Naive

Rating: Null/10 (6 September 2003)

Luc Besson wrote this as a teenager, it shows. Cameron did the same with the Abyss, Landis with American Werewolf in London. The films all present naive concepts more in tune with style and flash rather than deeper substance. My only real thought with The Fifth Element is: how many times did Besson watch Heavy Metal before making this? So much material is obviously inspired from it that I just started rolling my eyes. By the end, everything has abandoned the sci-fi genre and gone into the fantasyland that George Lucas reigns over as king...I am, of course, sarcastic in saying that.
Truth to be told, neither Willis nor Jovovich are noteworthy in this film. Holm is wasted on a cracked-out priest that made me remember the glory days of Ash the android. Oldman is an oddball this time, unlike his serious role in The Professional (Leon) and Chris Tucker is on the spot as the warp speed DJ. Sometimes I was wondering when Denis Leary was going to come along and give the coup de-grace to the whole project with more lightning fast banter.
Thankfully, Besson has Thierry Arbogast's help in creating some of the most diabolical visuals this side of Blade Runner. Most of the CGI is too obvious and the makeup effects are terrible, not to mention the sound, but when looked upon as parody, this is a new Spaceballs. You decide if that's good or bad.
Overall, Star Wars meets Transformers meets North by Northwest meets Hard-Boiled. You decide if it's good or not, I think it needed some enlightening ahead of time. 2.5 out of 5 stars.