Review by Pradipa PR

The Fifth Element 1997

Such a downer ending for a great film in the first half. This film had everything right: the unique scifi aesthetics, the quirky characters, the comedy, the music. But the second half, especially in the last 45 minutes was just, in Zorg's word, disappointment.

The climax is the worst offender. The end of the world as we know it was just such a hurried, nonsense mess. If the planet can go to Earth instantly in the first place, why bother waiting and making some weird deal with Zorg? What the hell? What was the reason for that? The hunt for the ulimate weapon and the quest to activate it was resolved in less than 5 minutes (3 minutes per movie time) through some kindergarten puzzle.

Before the climax, the beatdown with the two big vllains (the mercs and Zorg) was disappointing. The big setup for the big showdown with the mercs was resolved by Bruce Willis being the unstoppable force Bruce Willis instead of impactful action like Die Hard. Zorg went down with the most cliche way a 90s villain can do: because of dumb stupidity.

Other than though, the film is great as everyone has said. The unique non-sleek non-white asthetics give unique touch to the imagination of retrofuturism. The funky crazy costume the characters wear paint a future that looks nothing like a cold, damp techy stuff we see in popular imagination, nor did it look like the gruffy grunge hard-boiled grit like in Dredd, but more like an embrace to the DIY and cyberpunk culture of the 80s. I like it.

Plot was unpredictable and very entertaining, taking you in an adventerous journey - up to the last 45 minutes. It went downhill so fast when the writers decided to just wrap up every plot point in one or two big bang bada boom.

Watch it once just for the experience, maybe revisit if you like the aesthetics.

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