Oh man, the tone of that movie is excellent. Really sorry Valerian ended up such a dud. Snow Crash with a high quality 5th element vibe would be pretty amazing.

Valerian had so much potential, and its intro sequence is one of the best I've ever seen.

I still enjoyed it though, it's no so bad that it's unwatchable, ,just a let down from what it could have been.

I don’t keep up with sci-fi culture so I watched it not knowing how bad everyone thought it was. I actually really liked it in the same way I liked fifth element. I also enjoyed watching Prometheus for the same reason.

I feel when you’re aware of the zeitgeist it messed a ton with your expectations.

The Fifth Element is one of the few movies where, back when cable was a thing, when it was on "TV" you could watch it no matter where you started. It's weirdly charming, in all of it's absurdity.

Just like Shawshank Redemption.

I wonder if there's some narrative parallels there somehow, since Shawshank is definitely what I would call Oscar Bait and Fifth Element is really just a cult sci-fi flick.

French romp but Sci-fi