Luc Besson, a lifelong fan of the comics, spent nearly a decade trying to bring Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets to life. He famously stated that he wrote the script for The Fifth Element (1997) as a "warm-up" for Valerian , designing his earlier hit with similar hyper-stylized aesthetics. However, technology had to catch up. Besson waited until he believed CGI could render the kaleidoscopic universe of the comics faithfully without compromise. The result is a film that cost a staggering $180 million (making it the most expensive independent film ever made at the time) and features nearly 2,700 special effects shots.
Before the film’s CGI spectacle, there was the comic. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is based on the legendary French comic series , created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières . First published in the anthology magazine Pilote in 1967, the series ran for over 50 years, spanning 23 graphic novels and concluding in 2019. The series followed the adventures of Valérian, a “spatio-temporal agent” from the 28th century, and his partner, the quick-witted Laureline, a young woman from the Middle Ages he brought to the future.
Upon its release, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets polarized critics just as much as its box-office performance polarized the market. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a "Rotten" approval rating of around 48-51%. Critics' reviews often praised the film's visionary aesthetics while decrying its narrative and character work. Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E...
Luc Besson’s 2017 film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets adapts the long-running French comic series Valérian and Laureline by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières into a visually lavish, if narratively uneven, space opera. The film attempts an ambitious synthesis of pulp science-fiction spectacle, pop-cultural pastiche, and a romantic buddy-adventure, while foregrounding questions of colonial exploitation, ecological stewardship, and the limits of cinematic world-building.
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The central conflict ignites when a mysterious, radioactive threat is discovered at the core of Alpha. Valerian and Laureline must race against time to identify the menace and safeguard not just the city, but the future of the entire universe. The Visual Mastery and Production
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets opened in July 2017, directly against Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk . It earned only $225 million worldwide against a $180 million budget (plus marketing), making it a significant box office bomb. American audiences rejected it, but it performed well in China ($60 million) and France (Besson’s home country). Besson waited until he believed CGI could render
For all its creative ambition, Valerian became one of the most notorious box-office bombs in cinema history. With a production budget estimated between $177 million and $210 million, it earned the dual distinction of being both the most expensive European film and the most expensive independent film ever made. "He’s adapting a graphic novel that was fundamental to his childhood," Besson explained, but this passion project would ultimately come at a great cost.
If there is one area where Valerian is almost universally praised, it is in its groundbreaking visual effects. As a passion project for Besson, no expense was spared—an approach that allowed his creativity to run riot. The director himself created over 6,000 drawings and a 100-page document just to describe the world of Alpha, which he then used to guide his team. The final film required over 2,700 VFX shots, a staggering number that underscores its reliance on digital world-building.
More than just a box-office bomb, Valerian is a lesson in the risks of original (or at least, unfamiliar) IP in a franchise-driven market. It is a cautionary tale about the importance of casting and chemistry. But it is also a testament to the sheer power of imagination, a reminder that even a flawed film can contain moments of such transcendent beauty that they leave audiences wondering what might have been. The sequel never happened, and it almost certainly never will, but the City of a Thousand Planets remains an awe-inspiring monument to what happens when a filmmaker is given the chance to make his wildest dreams real.