Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
dir. Luc Besson (2017)
Visually arresting. Besson invests in the SF setting from grand scheme to background detail, creating a plush stage for the space opera. Unfortunately, the storyline shows its comic-book origins. The action scenes are mostly pointless and the big emotional moments fall flat.
Colombiana
dir. Olivier Megaton (2011)
A straightforward action revenge film reworked from Luc Besson’s script for the unmade Léon: The Professional sequel Mathilda. Deprived of a counterpoint character with whom to duet, Zoe Saldaña instead performs a flawless solo as orphaned Colombian girl turned contract killer Cataleya.
Léon
dir. Luc Besson (1994)
A moving friendship tale that stops just short of Lolita-ism and owes its impact more to the acting talents of Jean Reno, Natalie Portman (on debut) and Gary Oldman than to writer-director Luc Besson’s attempts to bring French sensibilities to American film-making.
Lucy
dir. Luc Besson (2014)
Marketed as action SF, Lucy hardly even qualifies as a film. Director Luc Besson oversees a mood collage of philosophy and cod-scientific speculation spliced to a b-grade gangster plot. If not for Scarlett Johansson, this would barely have warranted a direct-to-video release.