chapotraphouse

More casual racism.

The way they add elements of the absurd to the outfits, I just love it.

Diegetically Ruby is considered a sex god and every woman seems to be infatuated with him, and again, I'd love to hear people's thoughts on how his portrayal of camp gay diva is juxtaposed with his in-story sex god status. I assume he's supposed to be channeling flamboyant sex symbols like Prince, David Bowie, Freddy Mercurcy, and so forth.

The Diva is such a cool character. For a long time it was generally assumed that no real person could perform her song, but several people have pulled it off since then.

The way the story is happening in many places simultaeniously in a very tight timeline is very well done and creates a big universe, lets many characters participate in the plot, and just idk i really admire how it was done.

Seriously I want someone to dig in to the Ruby as camp gay Diva Ruby as universally admired sex god dichotomy here.

Okay and then we get the Diva and the movie becomes absolutely sincere. And that's really well done. Being able to go from high camp to this very sincere and moving dramatic scene, which is a standout in a very full film for just how gorgeous the song is another example of how strong this movie is as a movie, as an art piece that fully makes use of it's medium. And then smoothly back to camp.

Okay now we finally get to see Leeloo, fully recovered from her ordeal, updated on the situation, go to war. Again, Leeloo has a strong basis but the movie doesn't do her justice. The scene is well constructed with fun fighting gags but it certainly could be tighter.

The good old 90s stunt leg.

I really love Zorg's gun. Again, wonderful prop design. It's such a silly as sci-fi gun but also a super cool sci fi gun.

And, again, the overlapping layers of simulataenious events used to keep the plot moving among different characters in different places.

Some of these sets are enormous.

This movie really needs to be more about Leeloo. She gets her moment in battle, but it's really just a moment. She's mostly moved by the plot instead of being an agent driving the plot. For most of the movie the plot is happening to her, and it's Korben who has agency. And in a movie that builds so much on having many things happening at once in different places they had ample room to have her being a dynamic agent alongside Korben instead of being mostly subordinate to his story.

Yeah, Korben's action seen is much noisier than Leeloo's and focuses more on him. Like don't get me wrong her fight is cool, but, idk, Korben's holds the focus on him while he fights the indigenous soldiers.

Casual abelism as comedy.

The action scene is very well crafted. Comedy and tension, high action. timing and pacing, choreography.

Okay Ruby is firmly a deuteragonist now, acting as Korben's foil. Ruby follows Korben. He doesn't have to, but he's part of the team now.

I love Zorg's arc. he never meets Korben, and ultimately he's hoisted by his own petard more or less literally. His story is a closed loop and he defeats himself.

Man Chris's eyes must have hurt after keeping them wide, wide, wide open for so long.

Correction; Laurel and Hardy took turns being Straight Man and Funny Man, Abbot and Costello played those roles more closely.

They do not have touch screens in the future, indicating that the point of divergence is sometime before Steve Jobs ruined phones.

Eugh I should get on with my day.

Eugh Leeloo is so wasted by being a plot device. I love Milla Jovoviches oeuvre of terrible action movies, and she is not being given a chance to be her full terrible action movie heroine self here.

God there's just so much good physical comedy in this. Regardless of all criticisms everyone is doing a very good job with movement, expressions, how they interact with each other physically.

Love this callback to like an hour and a half back in the movie. Strong Chekov's Gun moment.

Again, despite all the flaws, it's love and human connection that defeats evil and capitalism. A strange bunch of oddballs who have nothing in common coming together to do the right thing.

You know if I was gonna do this I would have had Korben and Leeloo be the supreme being together. Not Leeloo as just a MacGuffin, but two people connected in love forming the supreme being together.

I like that the actual defeat of evil isn't a big moment. Evil isn't important, or strong. The heroes obliterate it in a moment and it's back to the characters. Because evil doesn't have character. There's nothing complicated about it. There's nothing to explore or investigate. Just a bunch of shitheads following the path of least resistance towards personal gain in the material circumstances in which they are embedded. The material circumstances, the systems of Capital, the systems of Imperialism and Colonialism, those are big, complicated systems that merit detailed investigation. But the people who actually run those systems, the people who are elevated by them to positions of power over others, are rarely interesting or complex characters. More than most they are tossed too and fro by the circumstances they have tripped in to, ignorant of the waves that rule their lives.

In conclusion, The Fifth Element is a study in contrasts.