(This review may contain spoilers).
This was a movie that, as soon as I saw the trailer for it, I was excited about seeing it. As with most movies, the trailer actually portrayed a different story to the main plot, but I still found myself fully engaged with the world. It was nice to see aliens who didn’t just look vaguely humanoid, although the aliens at the beginning did fall into that trap.
I did enjoy seeing Valerian and Laureline working together, though I was a bit confused about what their motivations and pasts were like. They did seem quite juvenile in comparison to their fellow humans on Alpha and it would have been good to see something of how the rankings worked. I did have a few eye-roll moments with them, as both seemed to lose some of their capabilities at various points during the movie.
I liked being able to see elements of the mystery surrounding the unknown planet shown at the beginning of the movie and it was also good to see the origins of Alpha. However, for something that was meant to be a representation of all the known aliens, humans were apparently the only ones actually welcoming each new race.
I did find myself really engaged with this movie, although I think there was a bit too much exposition. There were some good elements of humour and it was good to see something of the other alien species as Valerian and Laureline interacted with them. The character I empathised the most with was Bubble, though I did cringe a little at the name and the slightly over-the-top element of her character.
Personally, I did really enjoy this movie and I hope that there will be more in the franchise. The ending, however, did imply a difference in the two main characters’ personalities that wasn’t really shown throughout the movie. There were things the film could have done better, but it was still entertaining to watch and had some really nice images throughout.
Ink of Blood 