Movie Plot – The Fifth Element: in a futuristic world, a legendary cosmic weapon becomes alive as a woman named Leeloo (Milla Jovovich.) She encounters a cab driver who becomes the central figure of the film when she flees from the danger.

Director: Luc Besson
Writers: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Stars: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, Maïwenn

My first time watching the Fifth Element

A couple of weeks ago, I told a close friend I’ve never seen the Fifth Element before. The guy was shocked, mainly because I love fantasy movies. He was even close to unfriending me on Facebook, but thank god that was a joke. Anyway, we decided to watch the film at his place on the very same day. Yeah, that’s how determined we were to make it happen.

I’m glad I watched the Fifth Element for the first time, it’s a fun movie. Although, if you’ve never seen the film before, I can’t say that you will like it. I feel like it’s one of those movies, which you only love it when you’ve seen it when it came out. A good example is Space Balls, I was way too late to see that film. And, honestly, I’m not fond of it at all. Surprisingly, I did enjoy the Fifth Element.

Made in France

What really fascinates me with the Fifth Element us that it isn’t a Hollywood movie. It’s made by Frenchman and was the most expensive non-Hollywood movie of its time.

At the age of 16, director and screenwriter Luc Besson came up with the story of a man who will win a trip to a beautiful distant planet in the future. With a French comic artist Jean-Claude Mezieres, he invented the flying taxis. Another French guy helped. He was fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier who designed in his typical style all the costumes for the film.

There is even an opera part, which has a lot of backstories behind the screens. The Plavalaguna diva was played by the French actress Maïwenn Le Besco, but the song was sung by the Albanian opera singer Inva Mula. Furthermore, the scenes were recorded at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden. And the craziest part is the explosion in the opera hall. It was the largest studio explosion ever filmed. A fierce fire broke out that could barely be controlled.

Milla Jovovich as Leeloo

Evil wants to destroy the universe, and the only hope for mankind is the Fifth Element. The legend tells the story of a being who comes to Earth every five thousand years to protect the world. In order to do that, it needs to combine her power with the four element stones: fire, air, water, and Earth.

I just realized that this film is complicated to explain it premise as it’s complex. At the beginning of the film, some aliens named the Mondoshawan took the fifth element away from Earth to protect it and bring it back when the time was right. However, their spaceship gets destroyed by Mangalores when they want to bring it back. A team of scientists found the remains and tried to restore the Fifth Element, who appeared to be a perfect female being named Leeloo (Milla Jovovich.)

She quickly escapes from the scientist and encounters Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), who was a former elite commando. At that time, Korben was a cab driver when he met Leeloo.

Meanwhile, the evil Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg wants to retrieve the stones so Leeloo won’t be able to protect Earth.

Milla Jovovich is excellent as a confused Leeloo. At first, it’s like she only relies on herself, but later on, she realizes that she needs the help of others. Leeloo is funny and a badass at the same time. Everyone who has seen this film, remember the iconic line “Leeloo Multipass.” It even made me giggle.

The futuristic world

One of my favorite things in fantasy movies is creating a new world. The Fifth Element occurs in the future, where there are flying cars, new planets, a new way of living.

For watching the Fifth Element for the first time, I can tell you that this fictional world is well fleshed-out. Well, obviously, it should have been when you see the team that worked on this film. As mentioned before, they even had a designer for all the costumes. Some of them were very extravagant, like the ones Chris Tucker wore.

Like in Star Wars, there are good and evil aliens. Obviously, these look totally different. Otherwise, it would have been a rip-off. Acutally, Star Wars took some inspiration for their future films. In Attack of the Clones, the Fifth Element was the inspiration for the flying car scenes. Also, in the first Star Wars film, we see an alien who resembles the opera singers.

Chris Tucker instead of Prince

Did you know they wanted Prince for the role of Ruby Rhod? Well, my friend, who recommended it to me, told me about it.

Prince refused the offer. At first, it was believed the costume was too effeminate. When Prince passed away, Luc Besson posted the following on Twitter.

So, according to him, there were scheduling problems because he was on tour. I would have loved to see Prince in this role, but they had to give it to someone else. And that’s how Chris Tucker got his role.

I honestly loved his portrayal as this famous loud individual. I’m okay with characters being over the top with movies in the late 90s. That’s why I don’t mind it even if I’m watching The Fifth Element for the first time.

The evil side

Zorg is the main villain in this film. And, who better to play him than Gary Oldman. I love to see the guy play like a villain. He’s one of those actors who can take a lot of different types of roles, which makes him a fine actor.

Well, actually, there is a bigger villain, and that is “the Great Evil.” However, it’s a moon-sized entity. It speaks to anyone he wants to. For example, he contacted Zorg while it identified itself as Mr. Shadow. Contacting someone is usually harmful and makes them bleed from their forehead.

However, Zorg is more like a person, and that’s why I consider him to be the main villain. On top of that, he hired Mangalores to retrieve the element stones. They are an alien species who can shapeshift, but they are also violent.

And do you want to know the crazy part? Korben (Bruce Willis) never meets Zorg (Gary Oldman) in the film. In addition, Korben doesn’t even know about Zorg’s existence. That realization blew my mind.

Conclusion

I’m wrapping this up by telling you this was my first time watching The Fifth Element, and I had enjoyed it. It’s maybe a bit outdated, but you should give this a try if you’ve never seen it. And don’t compare it to Star Wars, as it has a totally different look and feel.

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