Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Drew McWeeny)
Date: 20 May 1997 01:06:54 GMT

THE FIFTH ELEMENT
                       A film review by Drew McWeeny
                        Copyright 1997 Drew McWeeny

	This marks my first posting to this newsgroup, and I felt it was
time to weigh in on a film that has drawn fairly hotly divided response
so far.  Also, just to correct a statement made in the Flying Inkpot
review of the same film, this is in no way, shape, form, or fashion the
"most expensive movie ever made."  Even if it were, only a moron would
think that the budget of a film is the criteria on which to judge it. 
If it doesn't affect your ticket price, and no one was coereced into
spending the money, then what the hell does a budget matter?

	Now... on with the review...

        At first, the opening of the film seems odd, comic in an almost
old-fashioned way.  The doddering old archaeologist, the sleepy little
boy, the dashing American artist, sketching it all.  Even the threat
that's introduced (a treacherous priest, a shot of poison) is
old-fashioned.  Like Spielberg's classic RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, this
film's opening has a warm, old Hollywood glow about it...

        ... until the spaceship lands.

        The robots that climb out of the ship are ominous, threatening,
black and metal, with odd angles and dangerous looking attachments.
They're truly bizarre, and scare all hell out of everyone on the scene,
as well they should.  They arrive, and collect four stones, opening a
secret chamber to do so.  One of the humans, understandably upset by
this, opens fire on one of the robots, and we gear up for an action
scene in which these menacing metal warriors kick into high gear,
tearing up everything and everyone in sight.  But, for some reason...
they don't.  There's no firefight.  The action beat we're all primed for
from our years of immersion in the rhythms of "event" movies never
comes.  And that's the first clue that we're in for something a little
different with Luc Besson's triumphant, if somewhat flawed, new SF epic,
THE FIFTH ELEMENT.

        Having seen the film three times now, I can honestly say that I
have finally "seen" the film.  This is one of the most densely detailed
pictures I've seen in quite a while, and it's a deserving entry into the
pantheon of classic cinema works of imagination.  Although I think I
still prefer Besson's LEON to this new film, I was sufficiently dazzled
to hail the film for what it is.  It's an original vision of the future,
and it's a richly imagined world into which the audience is invited.

	It was Einstein who said, "God is in the details," speaking of
the Universe at large.  In the world of SF cinema, details are just as
crucial.  An audience will only believe in a new world if the filmmaker
commits to making it feel as real as possible.  Audiences are willing to
suspend disbelief if the actors and the filmmakers give it their all,
really committing to this other place.  Mark Hammill may not be a great
actor (having just seen the SW Trilogy on the big screen again, I'm less
infatuated with him than ever in the first film), but he does have a
gift that made him right for those films.  He looked like he lived in
that world.  The way he used the props, the familiarity with it all, the
sheer mundanity he managed to convey all sold that reality.  We believe
because he believes.

        Besson has managed to do that here in fits and starts, and when
it works, it's transporting.  The New York that Bruce Willis' Corbin
Dallas lives and works in is a crowded, noisy metropolis that feels
totally familar and wildly exotic all at once.  It's the sheer volume of
air traffic that sells the illusion, the vision of a world grown up,
where there's not a wasted bit of space.  Besson doesn't just show his
city off, though.  In fact, he really doesn't show it to us until it
makes sense to.  There's no masturbatory establishing shots up front, no
long boring pans across the city for no reason other than to show off
the design.  It's only when the action mandates we see the city that
Besson finally shows it to us.  It's worth the wait, too.  Digital
Domain deserves an Oscar nomination for their work here, and the early
images from TITANIC suggest another one would be due for that.  There's
a wonderful texture to Besson's vision of the city, and the fact that
it's so colorful and so alive is seductive.  It's not the urban hell of
BLADE RUNNER.  People would still live in this New York.  There's still
things to enjoy here.  In fact, if I have a complaint, it's that we
don't get to spend enough time on Earth before leaving.

        And leave we do.  We get to go on a jaunt to the far edge of
explored space, where warships face down a big glowing ball of Evil,
which seems to be named Mr. Shadow.  We also get to go on a cruise
around another planet, onboard a cosmic LOVE BOAT that features a
perfect recreation of the London Opera House, where an alien diva gives
a transcendent performance in one of the film's most bravura sequences,
a marvel of cross-cutting, with a perfect blend of sound and image.

