- Messages
- 35
- Reaction score
- 40
- Trophy Points
- 28
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets left me with mixed feelings when I left the cinema - I felt there were some good (and even great) sequences in there but far too much stuff that just slowed things down, and the borderline harassment “flirting” from Valerian was just cringeworthy. Also, the whole dream sequence at the start is pretty much repeated towards the end which felt very much like “I’ve already seen this :/“ Without the opening alien planet sequence I think that the Pearls become a much more mysterious bunch whose motivations remain ambiguous until the latter part of the film, instead of the obvious-good-guys-from-the-start that the theatrical release presents them as.
In all, I thought there was a good film in there but Luc Besson should’ve been a bit more snippy-snip in the editing suite
A while ago I saw the fan edit entry for the Valerian: No Love Lost Edition by Malthus and thought it sounded fantastic - I’ve not been able to get a copy but the described cuts sounded very interesting and inspired me to attempt my own cut; I’ve got the deluxe 3D Blu-ray (it’s like a vinyl double album size package) and I wanted to try something similar with a 3D side-by-side video, so I decided to try my hand at editing. I want to keep a small spark of romance visible between the two leads (as befits their character origins) so there is a satisfying finale but to tone down Valerian pressing for marriage all the time, and hopefully tighten the flow of the movie as a result - every time marriage reared its head it was like brakes being stamped on.
This is the first time I’ve tried doing a fan edit film and I’m still not completely happy with one scene, but overall I’m pleased with how it’s turned out.
I've titled my cut "Valerian & Laureline: Welcome to Alpha" as a homage to one of the original comic stories "Welcome to Alflolol" though the original title will remain in the edit, 3D animated logos being slightly above my skill level
List of changes:
- Added fanedit text notice at start of film
- Alien planet sequence and beach scenes excised - we go from the Space Oddity montage > title > astroship jumping in
- Removed marriage proposal when disembarking the bus
- Removed “haven’t we met?” when first seeing the Pearls
- Removed “hey, I’m not running a tea-room here”
- Big Market shopping couple man no longer says “Civilised…sure”
- Trimmed Laureline dialogue when fixing dimensional hand box, no mention of proposal
- Removed mention of dream sequence when examining pearl on astroship
- Removed talk of marriage / honeymoon before leaving exospace*
- Removed “demographics” section of Alpha transit**
- Trimmed a few “Valerian” calls from Laureline after he crashes - now she acts more quickly and decisively
- Trimmed Laureline finding Valerian scene - now ends with peck on cheek, no marriage talk
- Trimmed start of scene when Laureline gets "caught" by Boulan Bathors
- When Valerian recruits Bubbles the scene ends with “…the best I ever saw” and Rihanna smiling
- Trimmed relationship advice during alien kitchen walk
- Removed Bubbles death scene, she now raises and lowers her hand but Valerian doesn't see it***
- Excised dialogue from bridge
- Removed Valerian’s “told you so” when it is revealed he hosts the Pearl Princess’ soul
- Inserted crashed ship Mül scene from intro dream sequence into Emperor’s story time
- Trimmed argument between Valerian and Laureline about giving up the Converter, no love explanations
- Removed Filitt saying a soldier will always choose death
- Cut end of hanging Filitt’s shouting so it sounds like he’s about to swear: “Get me down from here, you…”
- Removed end scene marriage proposal - it's now a more ambiguous possible engagement ring
- Removed "play list" statement from Valerian
**The other info sounds like getting an update since they were last there, the demographics part just sounded like exposition for the audience)
***The most troublesome scene to edit - seriously, an extended death scene where we’re supposed to feel sad about a character who got introduced like what, fifteen minutes ago? Hopefully I've smoothed over the cracks now so its removal isn't too noticeable.
I’ve left in the Emperor’s daughter’s spirit bonding with Valerian but removed earlier mentions of the dream - I think it still kind of makes sense in that Valerian knows something isn’t right and the Pearl’s spirit uses him to get back to her people and guide his actions throughout the film. I tried removing it completely but wasn’t satisfied with the resulting Emperor’s story time sequence.
I’ve watched the edit on my 3DTV (3D & 2D versions) and also in a virtual cinema with a Quest 3 VR headset and I think it works well - the film feels more brisk without Valerian being a bit of a creep all the time and the pair have some decent banter with the sense that they do actually care for one another.
Edit: after deciding to recreate the edit with a 2D rip, I've revisited a few scenes, tweaked all audio transitions, and updated this post with all changes.
Film length 02:01:58 (minus fanedit opening text) (original 02:16:39)
Last edited: