Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a fan project, in the best and worst ways

Writer-director Luc Besson encapsulates the soul of his latest movie, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, in its first three scenes. The film opens on a sweeping, centuries-long history of Alpha, a space station that’s grown from a near-present-day base into a chaotic floating city. Then the story jumps to an extensive sequence on a bright paradise planet of willowy, iridescent humanoids, about to suffer a cataclysmic fate. The forgettable title character only comes in after all this is over, and he’s introduced almost grudgingly. From the start, Besson’s priorities are clear: he loves this vast, complicated future world much more than he loves the man who’s supposed to be its hero.

Valerian is based on the long-running...

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