The Fifth Element

That was an interesting science fiction Universe. Quick question: Why is this the only outing we've ever taken to it?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the movie did well at the box office, critics and audiences were generally favorable, and it developed a cult following. I'm puzzled why there was never a sequel or a follow-up set in the same Universe.

Gary Oldman as Zorg is an interesting villain for two reasons. His whole theory about creating life out of destruction says the guy is 100% deranged, but comes by his crazy opinions honestly at least. The second thing that interests me is that despite the fact that the Ultimate Evil seems nigh unstoppable, as its human instrument, Zorg is shockingly ineffective. He does a LOT of damage, reckless damage at that, and he still never ONCE gets the upper hand. I wonder if fans of the movie have noticed and commented on that, because it is super unusual. Even in movies with competent heroes, the villains usually look like they are gonna get away with it at various points. What's especially amazing to me is that as crazy as Zorg actually is, he personally isn't incompetent. Every bad break handed to him is down to luck, misfortune, or minion failure. Until the bomb explodes, that is, which is 100% on him, and which frankly he had coming.

This movie was Chris Tucker's breakout role. About that: This movie is pretty impressively diverse. Lots of faces of color in the future. Even the President is black. And as clownish, obnoxious, cowardly, and jokey as Ruby is, he still survived the film, which almost no black characters in genre films with that role ever do. That's not nothing.

But the messages aren't entirely positive. I think the movie is extremely sexist. Not because of the skimpy outfits or gross sex jokes. The first is a sci-fi staple, and the second doesn't have to be sexist. My problem is that Leelu is completely and totally 100% objectified during the movie (and I'm not entirely speaking sexually). She's referred to as an object more than once, and it's an entirely crappy message that the sci-fi Maguffin is a living and breathing woman. She has no identity or agency other than to save the other characters through some nebulous unknown means. The gratuitous nudity bothers me less than the fact the most major female character is treated as an item to possess rather than a person with her own agency.

The moment when Corbin tries to kiss her awake is memorable and funny, but the truth is it wouldn't have happened at ALL if the movie had portrayed her as an actual person instead of as a fairytale princess. If she's Cinderella, the kiss makes sense. If she's a person, it's worth putting a gun to Bruce Willis' head. And I appreciated the gun. I did.

Her telling Corbin she was would protect him was also nice and unexpected at the point she said it, but it struck me as a bit too little, too late.

Speaking of Bruce Willis, the last act is essentially Die Hand On A Spaceship. That must have been fun for him.

The movie has a sense of humor about itself. But is it actually funny? That's debatable. But the fact that it's not Grimdark in the least is a refreshing change of pace for a future sci-fi film. The tone is satiric more than anything else.

Whoever was Luke Perry's agent in 1997 was not paid enough. I had no idea Perry was in the film, but based on the prominent name he has in the credits, it's shocking he's only in the very first scene, but also that he plays the third most important character in said scene. It's not quite as impressive as Mark Hamill getting second billing in Star Wars: The Force Awakens for ten seconds of screentime at the end, but it's just as good PR for Perry as that was for Hamill for the same reason. Whoever his agent was, I hope he sent him a nice fruit-basket for this.

It feels very weird that this is the only movie in this specific continuity. I'm not saying it was open-ended or anything, but it wasn't definitive either. It makes little sense we've never seen anything else in this Universe. Oh, well. ***1/2.