Review Detail

As a fan of the Fifth Element in the 90’s (a band of ours was called Korben Dallas but that's another story.) I was looking forward to seeing a new Beeson epic and visually he did not disappoint , however, in the final execution he did. Maybe I am missing the point: after all, I know nothing about the source material.

I managed to see a small portion of the workprint a while back and liked what I saw and so my anticipation for this edit grew, only to feel disappointed when Malthus put it on the back burner … to my delight and in collaboration with Scar, Malthus managed to revive it and finally get No Love Lost released.

Valerian suffered from strange casting choices that were detrimental. Clive Owen comes across as a pantomime villain and Cara Delevingne and Dane Daahan (a poor man’s Keanu Reeves) had no real on-screen chemistry . Valerian comes across as pushy, desperate and a bit creepy. Laureline and Valerian are no Han & Leia. .. so in comes Malthus to save the day by setting out to remove the forced romance plot. Personally if i am going to enjoy Valerian in future viewings it’s gonna have to be chopped up even more ruthlessly. Bring on more dialogue changes..truncated scenes , get rid of hammy acting…they’ll all need to be addressed . The film is never gonna be a classic but I feel it can definitely be improved upon and Malthus is almost there with his No Love Lost edit but ultimately my personal preference is not what this edit is about and taking that into mind Malthus totally succeeded in what he set out to do .

I loved the new titling sequence. The removal of the opening dream sequence worked a treat
and helped maintain a certain level of mystery throughout the film. I would like to have seen a flashback to the daughter dying outside the spaceship during the possession of Valerian worked back into the edit.

I also noticed the audio level was higher during the end credits but I think this has since been addressed in version 2.
Bubbles death scene had a few problems …i noticed Bubbles tentacles before the hard cut into the next scene. I was not sure if this was deliberate but reading your change list I presumed she was lost.
I also feel the ending is kind of abrupt but I am totally aware that you have a certain amount of footage to work with. Maybe keeping in the kiss would have worked, after all our protagonist did have a little flirting going on.

I can’t help but feel the culmination of the movie is a bit Murder She Wrote or even Scooby-Doo (no fault of the edit) but its a fun ride up to a certain point and considering what Malthus set out to achieve he did a fine job and fully succeeded.

The video quality seemed fine streamed wirelessly through my plex server and audio was clear for 2 channels. Visual editing is Malthus quality. The narrative is vastly improved but i would like to see an edit that goes further with regards to shortening scenes and removing hammy dialogue maybe i'll have a crack at it one day. My enjoyment of Valerian has certainly increased so all in all Valerian NLL is a winner.