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Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)

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Re: Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)

#41

Post by vidarh »

throwa356262 wrote: post #37
jacquesm wrote: post #23

What I like most about the Fifth Element is that they didn't milk it through a bunch of sequels.

I think this one deserved at least one sequel. Speaking of sequels, who in the star wars universe will get their own show next? Based on who is left, i put my money on Exogorth.

Fifth Element is pretty much Besson doing Valerian before he was able to get funding for Valerian, so we kinda did get a spiritual sequel of sorts.

Unfortunately, while I've grown to like the Valerian movie, when compared to Fifth Element it would seem that Besson should have been given a far tighter budget for Valerian rather than the apparent near free reign he got.

Re: Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)

#42

Post by vidarh »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #26
sixtyj wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He continued with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The Fifth Element has similar cinematic feeling as the first Blade Runner. And now it is clear. There is the same person behind it :)

Valerian missed the mark; I'm sure it's got great designs (although I also believe it's mostly CGI), but the story of the movie is disjointed (which is a risk when trying to merge multiple storylines into one) and the actors are lifeless.

I've grown to like Valerian over rewatches, but unfortunately it suffers from Besson being a massive Valerian fanboy and trying to stuff everything he possibly could into it... I think he'd have done far better if he'd gotten a more limited budget, or had to produce three of them for the cost of the one he did...

Re: Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)

#43

Post by mgoetzke »

vidarh wrote: post #41
throwa356262 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this one deserved at least one sequel. Speaking of sequels, who in the star wars universe will get their own show next? Based on who is left, i put my money on Exogorth.

Fifth Element is pretty much Besson doing Valerian before he was able to get funding for Valerian, so we kinda did get a spiritual sequel of sorts. Unfortunately, while I've grown to like the Valerian movie, when compared to Fifth Element it would seem that Besson should have been given a far tighter budget for Valerian rather than the apparent near free reign he got.

For Valerian he should have been better at casting people that had chemistry and felt real

Re: Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)

#44

Post by steve1977 »

prhn wrote: post #21

I'm just here to share my love for this film. I'm a big movie fan. I've been watching the Fifth Element since high school, and I've only grown to appreciate it more and more as a film as I get older. It's so full of life, creativity, color, humor, and themes we can all relate to (purpose, love, loss, etc). This is peek Bruce Willis, and the movie is filled with other exceptional actors including Gary Oldman and Ian H…

The cast is just perfect IMHO. Super green! ;

Also one of my all time favorites.

Re: Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)

#45

Post by peacebeard »

0x3f wrote: post #35
prhn wrote: post #21

I'm just here to share my love for this film. I'm a big movie fan. I've been watching the Fifth Element since high school, and I've only grown to appreciate it more and more as a film as I get older. It's so full of life, creativity, color, humor, and themes we can all relate to (purpose, love, loss, etc). This is peek Bruce Willis, and the movie is filled with other exceptional actors including Gary Oldman and Ian H…

But I wonder at what point digital effects become 'good enough' in some sense that they never look aged beyond the containing film. At some point surely there's no more perceptible 'resolution' to be had.

In practice digital effects haven’t approached being convincing the way practical effects do. In many cases, especially when used liberally, digital effects still clock as amazing digital effects rather than reality. It can be enjoyable but I don’t see what would move forward other than recognizing cgi isnt the best solution for everything.

Re: Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)

#46

Post by aresant »

If you enjoyed the Fifth Element absolutely watch Jodorowsky's Dune

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/

On the cover it's a story about the failed production of Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune script but the deeper story was the aggregation of an unbelievably talented pool of visual artists including Jean "Moebius" Giraud (mentioned as central artist in 5th element), H.R. Giger, Chris Foss, Salvador Dali, & Dan O'Bannon.

That group would go on to centrally influence the visual style of a huge body of science fiction work including Alien, Blade Runner, Total Recall, Star Wars, The Matrix, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc etc.

The art and creativity on display in the film is absolutely sonic.

Kind of like the original PayPal mafia!

Re: Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)

#47

Post by juancn »

prhn wrote: post #21

I'm just here to share my love for this film. I'm a big movie fan. I've been watching the Fifth Element since high school, and I've only grown to appreciate it more and more as a film as I get older. It's so full of life, creativity, color, humor, and themes we can all relate to (purpose, love, loss, etc). This is peek Bruce Willis, and the movie is filled with other exceptional actors including Gary Oldman and Ian H…

I got the 4K BD disk to watch with my kids a couple months ago and it has aged really well, particularly the special effects.

It's a wonderful movie, definitely one of my favorites.

Re: Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)

#48

Post by cubefox »

Joel_Mckay wrote: post #9
grenoire wrote: post #4

I love this movie so much it's _unreal_. What an experience, every single time. And each time I see an article like this, I simply marvel at the immense love for art and life it has. What an incredibly talented crew, what product of mastery and care.

Adam Savage covered the Mondoshawan props on his channel last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf5dPrmBvwE It was a fun film, but Chris Tucker broke the pacing too many times for a general audience. Even now on rottentomatoes his role still distracts focus from the character arcs. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fifth_element Was a cult classic for sure, but nowhere near Blade Runner as a film. =3

I think the film would have been better (though perhaps less successful) if Besson had toned down the occasionally exaggerated tomfoolery, like Chris Tucker's character, or the spaceship Evil (the orb described in the article) which felt almost like a SciFi parody taken out of the movie Spaceballs.

The pacing, the great costumes and set design by Moebius, the actors Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich, and the unusual ideas (like the alien opera singer) were all more than enough to carry the movie.

Re: Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)

#50

Post by Jordan-117 »

Excellent article. And a great opportunity to share one of my favorite scifi worldbuilding artifacts: the 4K matte painting used for the brief view of Manhattan during the take-off sequence:

http://web.archive.org/web/20161007133354if_/http://digitald...

The overall vision for the city is implicit but wildly creative: sea levels have dropped significantly, with the architecture of the city spreading across the newly-exposed land and leaving original structures like the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan's skyscrapers, and the Statue of Liberty towering above the landscape. There are also oodles of tiny details scattered throughout the image -- you can pore over it for a good 10 minutes and still find more to appreciate. Very cool of Digital Domain to share it originally.

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