Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 55
Fresh: 40 | Rotten: 15
Visually inventive and gleefully over the top, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element is a fantastic piece of pop sci-fi that never takes itself too seriously.
Average Rating: 5.3/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 6
Visually inventive and gleefully over the top, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element is a fantastic piece of pop sci-fi that never takes itself too seriously.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
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Good and evil battle for the future of 23rd century Earth in this visually striking big-budget science fiction epic. In the movie's prologue, which is set in 1914, scientists gather in Egypt at the site of an event that transpired centuries earlier. Aliens, it seemed, arrived to collect four stones representing the four basic elements (earth, air, fire and water) - warning their human contacts that the objects were no longer safe on Earth. A few hundred years later (in the 23rd century), a huge
May 9, 1997 Wide
Dec 9, 1997
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
All Critics (57) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (44) | Rotten (16) | DVD (43)
A hodgepodge of elements that don't comfortably coalesce.
The Fifth Element has to be the most creative visualization since Tim Burton's first Batman in 1989. On top of that, it's a whole lot of fun.
There's no doubt about it, when it comes to saving the world, Bruce Willis is your man. He does it with smarts and style, humor and courage.
Mr. Besson directs with ceaseless flamboyance and with an obvious enthusiasm for his film's comic book conceits. But the tone of The Fifth Element is often terribly shrill, especially when attention shifts to grating minor characters.
One of the great goofy movies -- a film so preposterous I wasn't surprised to discover it was written by a teenage boy.
An overblown cosmic comic book.
Stylish and very violent sci-fi action flick.
Pure eye-candy and a rollicking good-time.
It's a triumph of form over content, but it's a stunning triumph.
I knew where it was going at all times, but the ride was excellent.
Besson's futuristic fable is flawed by a messy narrative which strains to incorporate far too many grotesque and eccentric characters.
The story is such a cut-rate kid's sci-fi fairy tale that at one point Evil actually calls Gary Oldman on the phone (and it isn't played for laughs).
Besson has done a solid, if not outstanding, job in bringing his story, written as a teenager, to the big screen.
A motion picture with the body of a mainstream blockbuster but the spirit of a trendy cult flick.
The special effects provided Besson with the tools to provide the movie with the spectacular images, displaying the eagerness of a child in a candy store.
It's cyberpunk!
Everything from the visual effects to the costume design seems to shout out like a precocious child: "Look at me!"
The best-looking science fiction movie to come out in years, with fabulous sets, costumes and special effects, but its plot doesn't quite measure up to its appearance.
Fifth Element doesn't reach the level of great sci-fi to which it clearly aspires because it has too many characters doing too many things for too few reasons. Still, it's a lot of fun.
Honestly, I know very little what I should think of THE FIFTH ELEMENT. If I were to make a list of the most bizarre films I have seen to date (and I've seen quite a few recently that would make the list), this would easily rank as number one, and by a long shot. I feel the highest peak in this film was Milla Jovovich's
June 28, 2011Super Reviewer
Utterly loopy plot is what makes this French/American space adventure story so intoxicating. Apparently, writer/director Luc Besson began the script for The Fifth Element when he was only 16 years old. The naïve perspective benefits the material; the refreshingly straightforward conflict between good and evil is
June 10, 2008Super Reviewer
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