        The film ends where it begins, back in Egypt, back in that
secret room, with the rocks returning from their journey.  It's not a
terribly surprising ending, but it's a moving one in many ways.  There's
not the same kind of shoot-'em-up climax that we've come to expect.  In
fact, the film's bad guys all sort of take each other out, way before
the film ends.  The threat is dealt with summarily, and is out of the
way before we have a chance to really be threatened by it.  The film's
weak link is dramatic tension.  Besson, whose LE FEMME NIKITA and LEON
are both slow fuse firecracker suspense pictures, never really gets us
suitably worried over whether or not the rocks will be retrieved.  In
fact, refreshingly, the good guys stay about two steps ahead of evil the
whole way through the film.  For once, Good doesn't mean stupid.  That's
going to frustrate a lot of American audiences.  Willis is not the hero
we're used to, and it's made all the more strange by the fact that it's
Bruce "DIE HARD" Willis we're looking at.  This movie's as big a
departure for him as PULP FICTION was, no matter how much Columbia tries
to sell this as an action film.  It's not.  It's a journey, with some
action here and there along the way.  For the most part, Dallas is a
reactor, the eyes through which we see these events unfold.

        Overall, the performances in this film are a grab bag.  Some
great, some good, some nearly unwatchable.  But the picture is richer
for the risks it takes.  Milla Jovovich, who's appeared to far less
advantage in DAZED & CONFUSED and RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON, is
marvellous here, brilliant and moving and funny and sexy.  The divine
language she speaks at the beginning of the movie, a bizarre babble
that's indecipherable, is spoken by her with complete conviction, and
her quicksilver emotional reactions, ever shifting, are surprisingly
well communicated, considering we can't understand her at all.  She's
"born" in a cloning chamber in a great early scene, using a hand
retrieved from a spaceship wreck, and escapes, dragging Willis into all
this.  She's the driving force of the film, and if Leeloo (her
character) doesn't work, then neither does the movie.  The person I saw
the film with hated the movie, but really liked her work anyway, and I'm
predicting she's a major star following this.  She easily outdistances
the much-overpraised Liv Tyler, who's never had a role half this good.

        Ian Holm is very good, but not especially differenct than he is
in most films.  He's got this bumbling semi-confused character down
cold, just as Brion James could play the grizzled, never fully
identified military figure who brings Willis back into the fold for one
last mission in his sleep.  Willis will be accused by many of
sleepwalking through this role, but I disagree.  I think there's a real
laconic ease that he's mastered, and he imbibes Dallas with an
unshakable quality that really works for the role.  There's a sense of
humor to this guy, but it's not all cheap one-liners (the real downfall
of Akiva Goldsman's BATMAN & ROBIN script).  The audience can laugh with
him, not at him.  It's a shame Besson keeps returning to one of the
film's truly awful ideas, Willis' mother, who only exists as a voice on
the phone.  She's the stereotypical nagging mother, and pales in
comparison to such maternal monsters as Katherine Helmond's Mrs. Lowry
in BRAZIL.

        Chris Tucker, who was so good in FRIDAY and DEAD PRESIDENTS, may
have committed career suicide with his work here.  He plays Ruby Red, a
ultra-flamboyant radio show host who accompanies prize winner Willis on
a cruise around that foreign planet.  There is really no way to describe
the work he turns in.  It's like Little Richard crossed with Nicolas
Cage in VAMPIRE'S KISS and PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED.  It's so far out there
that you've either got to give in to it, or it will ruin the movie for
you.  I finally gave in, although I found it grating at times.  I
commend him for being so game, and for taking the chance.  When (and if)
he does work again, it's a safe bet it will be in something far more
down to earth than this.

        Gary Oldman, on the other hand, has officially become the
world's most dangerous actor.  Nicolas Cage traded the title in when he
started taking roles in THE ROCK, CON AIR, FACE/OFF, and SUPERMAN.  He's
sold out, and hard (I liked FACE/OFF, though, so I'm not complaining
that much), leaving Oldman to proceed unchallenged.  He plays Zorg, an
arms dealer with a thick Southern accent, bizarre plastic hair, and a
wicked limp.  He also happens to have a simply hysterical gun,
introduced in a wonderful scene that recalls all the James Bond/Q
sequences, but bigger.  There are rumors that there's a sequel to this
film already written and ready to shoot (actually, just the other half
of the original 400-plus page script) called MR. SHADOW.  If that's
true, then I'm sorry they killed Oldman's Zorg, who was a great foppish
foil, a long slow fuse that never really got to go off with full force.

        If you look quickly, there are a number of noteworthy faces that
pass by.  Bad boy French filmmaker Matthieu Kassovitz (LA HAINE) tries
to rob Willis early on in a funny little moment that goes nowhere, like
so many of the film's asides.  Trip-hop/DJ artist Tricky plays a fairly
inconsequential role as one of Oldman's henchmen.  Lee Evans, an
astonishing physical comedian whose gifts were the highlight of Peter
Chesholm's FUNNY BONES, is used to slight effect as a crew member aboard
that luxury space cruiser.  Some of the quirky casting falls flat,
though, with Tiny Lister's turn as The President most notably never
coming together.

        To sum up, this is a flawed picture, but its flaws only point up
what's good about the piece.  Besson will no doubt stump many people,
even those already familiar with his work.  For audiences willing to
meet him halfway, though, this is an aural/visual feast with an all-new
sensibility.

Drew