The Fifth Element - Liked It

Starring: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman
Director: Luc Besson
Runtime: 2 hours, 6 minutes
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | 1997

Back when I watched Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, I remember David and all the other movie reviewers that I follow talk about how similar it was to this movie. Having the same director and all, it made total sense for that to be true. I haven’t seen this movie until now, so I can officially say that what every said is true. The colors and the strange aliens everywhere really are the same across both these movies, even though they are so many years apart in filming.

The Fifth Element stars Bruce Willis, a taxi driver who is driving (or flying?) when Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) falls through the roof of his car. Leeloo was artificially made from her leftover DNA in a lab… she is considered a supreme being. Basically, the point of this movie is to find the stones and save the living race. Bruce teams up with Lilu (the good guys), there’s a team of ugly aliens also trying to get the stones, and then there’s Gary Oldman who wants the stones as well to give to his friend the glowing ball of fire that’s going to engulf Earth and all that lives on it.

This movie was so completely strange. In particular Chris Tucker. Not sure what he’s supposed to be other than a weird non-gay man who dresses like a woman? I didn’t get it, and frankly I wasn’t a big fan of it. But he did add comedy to the movie which is always a plus.

I liked this movie more than Valerian, probably because the on screen romance was actually believable thanks to Bruce. But still wasn’t something I would want to watch again unless on TV or something. I’ll stick with a “Liked it” rating. The creativity of Besson is truly interesting, but still grotesque in some senses. (4/5).