Set in year 2214, over-the-top Sci-Fi fun, I found it totally enjoyable.

Rating: Null/10 (9 October 2000)

My wife and I fall in the "over-45" category and we both really enjoyed this film. REALLY ENJOYED!!! I give it a strong 8 of 10. Bruce Willis is perfect for the laid-back air-Taxi driver and Milla Jovovich gave a perfect performance as the alien.
CAUTION - MAY HAVE SOME SPOILERS BELOW.
The movie starts in the year 1914, in Egypt, and we learn about the existence of a "Fifth element" to go along with the other four - wind, fire, earth, and water. The grotesque but friendly aliens take the elements and vow to return with them in 300 years when there will be danger.
Cut to NYC in 2214. Vehicular traffic now travels in all 3 dimensions. Apartments resemble large railway sleeper compartments with a stove and fridge. The aliens with the 5th element are returning to Earth when they are shot down by bad guys. Only a "hand" survives. The DNA shows that it is a complex but "perfect" creature. So they put it into their "people reconstructor" and "voila", a perfect and nude Milla appears as the "supreme being." She can't talk or read yet, but learns at lightning speed and eventually tells them where the 5 elements are.
Intergalactic, light-speed travel and a performance by the "diva" finally leads to the elements. Of course the ugly, bad-guy aliens are after them too so there is lots of shooting and a number of exlosions. but the good guys prevail.
The climax of the movie is back in Egypt, with a giant fireball heading directly to destroy the Earth. Milla is almost dead and they need her to save humanity. The way the film portrayed the "activation" of the 5 elements was really fine and touching special effects. And, all along, the 5th element represented "love", and when it was expressed the world was saved.
Explained this way it sounds trite. But the movie was filled with so many fine special effects with really great 5.1 Digital Dolby soundtrack on DVD that as a whole it is very entertaining. "Over-the-top" for sure, but that was its intent. We are not to take it seriously as we might have some of the other "destruction" movies. This one is more in the vein of "Men in Black", but even a bit more over-the-top.
One of the best tracks available to demo surround sound with powered subwoofer. A really, really powerful and gripping soundtrack. But, watched on an ordinary sound system, or TV speakers, you lose at least half of the film's impact. Definitely made for "home theater."