Not the most amazing sci-fi adventure, but certainly fun enough to keep one's eyes on the screen

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2010)

This is a popular sci-fi blockbuster from 1997, but I was a few months shy of eleven years old at the time of its release, and was totally unaware of its existence until several years later. I saw some of it at least twice during my high school years, but the first time I saw the entire film was in 2005 (shortly after finishing high school), and from what I remember, I was a little disappointed. Maybe I didn't exactly think it was bad, but it certainly didn't meet my expectations. After over four years, I finally watched it from start to finish a second time, and as I had hoped, it was definitely better this time. There were some things I couldn't remember from my first viewing, especially towards the end, but as well as being better, my second viewing was also more memorable.
Every five thousand years, a great evil comes and threatens all life in the Universe! Four stones (representing fire, air, water, and earth) and a living being known as the Fifth Element together make the only weapon that can stop it! In 1914, three hundred years before this great evil is to return, an extraterrestrial group called the Mondoshawan come to Earth to take the Elements from an ancient tomb in Egypt and keep them safe. Three hundred years later, in an era of flying cars, the Mondoshawan attempt to return to Earth, but are killed by evil aliens called Mangalores! Scientists find a portion of the Fifth Element in the remains of the Mondoshawan ship, and use a machine to recreate it. It comes to life in the form of a human female named Leeloo, who escapes from the laboratory and falls into the backseat of a taxi driven by Korben Dallas, a former military man. He takes her to a priest named Father Vito Cornelius, who knows just who/what she is after he sees the mark on her arm! The priest is searching for the other four elements, but so is the evil Zorg, who has different plans for them!
I may not have found this movie very suspenseful the first time I watched it all, but the same cannot be said about the second time. I found a lot of it suspenseful this time, with all the action, starting during the opening sequence, set in 1914 Egypt, and continuing for much of the rest of the film, set in the 23rd century. To add to the quality of "The Fifth Element", there are good performances here from Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm, Gary Oldman, etc. The film also has some humour, sometimes funny and sometimes not so much. The "bada boom" part is pretty annoying, and Chris Tucker as Ruby Rhod isn't a very good comic relief. I may not have found him nearly as annoying as some people probably have, but his antics can be pretty lame. However, there is some good humour, with Zorg (Oldman's character, a better comic relief), Korben hiding military personnel in his fridge, etc. I tend to really like the visuals in these modern sci-fi blockbusters, with the sets and special effects, and the visuals here are no exception. Finally, towards the end, there are some fairly moving scenes.
This is not a film I've ever been able to describe as a masterpiece, but after watching it twice, I think it deserves a lot of praise. I'm not sure why I wasn't that impressed the first time. Maybe I wasn't exactly in the right mood, or maybe I had to see it again in order to understand its popularity. Well, whatever the reason was, it definitely improved with a second viewing, as some movies do, and I think I now understand why it's so popular, even if I don't like it as much as many others clearly do. Sure, some of the humour doesn't work (some Chris Tucker gags included), the romance between Korben and Leeloo is sometimes a little cheesy, and those may not be the only two flaws, but apart from that, there's not much I can criticize "The Fifth Element" for. If you like a good sci-fi adventure, many would obviously agree that this one is worth a look.