I'm just here to share my love for this film. I'm a big movie fan. I've been watching the Fifth Element since high school, and I've only grown to appreciate it more and more as a film as I get older.
It's so full of life, creativity, color, humor, and themes we can all relate to (purpose, love, loss, etc).
This is peek Bruce Willis, and the movie is filled with other exceptional actors including Gary Oldman and Ian Holm. Milla Jovovich is extremely entertaining to watch as a sort fish-out-of-water, and I know Chris Tucker's character here isn't for everyone but in my opinion it's right on-brand for the film. Cracks me up every time for decades.
Mostly the effects have aged really well. That's generally thanks to heavy use of practical effects, as this article highlights.
I often get sad that this is becoming a lost art. Great filmmakers with big budgets are still doing this type of practical effects work (Nolan [Interstellar], Villeneuve [Dune]), but I think eventually it will be lost in time.
0x3f 3 minutes ago [-]
But I wonder at what point digital effects become 'good enough' in some sense that they never look aged beyond the containing film. At some point surely there's no more perceptible 'resolution' to be had.
stiiv 48 minutes ago [-]
Agreed -- it's a wonderful film, and deserves a special place right up there with Star Wars and Harryhausen for its practical effects.
While the article mentions Moebius, I think this level of praise still merits an extra Incal callout, even if it just serves as a recommendation to those who want more of this stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incal
Cthulhu_ 47 minutes ago [-]
> but I think eventually it will be lost in time.
I don't believe it to be honest; model making and painting remains a popular hobby for millions of people, the only question is whether filmmakers will want to use it.
And recently, especially in e.g. Star Wars franchise entries, they have gone towards using models / sets again instead of just using CGI for everything.
detourdog 38 minutes ago [-]
I was flipping channels in a hotel and I assume the Peter Jackson hobbit/Lord of the Rings were on. The scene I watched was some sort of interior castle scene and it looked really bad. I felt like it was very flat and cardboardy and filmed on VHS.
jacquesm 60 minutes ago [-]
What I like most about the Fifth Element is that they didn't milk it through a bunch of sequels.
LiquidSky 15 minutes ago [-]
Yet!
jeandejean 30 minutes ago [-]
Very true, but I can't help but want a sequel haha. Maybe that desire proves your point... Let our imagination do the rest
grenoire 4 hours ago [-]
I love this movie so much it's _unreal_. What an experience, every single time.
And each time I see an article like this, I simply marvel at the immense love for art and life it has. What an incredibly talented crew, what product of mastery and care.
sixtyj 4 hours ago [-]
He continued with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
The Fifth Element has similar cinematic feeling as the first Blade Runner.
And now it is clear. There is the same person behind it :)
nntwozz 33 minutes ago [-]
The Fifth Element and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets are widely considered to share a thematic and stylistic universe, with similar aesthetic influences. There are shared elements (ha!) and aesthetics, with Valerian even featuring a shop called "Korbens" as an easter egg to The Fifth Element.
Unfortunately the movie doesn't do it for me, the 90s were a better time.
Once CGI became good storytelling and creativity took a backseat in Hollywood.
Cthulhu_ 45 minutes ago [-]
Valerian missed the mark; I'm sure it's got great designs (although I also believe it's mostly CGI), but the story of the movie is disjointed (which is a risk when trying to merge multiple storylines into one) and the actors are lifeless.
simonh 2 hours ago [-]
Valerian was fun, but I really don't think it held together. Great set piece scenes though.
metalman 3 hours ago [-]
waterworld
Joel_Mckay 3 hours ago [-]
Adam Savage covered the Mondoshawan props on his channel last year:
It was a fun film, but Chris Tucker broke the pacing too many times for a general audience. Even now on rottentomatoes his role still distracts focus from the character arcs.
