Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Steve Kong)
Date: 27 May 1997 16:53:51 GMT

THE FIFTH ELEMENT
                       A film review by Steve Kong
                        Copyright 1997 Steve Kong

Bruce Willis has got a strange on and off movie career. Usually, it's in the 
off position. But, once in a long while, he'll have a good film. The 5th 
Element is one of the latter. The commercials which ran for the movie, 
initially, promised, "The Star Wars of the '90s." A hard name to live up to.

Willis plays a retired space marine type in this movie. His character's name 
is Korben Dallas. Dallas has now retired and lives in a nice small apartment 
in the mid-23rd century. A great evil in space is about to kill every living 
being on Earth. There seems to be no way to stop it. At least that's how it's 
seen by the government. A priest knows better. There are the four elements, 
which are in the form of bars. Then there is the fifth element, a being that 
is the catalyst for the weapon to stop this great evil. The only problem is 
that the aliens that were transporting these elements were shot down in space. 
The only thing recovered from the crash landing site was a portion of the 
fifth element. With this portion, they use a super-computer to spin up a new 
fifth element being. The fifth element is played by the beautiful, and oddly 
red headed, Milla Jovovich. From here the fifth element "drops in" on Korben 
Dallas, and they with the priest are off to find the other four elements.

The story in The 5th Element is not too strong. What is strong in this movie 
are the special effects and the set design. It is the vision of the future 
that is put into this movie that sets it apart from other mediocre sci-fi 
movies. The visions of the future that are presented are of the caliber of 
those of "Blade Runner" and "Metropolis." Though not as dark as those 
presented in Blade Runner, the city in which Dallas lives is large, and the 
hover car chase early in the film is something to awe at. The other sets, 
including a futuristic cruise liner, Zorg's office, and the apartment building 
in which Dallas lives are also places to awe at. Along with these beautiful 
places are the costume design. The police have the best outfits, large, bulky, 
with a large lamp over the right side of their chest, and gun holstered above 
the left shoulder.

The 5th Element is a movie to be seen, literally. The sights in this movie 
outweigh the story. The story itself is not too bad, it's enough to keep the 
movie going along, but it is the presentation of the future that should really 
be seen in The 5th Element.

--
steve kong
[email-masked]                                        
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