The Fifth Element

There is no future without her.

Although I'm not a massive fan of Luc Besson's work, it's undeniable that he's delivered some pretty interesting & assorted amount of films during his career. Films like La Femme Nikita and Leon, are part of the lucky few movies that are considered as "timeless masterpiece flicks". 1997's The Fifth Element it is a comic, pulp, sci-fi film that is more of a futuristic comedy rather than a serious driven story in the likes of the above mentioned. In retrospective, Besson has proven himself to be a versatile director & writer. Praised by some, hated by others but what the hell, any publicity is good publicity. Anyways, if you don't like him, he will find you and will kill you (yeah, a gratuitous Taken reference I wanted to make)

As far as sci-fi goes, The Fifth Element is a very interesting installment that aged like wine. With its mythology, creatures, action, and special effects, the movie has everything going for it. The humor that's infused just makes it better, vaulting it through genres (cyber punk, anime, comic books, sci-fi, western, comedy, etc) and making it accessible to almost everyone who gives it a try.

The end is near!

We're all gonna die!

Like any 90's apocalyptic films (yes, there were many), the story revolves around an evil force about to devour Earth and the rest of life itself as it increases in size and power with each influx of destruction and hate thrown at it. Every opportunity to blow it up only makes it stronger. Through a series of fortunate/ unfortunate happenings, (depending on who you are aligning with), we have the paths crossing of a priest who holds the answers for survival, an ex-military, cab driver bent on having some fun and excitement, a strange woman from another place at the center of it all, an evil mercenary out for money, and the government of the galaxy trying to save face in front of inevitable extermination. It is good versus evil traveling through space in order to either shed light or death out to the universe as victory.

In what is a nice little introduction to the myth of the fifth element that will unite with the more common four to wipe out evil, we learn of those who keep the secret of its location. We don't quite know if these aliens are good or not until later, but we do find out the impetus for their coming to the temple on display. A cut forward in time introduces us to the president of the galaxies, (played in what would seem to be horrible casting, but ends up being pretty good with Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr.), and our head priest in the guarding of the truth, Ian Holm. Holm explains what the dark force coming after them is and goes on the quest to find the fifth element and her four stones needed to combat it. This supreme being, played wonderfully by Milla Jovovich with a childlike glee and discovery, falls into the unwitting hands of cabbie Korben Dallas—Bruce Willis at his sarcastic bad-ass best. Willis must join with Holm and Jovovich on a mission to recover the stones and find a way to save the world.

Get me outta here!

So, this girl will save the world?

A lot of the success lies with the man behind it all, Luc Besson. His script is made up of a pretty solid plot line as far as the world destruction goes. Everything makes sense and is explained in a way to not bore us, but instead in tidbits culled from the numerous characters running about it this singularly unique landscape. The art direction is spectacular and for being a 19 year old movie, it still has nice special effects that stand up the pace of time. I've always been a proponent for prosthetic, when able, at the expense of computer graphics. Reactions are always better from actors who have something real to play off of and the lighting and environments just become more realistic. Even so, when computers are used, the effects are more subtle than flashy and never take away from the story that is being told. No matter what spectacle is on display, the script is what is important.

All the personalities on display also lead to much of the greatness that The Fifth Element has to offer. Bruce Willis is the king of this kind of role. His quips and rapport with those around him are priceless. Other standouts are Chris Tucker, in an early role for him, and the great Gary Oldman. Tucker takes loud and obnoxious to a whole new level, but it works flawlessly. His radio DJ has no shame when it comes to working a crowd or chasing the ladies, but his utter fear of danger is hilarious. As for Oldman, I have to believe Besson just said create something fresh. This villain is a pastiche of so many crazy components. His futuristic hair, complete with plastic half shield, is plain weird; the southern accent and buck teeth look is just the right amount of hillbilly; and the disposition of greed and ambivalence is perfect for a bad guy. When he explains how destruction allows all the little machines that man created to finally have work cleaning up the mess, it's fantastic. The real beauty, though, is that no matter how many strong lead roles are here, the little guys steal scenes as well. Singer Tricky is great as Oldman's "Right Arm" and Mathieu Kassovitz partakes in one of the best scenes in the film when he attempts to mug Willis at his apartment.

