Do You Want Extra Cheese With That Joke?

Rating: 9/10 (26 August 2014)

"The Fifth Element", has pretty much all the ingredients to make an entire franchise around it. Taking elements from the iconic comic book series "The Incal", by Alejandro Jodorowsky & Jean Giraud (Moebius), and "The Circles of Power", by Pierre Christin & Jean-Claude Mezieres. For whatever reason I find this movie to be extremely underrated. The performances, effects, and various species just make me wish more people would talk about it nowadays.
Set in the twenty-third century. The story involves the survival of Earth, which becomes the responsibility of Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a taxicab driver and former special forces major. After a young woman (Milla Jovovich) falls into his cab, Dallas joins forces with her to recover four mystical stones essential for the defence of Earth against the impending attack.
Bruce Willis is our lead. Playing the usual tough guy persona is nothing unfamiliar, but I think this character is a lot more well developed than the usual one off film he does here and there. Milla Jovovich is wonderfully quirky as the naive Leeloo, who trained vigorously for her role as well as developing a fictional language of 400 words with the director. Finally, Gary Oldman shines again as the corrupt businessman Zorg, fresh from the eccentrics of Besson's "Leon: The Professional" (1994). The likes of Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry and comedian Lee Evans build a wonderful supporting cast.
To best describe it's sprawling futuristic city visuals of flying cars and eccentric uniforms, it's essentially "Blade Runner" (1982), set in the daylight. The way this city breaths is like a dance of sorts with great pacing, a fantastic soundtrack and energy that compliments this outlandish movie so well. You'll believe almost anything that is thrown at you and take it as the norm. Being that it was the costliest European film at the time of it's release, it seemed to divide people's opinions straight down the middle.
Final Verdict: Luc Besson literally created an amazingly French science fiction movie, that captures the "Bande Dessinée" vibes and adapts them to a tee. It's my sci-fi equivalent to "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (1971). 9/10.