Vision & Entertainment Unite!

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2010)

Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" succeeds in every area it tackles. It manages to be a starkly fresh and original semi-scifi movie with too much individual character to really belong to any established genre. It works as a stark social commentary and as a homage to the human spirit.
300 years into the future, we find that the world has got a lot more bigger, populated and technologically advanced. That's all that's changed. People have not changed in the slightest; there's still war, crime, abuse of power etcetera etcetera. Hell, even McDonald's is still around AND doing good. One has to wonder if these are Besson's own dark predictions for the future, far darker than those of Gene Roddenberry. On the other hand, and interestingly, the radio is just as big as television in this future.
Visually, this film is spectacular. The set pieces are out of this world, the whole look utterly characteristic. All costumes were designed by Jean-Paul Gaultiere, and his creativity ties it all together. This is evidently a world far in the future.
The story is a big one, yet never feels unsatisfactorily told. Corben Dallas (Bruce Willis) is a retired space fighter turned cab driver who's just a hair's breadth from losing his job. Mysterious girl Leeloo literally falls into his life, turning out to be the mysterious and precious Fifth Element, a super-being meant to complete the quintet forming a world-saving weapon from an unspeakable evil. To make matters difficult is corrupted mogul Zorg (Gary Oldman once again displaying his extraordinary versatility), who has a pact with this unspoken evil, or "Mr. Shadow" as Zorg knows him. These two parties (Corben and Leeloo with priest Vito Cornelius) race against each other to find the four "elements", in four stones. To give away any more would spoil things, but I guarantee you'll be entertained.
All the performances are great. Milla Jovovich was made for the part of Leeloo (perhaps not a coincidence, seeing how she was married to Besson at the time), to such an extent that to this day, Leeloo's visage pops in my mind whenever the actress's name is mentioned. Chris Tucker is ridiculously funny and over-the-top as radio sensation Ruby Rhod. You have to hand it to him, it takes balls to strut around in the costumes he wears and keep it believable. When he panics, however, he is even funnier, completely hyper and screaming in ways I previously thought weren't possible by male vocal chords. One particularly hilarious performance, though, isn't even credited; that of Corben's mother. We only hear her speak on the phone, but her dry, sharp and non-humoured dialogue leaves me in stitches. It's a real pity the actress behind the voice is unknown, because it takes something for a voice-only performance to stick out this much in your mind after viewing. To put it plainly, this film is hilarious. All the humour is imaginative and well-delivered. It goes into sexual territory at times, but never anything rancid. That's good comedy. The Fifth Element is not a comedy, though. It's a visual, engaging action adventure.
I love how Luc Besson's films always have this certain character to them, and this just might be his most reconisable film (and the man has made some great stuff, such as LÃ©on). Great piece of entertainment, as beautiful as it is exciting. It's also fun to see a more cynical view on the future. The Fifth Element is one of those times we are reminded that vision and entertainment can be perfect bed partners.