the movie reminded me of Shutter Island, with a central character whose grip on reality becomes questionable the longer he's at this remote location.

I was entertained throughout, even though I knew I was watching an imperfect vehicle for Gore Verbinski's gonzo imagination. Have I put enough caveats around this? I liked it, though I'm cautious about recommending it to too many other people.

Chronicle - Movie Review

Starring Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly, Ashley Hinshaw and Bo Petersen.  Directed by Josh Trank.

★★★★

The "found-footage" genre, when done well, can be an excellent entertainment, like the first Paranormal Activity.  This one is cut from the same cloth, albeit with multiple cameras using higher-end equipment.

I could compare it to Cloverfield, which gave a fun twist to the monster movie, but with the shaky-cam so shaky it gave me motion sickness.  We don't get that problem here, thank goodness.

Ultimately this is the best original superhero-origin movie since Unbreakable.  It's really about three teenagers and what they do when they suddenly garner great power, like telekinesis and flying.

The cast is full of mostly unknowns, and the director lucked out with them.  Dane DeHaan is the shy one, Andrew, who decided to chronicle his life on camera even before the inciting incident.  He's 2/3 Leonardo Dicaprio and 1/3 Michael Pitt, and it's going to be fun to watch his career blossom (he has supporting roles in the upcoming The Wettest County with Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman, and The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes).  There's also Australian newcomer Alex Russell as Andrew's cousin Matt, and TV vet Michael B. Jordan (The Wire, Parenthood) as Steve, the most popular guy in school.

At a party that doesn't go too well for Andrew, Matt and Steve want him to bring his camera to film a hole they found in the ground.  The three go in, and let's just say after they see what they see, we cut to the next day and they've discovered they have telekinetic powers.  At first it involves levitating Legos but the more they use their powers, the stronger they become.

The movie does a good job of making us care about the characters and the journey they're taking.  It always gets me excited to watch fresh young talent show off what they can do, and yet in an unshowoffy manner. (Yes, I've thought of better words, but "unshowoffy" stays.)

Bottom line is that "found footage" is a device, a story-telling tool, and if your story's weak, the device won't help.  Here, it works great.