Very silly but great to look at.

Rating: Null/10 (10 June 2003)

** 1/2 out of ****
The Fifth Element may very well be the most elaborate, visually magnificent film I've ever seen. Everything, from the spaceships to the flying cars to the city, is an example of eye-popping special effects. For that alone, I would recommend it. There are several other things going for it, too, though I can't forget the fact that the story is a mess and many individual scenes are annoying and headache-inducing. Hey, everything comes with a price, and these visuals are no different.
In terms of plot, let's just say the film takes place a few hundred years in the future, and Bruce Willis is the hero who must save the Earth before a huge ball of evil will destroy it. To do so, Willis needs the help of the fifth element, turns out its Milla Jovovich. Impeding the good guys are a band of ugly aliens and an over-the-top Gary Oldman as a nasty businessman named Zorg.
There are a lot of little things about The Fifth Element that bug me. First is Zorg's motivations. Apparently, he's been chosen by that big ball of evil to hinder Willis and Jovovich, and he cooperates seemingly because he believes in a big financial pay-off. Exactly what he can do with any riches after the Earth is destroyed raises more than a few questions. Basically, Oldman's just here to chew the scenery and give us a human villain, even though in the end, he isn't particularly menacing and never even comes face-to-face with Willis.
Rather, the villains who participate in the physical action are a group of really ugly aliens (whose names I can't think of at the moment) that have the ability to shapeshift. These aliens look really silly, but I'll give director Luc Besson the benefit of the doubt and assume the effect was entirely intentional. Even then, they don't make for very imposing antagonists, they're almost as easy to kill as storm troopers, and they're only slightly more competent.
But such flaws are made up for by not only the movie's great look, but its sense of fun. At its heart, The Fifth Element is not science fiction but a comical action/adventure with mismatched heroes, a "damsel in distress", and bad guys who threaten the world itself. Bruce Willis makes for a great deadpan hero, and as usual, excels during the action sequences. Jovovich isn't quite my idea of the perfect being, but she's acceptable in her role. Almost taking me out of the movie is an annoying Chris Tucker as an androgynous DJ. He's here as comic relief, and while he gets off a few good laughs, he's more of a detriment than anything else.
Surprisingly enough, even though The Fifth Element moves at a fast pace, there are only a few all-out action scenes. Aside from a flying car chase (which Star Wars Episode II obviously took inspiration from) and a big climactic gun battle, there's not a whole lot of physical violence going on here, at least not when compared to some of the other sci-fi action films released around the same time (Star Trek: First Contact, Alien Resurrection, Starship Troopers).
Keeping the film consistently enjoyable is Besson's sense of humor. He knows well enough not to take such a story seriously, so don't be surprised by how much the movie acknowledges its own silliness. I've not seen a whole lot from Besson that I liked (I always found The Professional overrated and The Messenger a bloated, though not entirely unenjoyable, mess), but The Fifth Element comes the closest to a movie of his that I genuinely liked. There's much from this movie I enjoyed and I do recommend it, but cut off the chaff, and we could've had a sci-fi/action classic on our hands and not just a good timewaster.