A letdown for Luc Besson fans

Rating: Null/10 (15 January 2002)

I had seen only two of Besson's past films when I rented this one. La Femme Nikita and The Professional I found thoroughly enjoyable, but The Fifth Element was just more cliché-ridden American celluloid.
Now, I was looking for something specific. In both Nikita and Professional, Besson employed delightfully flawed main characters. Does Nikita deserve the mind-twisting manipulation she's enduring? She's a victim of ruthless and calculating people, but on the other hand she's a cold-blooded bitch killer. Do I like Léon? He's a sympathetic, child-like man, but on the other hand he's an efficient executioner. I find myself thinking about these two often: they raise questions about what I feel about the world and why.
All of the characters in The Fifth Element were stock items. Bruce Willis played, once again, Bruce Willis. I liked Moonlighting and Die Hard but how many times can he play David Addison in yet another movie and have it continue to work? Gary Oldman was rehashing Norman Stansfield from The Professional with minor adjustments. The rest of the movie amounted to nothing more than a giant treasure hunt and chase scene, culminating in too many gender clichés to count and a sickeningly sweet monologue on the nature of love. The whole effort left me cold.
Now, if you don't make the connection with Besson's earlier films, and you just want to see a bit of fun, over-the-top science fiction fluff, then The Fifth Element may be for you. If, like me, you enjoyed Besson's earlier complex characters and are looking for more of the same, then avoid this one like the plague.