Sony Pictures brings The Fifth Element to Blu-ray with the standard Ultra HD packaging, featuring alternate cover art that I wouldn’t mind hanging up on my wall.
But it is a film this reviewer appreciates as a silly popcorn flick with a whole lot of style and a handful of moxie. Is The Fifth Element a movie for the general masses? Maybe not. But Besson's style works so well in this silly futuristic setting and allows it to stick out, even on Bruce Willis's resume, which I think says a lot for this film. This movie boasts a lot of humor as well as bizarre tonal shifts and performances (Chris Tucker) that seem to be here solely to insert parody and pull you away from the overall narrative. If you are looking for a traditional or grounded or dower Action/Sci-Fi flick, stay far away. I enjoyed The Fifth Element quite a bit, but I understand that it is absolutely not for everybody. Willis is in his usual role here and seems to be having quite a bit of fun with Besson's over the top world. He is simply electric as the puppet master pulling the strings of war, trying to make it work to his own advantage. Yes, that name is a mouthful, but it fits Oldman's over the top performance. The same goes for our lead Bruce Willis as Korban Dallas, and Gary freaking Oldman as the wonderfully maniacal Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg. It is no surprise to me that she would go on to excel in films such as the Resident Evil Franchise after seeing this performance. But Jovovich owns and perseveres in a role that could easily come across as misogynistic. Given her scantily clad wardrobe and the way she is objectified here, it would be easy for that to get in her way. The Fifth Element was my very first exposure to Jovovich back in the day, and I was amazed by her lack of vanity and confidence on screen. Earth, wind, water, and fire plus a fifth element in the form of a human woman simply named Leeloo (Mila Jovovich), whose sole existence is to stop the weapon from getting in the hands of evil forces. The entire war revolves around the protection or control of an alien weapon that requires five elements to wield it. We start off 300 years in the future where a war is brewing between our government, a secret group of monks, and an evil alien race. For me, personally, Besson's style and humor are distracting, in his more grounded Action movies, but in this Sci-Fi setting, I feel like it is the only film in his portfolio where it acts as an asset. Take Luc Besson's The Fifth Element, for example.
Growing up on the genre in the 80s and 90s, I always felt a certain level of creative freedom allowed for some great fun from directors and actors that I normally wouldn’t like. Thanks to the success of films like Guardians Of The Galaxy, the Action/Sci-Fi genre seems to be in the middle of a revival.
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