I once walked in on my dad as he was watching Resident Evil. I can't tell which, they're all the same garbage. Knowing that I'm a big fan of the games, he asked "I don't get it, what were this chick's (Mila Jovovich's character) powers again?" "I have no idea, dad, she isn't in the game. See what I say when I say it's a shitty adaptation?" We kept talking about how much of a terrible actress Jovovich is and how she got a leading role made for her just because she's the director's wife, and the conversation jumped to the Fifth Element and how shitty it was. I don't know why I didn't listen to his advice and watched it (I'm running out of films after all), but you know what? It wasn't that bad. If you acknowledge how bad it is. Uh, does that make any sense?
The plot in the Fifth Element starts out with an alien race taking some stones (that embody the four elements and a statue) from an Egyptian temples that will help them supress an evil force. Then we jump to 300 years in the future where this evil force, appropriately called "The Great Evil" pops up to destroy the universe or something. The statue is reborn as a chick, Leeloo (Mila Jovovich), who after a series of shenanigans pops up in Korben Dallas's (Bruce Willis) cab. And the two must recover the other four stones to put a stop to the Great Evil. Does it sound stupid? Yes. Yes it is.
So the main (and pretty much the only) reason anyone would watch the Fifth Element is for its intentionally campy nature. Is it bad? Yeah, that's the idea! The plot is terrible and the aliens look so fucking stupid, for instance. And then there's the intentionally awkward acting too, like Gary Oldman's hilariously over the top villian or Mila Jovovich's... everything (watch her say Multipass and LAUGH). It is surprisingly funny and enjoyable, except when the campiness gets out of hand: Chris Tucker's character, for instance, is way, way too flamboyant, squeaky-voiced and annoying.
I cannot stress the word flamboyant enough. He ruins every scene he's in.
The futuristic world the movie portrays is pretty damn interesting, too. It's kind of like Brazil (which I reviewed a while ago) but ten times more vibrant, colorful and outlandish. They don't just resort to the usual "put neon in everything" trick and instead paint everything with bright colors and put a billion little bright items on top. And if you couldn't tell by that Chris Tucker picture above, everyone is dressed like they're extras on a Lady Gaga music video. Or Gaga herself.
Go ahead and tell me this isn't something she would wear.
The Fifth Element is hands down the most campy film I have ever seen. Thus, most people will not enjoy it one bit. But if you're the kind of person that watches, say, Batman and Robin and laughs at how incredibly terrible it is (myself included), give it a watch with that mindset and you'll have a good time. That's it, it's so bad I enjoyed it.
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