Brilliant!

Rating: 9/10 (4 January 1999)

The Fifth Element is a spectacular entertainment. It's brilliant!
Director Luc Besson, who made my favorite action film, La Femme Nikia, here blends high tech digital effects with a smashing fantasy story. This is not just another series of kinetic visuals designed to pump adrenaline and testosterone. Like Alien, Aliens, Blade Runner and Twelve Monkeys, it presents us with indelible characters, some all too human and some not so human.
Finally, without getting the least bit preachy, the movie underscores the idea that, with all our violence, follies and sins, the human race ultimately has a higher element - a fifth element, is you will.