Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E... May 2026

The narrative follows Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne), two operatives of the human government. They are a classic bickering-couple duo: Valerian is a charming but cocky womanizer desperate to marry Laureline, while Laureline is pragmatic, sharp, and perpetually annoyed by his advances.

The plot kicks off when a mysterious dark energy begins destroying sectors of Alpha. Valerian is sent on a retrieval mission to a forbidden zone to recover a rare creature—a converter that can replicate anything it eats. Meanwhile, Laureline uncovers a conspiracy involving missing ambassadors and a forgotten war crime. The duo eventually discovers that the threat to Alpha comes from the Pearls of Mul, a peaceful race that was nearly exterminated by a human commander years earlier. The “evil” ravaging Alpha is actually the Pearls trying to retrieve a last living converter to revive their homeworld.

It is a classic “the hunters become the protectors” arc, but Besson uses it to critique militarism and colonialism. The villains aren't aliens; they are human generals covering up a massacre.

Before Star Wars, before Dune, there was Valérian and Laureline. Created by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières in 1967, the comic series ran for over four decades, influencing virtually every sci-fi creator who came after it. George Lucas has openly cited Mézières’s designs—specifically the bustling city-planets and worn-down spaceports—as direct inspirations for the Star Wars universe.

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.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is ambitious, occasionally clumsy, and often sublime. It’s a film best experienced with cinematic surrender: let the visuals wash over you, embrace the pulp heart of the story, and forgive the narrative creaks. For viewers craving a vivid, restless, and unabashedly imaginative sci-fi playground, Valerian is one of the most exhilarating failures — or the most exhilarating successes — of the 2010s.

If you’re after further angles, I can write a scene-by-scene breakdown, analyze visual motifs, or compare Valerian’s worldbuilding to classics like Blade Runner, Fifth Element, and The Fifth Element’s spiritual heirs. Which would you prefer?

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a sci-fi epic directed by Luc Besson, adapted from the long-running French comic series Valérian and Laureline. This guide covers the essential lore, characters, and settings needed to navigate its vast universe. The Core Duo: Valerian & Laureline Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets - E...

Valerian and Laureline are special operatives for the United Human Federation, tasked with maintaining order throughout human-governed territories in the 28th century.

Major Valerian: An expert soldier and pilot, Valerian is courageous and effective but often struggles with his personal commitment to Laureline, frequently proposing marriage despite a reputation as a womanizer.

Sergeant Laureline: The more intuitive and no-nonsense half of the team. In the comics, she is a medieval peasant whom Valerian brought to the future; in the film, she is his highly capable partner who often has to bail him out of trouble. The Primary Setting: Alpha

Alpha—the "City of a Thousand Planets"—is the central hub of the film.

Origin: It began as the International Space Station (ISS) in Earth's orbit. Over centuries, thousands of alien species docked their own modules to it, sharing knowledge and culture.

Relocation: Eventually, Alpha became so massive that its gravity threatened Earth. It was pushed out of orbit and now travels through deep space as a sovereign entity housing over 30 million inhabitants.

Structure: The city is divided into distinct zones tailored to the environmental needs of its 3,236 different species, ranging from gas-filled sections to massive underwater liquid habitats. Key Lore & Objects The narrative follows Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and

Planet Mül & The Pearls: A peaceful ocean world inhabited by the low-tech "Pearls." It was accidentally destroyed 30 years prior during a space war between humans and another race.

Mül Converter: A small creature (resembling an armadillo-dragon hybrid) capable of ingesting an object—like energy-rich pearls—and replicating thousands of copies of it. It is a central MacGuffin in the film.

The Big Market: A massive interdimensional bazaar on the planet Kirian. Shoppers must wear special goggles to see and interact with the 1,000,000+ shops that exist in a parallel dimension. Essential Viewing/Reading Order If you want to dive deeper into the source material:

This paper explores the visual storytelling, world-building, and cultural reception of Luc Besson’s 2017 space opera, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

The Architecture of Imagination: Analyzing Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

IntroductionLuc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) represents one of the most ambitious undertakings in independent cinema history. Adapted from the influential French comic series Valérian et Laureline by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières, the film attempts to translate a sprawling, decades-old universe into a singular cinematic experience. While the film faced significant hurdles in North American markets, its contribution to the science fiction genre lies in its uncompromising visual maximalism and its departure from the tonal "grittiness" that dominated 21st-century blockbuster sci-fi.

Visual Maximalism and World-BuildingThe core achievement of Valerian is the titular "City of a Thousand Planets," known as Alpha. The film’s opening sequence—a montage set to David Bowie’s "Space Oddity"—functions as a historical primer on the evolution of Alpha from a human space station to a multi-species megacity. This sequence establishes the film’s central theme: the necessity of multicultural cooperation and the physical manifestation of diplomacy. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Unlike contemporary franchises such as Star Wars or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which often utilize standardized color palettes and familiar landscapes, Valerian embraces a "Baroque" aesthetic. From the bioluminescent landscapes of the planet Mül to the "Big Market" (a multidimensional bazaar existing across overlapping planes of reality), Besson prioritizes sensory overload. This approach forces the viewer into the position of a true alien, emphasizing the sheer scale and incomprehensibility of the cosmos.

The Protagonist ParadoxA significant point of critical contention involves the casting and characterization of Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne). In the source material, the duo operates with a level of professional parity and romantic tension that defined the "space-agent" archetype. In the film, however, the chemistry is often described as discordant.

Valerian is presented as a cocky, somewhat traditional hero, yet his performance is intentionally subversive; he lacks the physical imposingness of a typical action star. This choice highlights a recurring Besson theme: the "hero" is often less important than the environment they inhabit. Laureline, conversely, serves as the emotional and moral anchor, reflecting the comic’s progressive roots in portraying female characters with high agency and intellectual superiority.

Environmentalism and Colonial CritiqueBeneath the neon surface, the film’s narrative is a sharp critique of colonialism and military industrialism. The plight of the Pearls—an indigenous species whose planet was destroyed as collateral damage in a human war—mirrors real-world histories of displaced populations. The film’s refusal to paint the human military (represented by Clive Owen’s Commander Filitt) as a purely benevolent force complicates the traditional "space police" trope. Instead, Valerian argues that the preservation of a peaceful status quo often hides systemic injustices against "lesser" civilizations.

Cultural Reception and LegacyDespite its technical brilliance, the film struggled with "brand recognition" outside of Europe. For many international audiences, the visual language of Valerian felt derivative of films like The Fifth Element or Avatar, despite the fact that the original Valérian comics served as the primary inspiration for those very works.

ConclusionValerian and the City of a Thousand Planets remains a polarizing masterpiece of visual design. It is a film that values the "wonder" of the unknown over the mechanics of a tight plot. By prioritizing the ecological and sociological complexity of its universe, Besson created a vibrant alternative to the monochrome aesthetics of modern sci-fi, ensuring the film's status as a cult classic for years to come.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a 2017 space opera film directed by Luc Besson, based on the French comic series Valérian and Laureline. It is renowned for its visual spectacle and holds the record for the most expensive European and independent film ever made.