Apr 12, 2019
Like Mr. Shadow itself, The Fifth Element was something of
an anomaly when it hit theaters in 1997 - a $90 million sci-fi
spectacular that wasn't based on a pre-existing property.
While that's technically true, there were some French
comic book publishers who felt like Luc Besson's film crossed the
line between homage and outright theft. We trace the project's
origins to determine if there's any merit to those claims, see how
well the movie holds up two decades later, and examine the myriad
of reasons there was never a sequel.
Topics include: how comics like Valerian and The
Incal helped set the template for the look of this (and many
other movies), why ditching the ex-military angle for Korben would
really help clean up the first act, our initial reactions to Gary
Oldman's performance and some confusion over what exactly his
endgame here is, the realization that Leeloo really only has one
big scene, the "born sexy yesterday trope", and much more!
Check it out! You can now get HDYR
merch exclusively through TeePublic!
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