THE FIFTH ELEMENT (Columbia - 1997) Starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, Brion James Screenplay by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen Produced by Patrice Ledoux Directed by Luc Besson Running time: 127 minutes
** 1/2 (out of four stars)
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
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Regarding Luc Besson's THE FIFTH ELEMENT, nobody could quite summarize it so succinctly and so accurately as Mr. Besson's himself; of his film, which he conceived at age sixteen, he commented:
"I was writing solely for the pleasure of it. I just put down on paper everything that I love and see. I just like to go for it, and I consider the serious questions later."
That this is clearly evident in THE FIFTH ELEMENT would be somewhat of an understatement; this film seems to be a celluloid collage of a sci-fi fanboy's wildest fantasies. You want a goon squad of shapeshifting alien villians? You want benevolent aliens marching about Egyptian ruins? You want a giant, virtually unstoppable clump of Pure Evil rushing towards planet Earth, signifying the destruction of Life As We Know It(tm)? You want a battered Everyman (it's not by accident he's a taxi driver, the cinematic signifyer that This Is An Average Joe - see HEAVY METAL for a similar futuristic equivalent), pretty waif in tow, struggling against a sinister meglomaniac and his army of mercenaries to Save The Planet(tm) in a prototypical battle of Good vs. Evil? Boy, have you come to the right movie.
Mr. Besson throws striking sequences one after the other onscreen, and while they hardly coalesce in any sort of cohesive manner, in an odd way THE FIFTH ELEMENT sort of works; it's loud, bizarre, and remarkably silly, but to its credit the film never takes itself seriously in the least, and we are bombarded by so many audacious images and sights that it never becomes boring.
Not exactly high praise, to be sure, but THE FIFTH ELEMENT isn't exactly a great film. Its greatest strengths are its visuals; the sets and costumes are astonishing. Save for a fifteen-minute prologue, the film is set in 23rd century Earth, and Mr. Besson's view of it is a staggering one: multi-levelled congested traffic from flying automobiles zipping about, towering skyscrapers stretching above the smog on the surface beyond the reaches of the eye, plummeting elevators screaming down rails, and, of course, that Universal constant, McDonalds. The scenes in which we explore this strange new world through the eyes of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), our genetically re-engineered heroine, are a visual feast, and a triumph not only for Mr. Besson's vision, but for the effects team at Digital Domain. Even that staple of the uninspired action film, the chase scene, takes new life in THE FIFTH ELEMENT; it's really something to watch Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), our taxi-driving hero, desperately weave through three dimensional traffic in order to attempt to lose the police. Dan Weil's award-worthy production design is terrific, particularly the magnificent auditorium scene in the off-Earth resort complex.
THE FIFTH ELEMENT is filled with sequences and effects which should be a sci-fi fanboy's delight: the onscreen meticulous genetic reconstruction of Leeluu, from a scrap of recovered DNA to a scantily-clad, orange-haired pixie; the demonstration of evil Zorg's (Gary Oldman) powerful homing gun, which is never again used in the film. Why does Mr. Besson show us this stuff in the film? Why, because (in my best fanboy voice) it looks really really cool! (fanboy voice off) They're along the same lines as the gratuitous nothing other than to impress.
Tossing every wild idea that comes your way, though, can result in a lot of unnecessary onscreen junk which rather clearly fails to serve any purpose. I really couldn't think of any reason as to why the tentacled blue alien diva had to be tossed into the mix, other than so that Mr. Besson could perform a lot of cross-cutting between her wailing and the action going on elsewhere in the resort complex. For that matter, other than for sheer audacity, was it really even necessary for the resort complex to be halfway across the galaxy?
At this point I come to the most blatant of the unnecessary elements (no pun intended) of the film; the prancing, perpetually-screeching over-the-top Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) character. Why, oh why? He seems to be there sheerly for comic relief, but given all of the other comedic elements in the film (Ian Holm's hapless, bumbling priest Cornelius, Gary Oldman's scenery-chewing Zorg), was it even necessary? The Ruby Rhod character never works and is extremely grating, and by the time the film reached its denoument I had the sinking feeling that he was introduced simply so that there'd be an obligatory fourth person around in order to activate The Fifth Element.
Coming off the best in THE FIFTH ELEMENT is Milla Jovovich, as the wide-eyed Leeluu, who's so wonderfully expressive in her performance that I had to ground myself by noting that she had virtually no dialogue in the film. Ian Holm was also effective as the good-hearted but incompentant priest (no world saver is he). Gary Oldman is one of today's best actors, but his over-the-top performance in Mr. Besson's earlier film, the terrific THE PROFESSIONAL (a.k.a. LEON), is dwarfed by his bizarre villanous turn here - granted, it does make for interesting viewing, particularly when one considers the pointlessness of his role. Bruce Willis' performance in THE FIFTH ELEMENT, however, is unremarkable; surrendering to the gargantuan scope of the film's set pieces and its mythological struggle of Good vs. Evil, he's merely along for the ride.
THE FIFTH ELEMENT is a hodgepodge of individual sequences, visual effects and set pieces, some of them wonderfully inspired, and others misfiring badly. It doesn't all work out together, but on the basis of the effective spectacle of Mr. Besson's wonderously bizarre vision alone, the film is worth seeing, and the other strengths in THE FIFTH ELEMENT (of which there are, believe it or not, a few) are icing on the cake.
- Alex Fung
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
--
Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
"God, I loved it. 'I'll send you a copy.' BAM! Bitch went down.
'I'll send you a copy.' BAM! Sid - Superbitch!"
- Rose McGowan, SCREAM
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