Nice to look at, but too French

Rating: Null/10 (28 November 2003)

I really like the set design of this movie. It is much more colorful than Star Wars, for instance. The effects get the job done without being too distracting. Bruce Willis is cool. But, as a male, let me tell you the director's idea of a perfect woman is not my idea of a perfect woman. And before you decide that I'm just a pig and obviously her perfection was much deeper and who am I to be judging a woman by her appearance (which I am), let me point out how everybody in the movie, from military commanders to a monk of some bizarre religious sect, acknowledges how beautiful he thinks she is. Me... I thought she looked like a typical anorexic European model, but with unnaturally vivid hair.

-SPOILERS AHEAD-

Unfortunately, what will probably strike most people about the movie are the nauseatingly trite themes of love and pacifism. She can save the human race from annihilation, but, alas! she ponders, is there anything worth saving? You see, all we do is nuke each other, according to the Ken Burns series she watches on a spaceship. Oh, but fear not! Despite our affinity for brinkmanship, since she fell in love with Bruce Willis we're not so bad and she'll save humanity after all. It's good to know that love can still override the better judgment of a woman if the fate of the world is on the line.
Come to think of it, even though I praised the art direction, I remembered something about the look of the movie that disagreed with me: Chris Tucker. If you have seen the movie, you realized that the only thing more insufferable than Tucker's hair and clothing is his persona, which reaches new depths of cosmic annoyingness--annoyingness that would make you want to call up Jar Jar just to get away from such whiny, effeminate prattle.
The movie could have been really great. But the annoyingly French message will probably turn off anyone who pays attention. Let's say 5/10 because blue is always in fashion.