The Fifth Element (1997)

Three hundred years ago, the powerful weapon of the fifth element was removed from Earth. Three hundred years later and pure evil has stirred in the far reaches of space – and is heading straight for Earth, with traditional weapons unable to stop it. When the Fifth Element is returned, the ship is attacked and seemingly lost – but scientists are able to recreate the fifth element and are surprised to find it is a beautiful young woman, Leeloo. When Leeloo escapes custody she is helped by ex-army taxi driver Korben Dallas. Korben takes her to the priest she names, but he finds that everyone wants her for one reason or another – then he finds that both the army and the priest need him to go on a mission to reclaim the missing four stones and save the Earth from evil.

I have seen this film several times and will usually come back to it if I find myself in the mood – but yet I also find myself thinking of its flaws whenever anyone asks me about it. I can't understand why I do this because I really do enjoy this film even though there is much I sort of dislike about it. The plot is one of the weak points; generally it is quite good as an idea but it has many weak points that make it seem rather silly and overly busy. While this is not enough to really damage the film I know that it has put some people off in some audiences, but for me it was only a minor problem as these rather silly bits were all part of a film that had a great sense of fun running through it. Some of it didn't make much sense and at times I got the feeling that the film had more ideas than it really knew what to do with, but the majority of it worked well. The action is good but you should be prepared for the fact that, like much of the film, it is done with a certain amount of tongue in cheek humour. Suffice to say I never found it dull and it has plenty going on for the majority of the film

Visually is the area where the film is strongest and I could watch it for this alone. The effects are great and are full of imagination as well as looking very impressive. The design work of Dan Weil is very well used and compliments the effects used – the film looks lavish and rich all the way through and matches the wonderful costumes from Jean-Paul Gaultier. Of course much of the praise goes to Luc Besson who has managed to pull this together really well to produce an endlessly impressive film, which manages to be a fun and exciting sci-fi.

The casting also backs this idea up and features many performances that are spot on with tongue in cheek performances that match the tone of the film perfectly. Bruce Willis delivers the same, great mocking performance that he tried in Hudson Hawk but here he does it in a film that is better structured and less silly than that one and it works a lot better. He still delivers the goods as an action lead but he puts his tongue just far enough in his cheek so as to be there without hurting the film! I don't want to overdo it (after all – he is Bruce Willis!) but I thought he was very well cast here. Oldman is very hammy but this also works as it matches the humour of the piece. Jovovich had a very difficult role and it is easy to laugh at her baby talk etc but I think she made it work well and gave a good performance against the odds. Holm is pretty good and brings humour to his role as well. Tucker, sadly, fails to do the same as these and his overblown performance doesn't even fit well within this film (god knows where it WOULD fit!) and he only succeeds in being shrill and very annoying througho

Fmovies: At first, I didn't know what to make of THE FIFTH ELEMENT. Much of it was corny; some of it was just stupid. But when I stopped taking the movie so serious, I really started to enjoy it. I thought it was a very fun movie.

THE FIFTH ELEMENT is about an evil force coming to destroy the world. Five elements are needed to destroy the evil force and save the Earth. Four of them are stones and one of them is a beautiful woman named Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), who is absolutely "perfect". A priest named Cornelius (Ian Holm) seeks the elements to try to save the world while the military sends a the retired Major Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) to find the elements and stop a bunch of alien bounty hunter-like bad guys and a very evil man (and of course very rich) man who is under the employment of the evil force named Zorg (Gary Oldman).

And of course, there is the insane but loved radio DJ Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) who gets trapped in the middle of this whole thing and becomes the comic relief of the movie, even though this movie really does not need comic relief. At first you will probably find him annoying, but he will grow on you. At least, this happened to me.

The acting is fair, but nothing special. Chris Tucker does a good job as the nutcase radioman, and Ian Holm does a pretty good job as the priest set out to save the planet. This was a very different type of role for Gary Oldman. He was still a bad guy, of course, but it was a much more comical part. It surely wasn't his best work, but it was still OK. Bruce Willis did a great job playing his part, and Milla Jovovich was excellent as the sexy but strong fifth element.

The special effects were fantastic. The story to this movie is nothing big, but like I said the main purpose of this movie is for the viewer to have fun. Don't expect to do much thinking and just enjoy yourself and I'm sure you'll like this movie.

Talk about love at first sight.

This is one of those movies where if you were lucky enough to see it first-run, you did not really appreciate it at the time.

It holds up very well. And gets better with subsequent viewings (As does MS. Jovovich who went on to do a string of very memorable sci fi flicks, and one drama where, believe it or not, she played an aspiring wedding singer) Massive (truly massive) talent in front of and behind the camera. Luc Besson in front (crazy as a loon but boy can he write scripts) and Willis/Oldman in front.

For the day, the special effects were top notch.

There a joyful innocence about the film which was rare at the time, and even rarer today.

See it once. See it often. It'll make you smile

The Fifth Element fmovies. There is so much entertainment in this movie it would be almost stupid to write about its flaws. Especially the story is not the best thing here, but who cares. I liked every scene, every moment in this movie. The movie opens in Egypt, 1914, and we meet some strange creatures. From here on we know this is not going to be a normal or very serious sci-fi action movie. The creatures tell a priest that the stones are no longer save on earth and they take some things. They tell the priest they will return in 300 years, when evil arrives.

300 years later. The strange creatures return but they are attacked by other strange creatures. The only thing that survives is reconstructed and turns out to be Lee Loo (Milla Jovovich). She is the fifth element, the ultimate weapon against evil. Evil here looks like a great ball of fire. Lee Loo escapes from the authorities, and in an astonishing shot we see how a city looks like now. She jumps of a building and ends up in the flying cab of Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis). He saves her from the police, she asks for priest Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm), he brings her there.

We learn a little more about Lee Loo here. She needs four stones, the four other elements, to save the world. The stones are on a vacation resort where we meet DJ Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker). He has some funny scenes as well. We have also met Zorg, who is played by Gary Oldman in a great way. The attack on the strange creatures early in the movie was planned by him. He wants the stones as well, he is offered a lot of money for them. How the story develops from here I will not reveal.

The story doesn't even matter. In every scene we have something to like. Beautiful settings, great visual effects, Gary Oldman, the beautiful Jovovich or the funny moments from Bruce Willis, Chris Tucker and Ian Holm. May be this movie is not for everyone but if you don't think to much you will definitely like it.

After making heavy movies like La Femme Nikita and Leon, it is somewhat of a departure for Luc Besson to do this comic, pulp, sci-fi film The Fifth Element. Looking at his work now, with such high-octane humor as the Transporter series, among others, (written by Besson, but not directed), it doesn't seem that out of place. He just must have decided to only direct his more serious fare and leave the fun stuff to others. However, The Fifth Element is by no means a slight film without a fan base. As far as sci-fi goes, this is a very capable installment. 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 and making it accessible to almost everyone who gives it a try.

Like most of its ilk, 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.

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 decade old, still has some nice special effects that stand up. I've always been a proponent for prosthetics, 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 o

This is a great movie. It isn't your typical same alien vs. human movie where there is blood everywhere, and the humans win right before they've thought it was the end. It is much more interesting. The story has love vs. evil in a whole new way, and there's a lesson to be learned through it.

Honestly, I didn't really care about the plot all that much. The imagination and creativity is awesome! I love the colors and the ideas they came up with, especially how the design of the city. The futuristic clothing is cool too. The only thing I was disappointed in was the enemy aliens. They looked a little too artificial.

My favorite thing about the whole movie was the music. It went from techno to opera to jazz, and to all over. I loved the music, partially because they used Engima and Vangelis. Many people are like, "what the heck was that?" when they hear the music, but it fits the movie perfectly and leaves you with a feeling more than a theme. I like the randomness of the music, it works well with the quirkiness of the movie.