The Fifth Element Reviews
Reel Film Reviews
Loud, long, and overwhelming...
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Common Sense Media
Stylish and very violent sci-fi action flick.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Three Movie Buffs
Pure eye-candy and a rollicking good-time.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Top CriticA hodgepodge of elements that don't comfortably coalesce.
eFilmCritic.com
It's a triumph of form over content, but it's a stunning triumph.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Combustible Celluloid
I knew where it was going at all times, but the ride was excellent.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Besson's futuristic fable is flawed by a messy narrative which strains to incorporate far too many grotesque and eccentric characters.
Film Threat
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).
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
Reeling Reviews
Besson has done a solid, if not outstanding, job in bringing his story, written as a teenager, to the big screen.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
Creative Loafing
A motion picture with the body of a mainstream blockbuster but the spirit of a trendy cult flick.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
rec.arts.movies.reviews
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.
Full Review | Original Score: 6/10
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It's cyberpunk!
Full Review
| Original Score: B
eFilmCritic.com
Everything from the visual effects to the costume design seems to shout out like a precocious child: "Look at me!"
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Laramie Movie Scope
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Cincinnati Enquirer
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Montreal Film Journal
don't mind the one-dimensional characters and the sci-fi nonsense, but I really could have done without the unfunny, very French humor.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Spirituality and Practice
Slam-dunk sci-fi extravaganza.
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Boxoffice Magazine
The film's most basic conceit -- that there is an anti-life that, despite its nature, can have a desire and can operate physically in this universe, using its elements -- is not only never explained, it can't be.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Film Scouts
The pace is perfect, the combination of international casting superb and the cinematography sublime.
