Armageddon with irony

Rating: 6/10 (6 January 2005)

A friend of mine once observed that the real problem with The Fifth Element is that it wasn't in French; that had Luc Besson opted to make it in his native tongue all would have been well. He may have a point, but it's still a terribly overoptimistic analysis.
The Fifth Element has to be one of the silliest films ever made: the barking mad plot, the comedy villain, the comedy "bad race" of Org, the crazy costumes, the crazy music, the Blade Runner with laughs script, the sci-fi icons (like Ian Holm and Brion James). It should be terrible; it is terrible! But it's also marvellous. Marvellously camp, marvellously entertaining and great fun. The difference between this and Big Bruce's Armageddon is that Fifth Element is in on the joke  in a very in-your-face way, but it is. Contrast near-identical Bruce lines in each film (the "why d'ya call me" line). In Armageddon, the question is taken seriously, in Fifth Element they play it for the joke it is "firstly, out of all of your unit, you're the only one qualified to fly all these space-craft" - cue the unrolling of an improbably long list - "secondly, of all of your unit, you're the only one still alive".
This is The Mummy in Space  two hours of almost unrelenting silliness punctuated with some wonderful pastiches  the best and the most hilarious being Chris Tucker's Ruby Rhod  if you didn't realise he's supposed to be Prince it might be classified as ridiculous (what am I saying? It is ridiculous, but it's also bloody marvellous).
The genius in this film is really in the casting. Butch Bruce, when left to his own devices, is capable of producing high grade camembert, and once again delivers on that. It's just that here it's so perfect. Ian Holm seems to be rehashing his role in the borrowers rather than Alien. Gary Oldman seems to have been pinching ideas (and costumes) from Max Von Sydow in Flash Gordon. And then there is LeeLoo, the films one original creation, who is played majestically by Milla Jovovich.
If it strikes you that I like this film rather too much; well, I agree. I mean, I know this film is trash but it is, nevertheless, the kind of trash people put in a gallery and call art. Surprisingly re-watchable. 6/10.