Multipass!

"So that is a porn website"

Now it's Trivia time! everything you didn't (give a shit) know about the Fifth Element right here, right now and completely free!

-The hero Korben Dallas and the villain Jean Baptiste Emanuel Zorg never meet, nor do they communicate in any way. They are, in fact, unaware of each other's degree of involvement. 

-Luc Besson wrote the original screenplay when he was in high school.  

-The language spoken by Leeloo was invented by director Luc Besson and further refined by Milla Jovovich, who had little trouble learning and developing it, as she was already fluent in 4 languages. By the end of filming they were able to have full conversations in this language. 

-The explosion in the Fhloston main hall was the largest indoor explosion ever filmed. The resulting fire almost got beyond control.  

-The flying traffic created by the visual effects team at Digital Domain allowed artists to create personalized license plates. Though never visible in the film, the state slogan printed on all license plates reads, "New York, The F***-You State." 

Where's my phone call?

Out of this world opera.

-When composer Eric Serra showed soprano Inva Mula (who dubs the voice of the Diva) the sheet music for the Diva Dance, she reportedly smiled and relayed to him that some of the notes written were not humanly possible to achieve because the human voice cannot change notes that fast. Hence, she performed the notes in isolation - one by one, as opposed to consecutively singing them all together and they digitized the notes to fit the music. There are a few moments when you can hear the differences in the vocal tones of The Diva's voice.  

-At the time, it was the most expensive film ever produced outside of Hollywood. 

-When filming began, the production decided to dye Milla Jovovich's hair from its natural brown color to her character's signature orange color. However, due to the fact that her hair had to be re-dyed regularly to maintain the bright color, Milla's hair quickly became too damaged and broken to withstand the dye. Eventually a wig was created to match the color and style of Leeloo's hair, and was used for the remainder of the production.

Singer, model, actress, all woman!

Sci-Fi beauty.

-Luc Besson cast Milla Jovovich as Leeloo, because "Milla has the physical thing, she can be from the past or the future. She can be an Egyptian or a Roman. She can be Nefertiti and she can be from outer space. That was one thing that I liked physically about her."

-Leeloo's full name is "Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat", as sourced by various media including Luc Besson's film diary (The Adventure and Discovery of a Film: The Story of The Fifth Element), a French promotional poster used in subways to advertise the film, and the video game manual. "Lekarariba" is a misspelling based in the script and thus transferred to the video subtitles as well. Leeloo speaks her "second" name with a hard "T" sound.  

-Luc Besson, an admitted comic book fan, had two famous French comic book artists in mind for the film's visual style when he started writing the movie in high school. Jean Giraud (Moebius) and Jean-Claude Mézières. Both artists have long-standing comic book series in France. Moebius is best known for "Blueberry" and the (French) Magazine and (US) movie Heavy Metal (1981). Mézières is best known for the "Valerian" series. Both series are still in production today. Moebius and Mezieres, who attended art school together but had never collaborated on a project until The Fifth Element, started renderings for the film in the early '90s and are responsible for the majority of the over all look of the film, including the vehicles, spacecrafts, buildings, human characters and aliens. However, only Giraud is credited, and even then he wasn't even granted a premium when the movie was eventually produced.

Divine jump.

Overall, The Fifth Element will fit like a glove with those who love a good unpretentious Sci-Fi film. Bruce Willis was at his peak (thanks to Pulp Fiction maybe) and would start 1998's blockbuster apocalyptic film Armageddon (directed by hated by everyone's Michael Bay) Gary Oldman is perhaps, one of the most versatile actors of all time, so no comments on him here, his work is flawless. Milla Jovovich, was developing a serious acting career back then and today is worshiped as one of the sexiest Sci-Fi beauties alive.  Havent' watched it yet? what are you waiting for! this is a 90's classic!

Here's the movie trailer: