The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element (1997), directed by Luc Besson

If the summer of 1996 was the summer of dopey big-budget films that took themselves far too seriously (Twister, Mission: Impossible, ID4, and so on), then 1997 is the summer of jokey big-budget films (Hercules, Men in Black, and so on). One of the best of them is The Fifth Element, a science-fiction epic by French director Luc Besson.

The screenplay is based on a story Besson wrote as a teenager, and it shows. There is crude moralizing, a silly ending, and just a bit of juvenile obsession with sex and violence. On the other hand, it has an energy that other films lack. It is at least never boring.

In two words, the plot (as far as I can understand it). Every 5000 years, a juggernaut of negative energy threatens to destroy the earth, and the only way to block it is to put together the "five elements." In the future, the 5000 years have just rolled around, but terrorists, led by Zorg (Gary Oldman, who else?) do everything they can to prevent it. Then some scientists clone a gorgeous woman out of a statue and...ah, forget it, I'm not even going to try and finish a synopsis.

The futuristic world of Besson's (designed in consultation with the visionary comic artist Moebius) is like Blade Runner dipped in cotton candy. Everything is absurdly colorful, but still plausible.

Bruce Willis plays a cabdriver (typecasting?) who accidentally encounters the cloned woman (Milla Jovovich) and keeps her away from the law. They proceed through a Byzantine plot, but one which is so good-natured and goofy, one can't help but like it.

The only unpleasant character in the film (and one who gets an alarming amount of screen time) is a talk-show host named Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) who is combination of David Letterman, Prince, and Dennis Rodman. Shrill to the extreme: imagine Kat from Red Dwarf on acid. He's all that and worse.

Still, more than enjoyable, better than the pretensions of Contact (a good movie that is far too serious) and funnier than Men in Black. The best science fiction movie of the year so far. And may I nominate the costume designer for an Oscar? I love how he clothes Jovovich: in the words of Roger Ebert, he starts up by covering up the private parts, then stops. If ever any acress deserved exposure of this kind, it's Jovovich.

Postscript: speaking of exposure, this film has the best example of innocent nudity I've ever seen: what Eve must have looked like.