Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997)

From: [email-masked] (p-m agapow)
Date: 29 May 1997 18:21:59 GMT

THE FIFTH ELEMENT
                       A film review by Paul-Michael Agapow
                        Copyright 1997 Paul-Michael Agapow

It is 250 years in the future.  Dallas (Willis), an ex-soldier,
drives taxis in the swarming metropolis of New York.  One day a
orange-haired nymphet Leeloo (Jovovich) speaking an unknown
language crash-lands in his taxi.  Soon she is doing the "speed
learn from an encyclopedia" shtick and with the help of a priest
(Holm, and by the look of his acolyte's headgear his religion
must worship of early 80s rock bands) we find out the universe is
doomed.  Unless, of course, four widgets are obtained from a
remote location and assembled in a Dungeons and Dragons puzzle
room, against the wishes of the evil businessman Zorg (Oldman)
and a group of unexplained shape-changing aliens.

Did that sound silly?  You have no idea ...  There are several
types of logical blunders in fiction.  In "The Fifth Element" the
first type betrays perhaps nothing more than carelessness on
director Besson's part: black holes mentioned in 1914,
temperatures of -5000 C, a (apparently) three hour flight during
which the passengers cryosleep to avert boredom, a planet "in the
constellation of ...".  Stupid, but the plot does not in any way
depend on these points - they are at most distracting.  You
shouldn't get too upset about such trivia.  A second might be the
absurd fact that once accepted allows the rest of the story
to proceed - a flying, invulnerable superhero; a rapid growing,
parasitic alien that can lay eggs in any humanoid; or (in this
case) the assembly of four artifacts to save the universe.

But "The Fifth Element" abounds with another type of mistake,
in the logic that leads the story from one point to another.
Although the moment to moment action is straightforward and the
plot is essentially simple, upon analysis it is completely
nonsensical.  The President, the fate of the entire universe at
stake mind you, orders a low-key one-man mission.  Leeloo is
surprised and shattered by the human concept of war, forgetting
that her race has spent eons fighting genocidal forces intent on
obliterating all life, that her ship was destroyed by hostile
forces, and that she has been karate-chopping and waving guns
about for the past hour.  Zorg's motives are murky and his
controller totally unexplained.  Several times the plot powers
itself out of dead-ends using "with one mighty leap he was free!"
logic.  Possibly there is a lot of footage on the cutting room
floor, possibly a lot of explanatory material was excised from
the script.  Or maybe the film is just plain dumb.

The cast is crowded with superfluous characters and execrable
acting.  Gary Oldman, sounding like a cross between Gomer Pyle
and Anthony Robbins, falls into both categories.  On the bright
side Willis does well, albeit as a caricature, while Jovovich is
surprisingly good even when required to utter stupid lines.  (The
more English she speaks, the less convincing her character
becomes.)  Mention should also be made of Luke "don't blink or
you'll miss me" Perry, who deserves bigger roles, and a bizarre
cameo as a mugger by Matthieu Kassovitz (director of "La Haine"
and star of "Un Heros Tres Discret").

And despite the above problems, the film is fairly enjoyable.

Besson has always favoured (and got away with) feel over logic
and look over plot.  For example, his "Subway" and "La Femme
Nikita" are fun despite also being plainly ridiculous.  But more
recently, with "Leon the Professional" he showed a masterful
handling of script, direction and character with more lucid and
intense plotting.  "The Fifth Element" is big step back to his
earlier work, a big, dumb but likeable film.  The whole is absurd
but the parts are quite good: a bioengineered opera diva,
residential blocks designed for police lockdown, the dizzying
heights of New York protruding from a smoggy abandoned surface,
cigarettes that are 75% filter.  In a way the correct film to
compare it to would be "Bladerunner", not for the narrative but
for the vision of a brash, busy and colourful future - a
three-way collision between Ridley Scott, Doc EE Smith and
Jean-Paul Gaultier.  It also helps that the central conflict is
at once broad (good vs.  evil) and very personal (Dallas fighting
for Leeloo), largely avoiding machismo and flag-waving.

It grieves me to recommend a picture to "switch your mind
off" at.  But unlike other big dumb pictures (like most anything
coming out of the Hollywood system), "The Fifth Element" is a
little different, more colourful, more exciting and less
offensive.  If you're going to take your mind candy, it may as
well taste good.  Unfortunately this film will probably not come
across well on video due to the diminishing of the visuals.
[**/ok] and on the Sid and Nancy scale.

"The Fifth Element"
Directed by Luc Besson.
Starring Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm, Gary Oldman,
Brion James, Luke Perry, Tom "Tiny" Lister Jr, Matthieu Kassovitz.
Released 1997.

------
paul-michael agapow ([email-masked]), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse
[archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/]