An entertaining 1990s action flick combined with exceptional visual effects

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 2020)

In terms of its visual appearance, The Fifth Element is undoubtedly one of the most impressive productions of the 1990s and the CGI that forms the film's nucleus remains amazing almost a quarter of a century after its release. The movie's futuristic plot can be classified as original, even though there are many tropes that can be encountered in a number of other action and sci-fi films that came out during the same decade. It develops pretty well, too, making The Fifth Element entertaining and exciting from the beginning to the end.
The central focus on saving the world makes for a theme that was quite popular at the turn of the millennium and also one that happened to produce a handful of blockbusters at the time. Bruce Willis plays the kind of a hero who does the job almost single-handedly and the character of Korben Dallas is in many ways similar to that of John McClane. The impression that the protagonist of the Die Hard movies had found himself sent to the future is particularly present in the shootout scene with the Mangalores, in which Dallas' white shirt quickly becomes ripped and charred as he has to dodge thousands of bullets and a few rockets.
The performances are solid, even though virtually all of the characters turn out to be relatively childish. That said, their infantile stupidity often seems to be caused by their over-reliance on technology, which was certainly an interesting thing to notice from today's perspective. Willis' sidekicks are played by Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm and Chris Tucker, with Gary Oldman taking up the role of the main antagonist, who is both accompanied by and confronted with the aforementioned Mangalores, an evil alien species whose members are able to shift between the form of a human and that of an anthropomorphic dog-like creature. The childish nature of Jovovich's character, who gives the movie its title, is additionally justified by the fact that she is basically a newborn alien and the funny thing is that she seems to have a penchant for hiding inside ventilation shafts while on the run, which gives The Fifth Element another feature that is reminiscent of John McClane and his adventures in the first two installments of the Die Hard series. Tucker's character, an eccentric radio show host, is the only one who can sometimes go into the realm of mildly annoying silliness, but he is also amusingly entertaining on several occasions.