The parent post didn't say "unauthorized." Plenty of scams use celebrities' names/reputations and compensate then for it. See: just about every pump-and-dump cryptocoin.
nixass 16 minutes ago [-]
her partner "engineered" it while she "architected", whatever that means in this particular case
dmos62 4 hours ago [-]
Interesting to see programming and acting worlds cross-pollinate.
electroglyph 3 hours ago [-]
nah, a crypto grifter released one with cooked benchmarks
tvshtr 1 hours ago [-]
I have very vivid memories of watching it for the first time in the cinema (original run). I'm pretty sure I still have the ticket.
I was spending winter break in the mountains, with some friends, completely snowed in. I bought the soundtrack too (on a cassette tape).
Possibly the last decent movie of his.
I really like how well the movie aged. I recently watched it with my wife, who had never seen it, and she was hooked. Most of the effects hold up very well today and the movie is just fun.
ModernMech 3 hours ago [-]
The article is missing one of the best futurescape shots in the whole movie!
That image is only on screen for like 2 seconds, but it tells a whole story and really pulled me into the film. The first half you're deep in the city, and then finally when you get to see it from afar, it seems like a whole real city instead of the few locales they shot. Also makes it feel like a continuity of our future instead of some random alien drama.
nntwozz 27 minutes ago [-]
That's amazing, you always see flooded cities in the future this is out of the box thinking.
rainingmonkey 2 hours ago [-]
Imgur is blocked in the UK, and last I checked blocked connections from VPNs too.
It's so full of life, creativity, color, humor, and themes we can all relate to (purpose, love, loss, etc).
This is peek Bruce Willis, and the movie is filled with other exceptional actors including Gary Oldman and Ian Holm. Milla Jovovich is extremely entertaining to watch as a sort fish-out-of-water, and I know Chris Tucker's character here isn't for everyone but in my opinion it's right on-brand for the film. Cracks me up every time for decades.
Mostly the effects have aged really well. That's generally thanks to heavy use of practical effects, as this article highlights.
I often get sad that this is becoming a lost art. Great filmmakers with big budgets are still doing this type of practical effects work (Nolan [Interstellar], Villeneuve [Dune]), but I think eventually it will be lost in time.
While the article mentions Moebius, I think this level of praise still merits an extra Incal callout, even if it just serves as a recommendation to those who want more of this stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incal
I don't believe it to be honest; model making and painting remains a popular hobby for millions of people, the only question is whether filmmakers will want to use it.
And recently, especially in e.g. Star Wars franchise entries, they have gone towards using models / sets again instead of just using CGI for everything.
And each time I see an article like this, I simply marvel at the immense love for art and life it has. What an incredibly talented crew, what product of mastery and care.
The Fifth Element has similar cinematic feeling as the first Blade Runner.
And now it is clear. There is the same person behind it :)
Unfortunately the movie doesn't do it for me, the 90s were a better time.
Once CGI became good storytelling and creativity took a backseat in Hollywood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf5dPrmBvwE
It was a fun film, but Chris Tucker broke the pacing too many times for a general audience. Even now on rottentomatoes his role still distracts focus from the character arcs.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fifth_element
Was a cult classic for sure, but nowhere near Blade Runner as a film. =3
https://github.com/milla-jovovich/mempalace
> Mother/Actress/Architect of MemPalace free and open source on GitHub
And the linktree from the Instagram profile links to https://github.com/milla-jovovich/mempalace
https://youtu.be/RdqiaNsKR2E
http://i.imgur.com/6W5InkH.jpg
That image is only on screen for like 2 seconds, but it tells a whole story and really pulled me into the film. The first half you're deep in the city, and then finally when you get to see it from afar, it seems like a whole real city instead of the few locales they shot. Also makes it feel like a continuity of our future instead of some random alien drama.
Which scene are you referring to?
http://www.vfxhq.com/1997/stills/fifth/welcome.jpg
It's the wide shot of NYC after they leave the spaceport.
Looking back, the whole story gives a different futuristic feel to the usual gloomy polluted dystopian earths, and feels a bit, "near-future".
Seeing hover cars getting drive through McDonalds will forever be a future hope for me (my inner 10 year old self)