Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Cameron Shelley)
Date: 29 May 1997 18:11:23 GMT

THE FIFTH ELEMENT
                       A film review by Cameron Shelley
                        Copyright 1997 Cameron Shelley

(Columbia)

Review by:
       Cameron Shelley -- May 21, 1997.
Review URL:
       http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~cpshelle/Reviews/tfe.html
Cast:
       Bruce Willis (Korben Dallas), Gary Oldman (Zorg),
       Milla Jovovich (Leeloo), Ian Holm (Victor
       Cornelius), Chris Tucker (DJ Ruby Rhod)
Screenplay:
       Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
Director:
       Luc Besson
Producer:
       John Alan Amicarella, Patrice Ledoux, and Iain Smith

The Fifth Element is a hard movie to pin down. Perhaps
the best way to describe it is as a collage of sights and events
organized (if that is the word) around the mission of an
unlikely hero to save the world. For me, at least, watching
TFE had the quality of a daydream, or the fantasies sparked
in adolescent years when reading a comic book. Like a
daydream, the sequence of events makes little sense upon
later reflection, and like an adolescent fantasy, the characters
are drawn from a small stock of simple and familiar types.

But it is the "sparky" aspect of TFE that is most obvious.
Scenes, jokes, and plot devices fly off energetically and
disappear in almost all directions. This is probably what has
prompted so many reviewers to compare TFE to nearly
every other science-fiction movie they've seen. Certainly,
TFE does have a kind of borrowed look. The hovering cars
are reminiscent of Blade Runner, the glowing ball of evil
and the cabbie hero of Heavy Metal, the Egyptian aliens of
Stargate, the farcical police of Brazil, and on and on. Plenty
of action-adventure cliches get screen time as well -
although I think the 3-D car chase scene was pretty good
and deserves credit for originality. But Besson seems
neither to parody nor plagiarize these earlier films. TFE is
simply a pastiche of their more obvious attributes. If you
consider collage to be good art, then TFE could be
appealing; otherwise it will probably seem to be just
pointlessly contrived. My own view is somewhat in
between: I don't get the impression that Besson is just
rehashing used material from the genre, but neither does
his profligate use of such material seem coherently ironic
or tongue-in-cheek. To a large extent, it is all just there.

In any case, Besson does his borrowing pretty well. The
scenery, gizmos, and aliens are generally lively and
eye-catching. The costumes too are interesting and
appropriate. The inscrutable and somewhat maladroit
aliens, the Mondoshawan, have big, clunky environment
suits to stomp around in. The belligerent (and stupid)
Mangalores dress and act like rhinos, at least when not in
disguise. And the bizarre talk-show host, Ruby Rhod, looks
and talks like a sped-up version of Prince with his hair on
amphetamines. And, of course, there are many gorgeous
women in various states of dress and undress. These
characters, and the special effects associated with them,
succeed in holding the viewer's attention and interest
while on screen.

Generally, the acting is also good in the sense that it is
energetic and appropriate to the task. Jovovich, in fact, puts
on a good performance as Leeloo, the genetically perfect
human sent to Earth by the Mondoshawan to save it from
the big evil ball from another dimension. Her role is one of
the naive innocent thrust into a fallen world she naturally
doesn't understand, which she delivers with a sort of
girlish enthusiasm. Gary Oldman also deserves credit for a
deftly greasy turn as the evil industrialist Zorg, who is in
cahoots with the evil ball itself (we know this because the
ball gives Zorg a phone call, calling itself "Mr. Shadow"),
while Chris Tucker goes "over-the-top" portraying the
shrill and mincing Ruby Rhod. At the center of all this is
the character of Korbin Dallas, as mailed in by Bruce Willis.
Willis's performance is often flat (as opposed, say, to
understated), a problem which may be caused by the
similarity of Korbin to most other characters Willis has
played since Moonlighting. Whereas TFE's other
borrowings are generally superficial and lightly handled,
Willis's self-plagiarism comes off as plodding, at least
when there are no babes or firefights to distract attention
from him.

The roughest point of the movie, though, concerns the
plot. Certainly, action-adventures aren't supposed to be
intellectually challenging, but the plot of TFE is
inexplicably arbitrary even for its genre. Every 5000 years, a
big evil ball shows up and menaces the Earth. Every 5000
years, the Earth is saved from the evil ball by the
benevolent Mondoshawan, using the four elements of
earth, air, water, and fire, and a mysterious Fifth Element
(Leeloo). But the Mondoshawan change the plan, with the
result that in 2300 they fail and humanity must be bailed
out by genetic engineering and a heroic cabbie. No
motivation for these intricacies is offered, nor do they
make much sense in retrospect. Well, the Mondoshawan
do actually offer their motivational motto, "Time is
nothing, life is most important," (here they sound like ad
men for Pepsi) upon arriving three hundred years early,
killing an Egyptologist for knowing too much, and then
taking off with Earth's only means of defense. Yeah,
thanks. Attempts to moralize intrude awkwardly from
time to time, as when Zorg nearly chokes to death on a
cherry, or when Leeloo learns about "war" and suddenly
wonders if humanity is worth saving. Fortunately, Korbin
saves the day by declaring his love for Leeloo. Oddly,
Besson seems to really want to make a meal of this
last-minute complication, but only gets well-deserved
snickering from the audience. TFE does alright in the use
of the future to parody the present, but it can hardly claim
to be an exploration of serious issues such as war, love, or
the rather suspect notion of "perfection" in genetic
engineering either.

TFE is carried by its energy and surface appeal, but it is a
precariously thin surface. Having borrowed so heavily
from other works, Besson risks having his film already
eclipsed by its predecessors as well as its successors. The
next big effects-driven, science-fiction picture may indeed
finish the job. As Bruce Willis said, in reacting to some
negative reviews of TFE, "The written word is going the
way of the dinosaur." Presumably, then, the next picture
with an even larger ratio of effects budget to writing budget
will be even better!

</dev/cam
--
 Cameron Shelley - Department of Philosophy - University of Waterloo
  Email: [email-masked] - Phone: (519) 888-4567 x2555
        Me: <URL:http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~cpshelle/>
            CEL: <URL:http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/>
Dept: <URL:http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/PHIL/cpshelle/philosophy.html>