My Review of "The Fifth Element"

The Fifth Element is kind of a nostalgic classic movie to me. I was around 17 at the time of the movie first came out and I guess I was pretty much the demographic this movie was aiming for. It definitely shows this through some of the sequences in this movie that didn't age particularly well. Now in 2021, I've bought this movie probably the 3rd time in yet another video format, 4k Blu-ray.

It all starts off in what looks to be the 1990s and there's a archeologist making a startling revelation. Unfortunately for him, the information that he's found out isn't supposed to be found. There is a priest that tries to throw him off and even tries to poison him but to no avail. Pretty soon there's this group of metallic alien creatures that come to take the elemental stones.

Watching this again after so many years I realized that this portion of the movie was a bit nonsensical but necessary to get the whole movie going. The stones are to protect the universe from some sort of evil thing yet these aliens know the timeline when this thing will come. Why would they come at that specific moment then to pick up the stones? I still had to remember the demographic the movie was chasing after and that it was a popcorn blockbuster. This beginning portion of the movie built intrigue as to what the priest is trying to protect. Then again that intrigue is all bungled when you consider that they explained everything in the movie trailers already.

So 300 years later an evil presence makes an appearance and it seems to be approaching earth. The metallic creatures again try to visit earth only to be hijacked by another alien race. They're looking for the stones in which the metallic aliens possess. Thanks to the forward thinking metallic aliens the marauder aliens don't gain the possessions of the stones. Instead the humans are able to salvage some of DNA of the metallic aliens.

The humans use some sort of device to synthetically clone the DNA of the metallic aliens to create a perfect human named Leeloo. Leeloo also happens to be the fifth element that will help eradicate the evil being threatening earth. Of course humans being humans, they want to learn more about Leeloo. Before they could even ask her any questions, Leeloo runs away from the military only to fall into the flying cab of Korben Dallas.

Korben is a down on his luck ex-military veteran that happens to fly cabs for a living. His connection with the military comes into play when they find out that he has connections with Leeloo. He however falls instantly for Leeloo when she falls into his cab. She tells him that she has to meet up with a priest named Cornelius and that's when the real chaos begins.

Pretty soon this movie becomes a huge cat and mouse game with 4 different factions that are chasing after the elemental stones ergo Leeloo. There are a ton of fun misunderstandings and a lot of them are still pretty comical today. It's really interesting watching some of these misunderstandings today because our technology has advanced greatly since 1997. Some of the ideas that they had back then kind of don't really translate today. I understand the situation because I lived through those years but I'm not sure if the generation today would be able to understand some of the situations in this movie.

There are some clichés in this movie that also won't bode well with todays politically correct climate. I can see a lot of people getting triggered throughout this movie. Still if you can block out a lot of the politically incorrect scenes you can still enjoy this movie. There's a lot of fun to be had.

A few of the jokes in this movie kind of feel out of tone in this movie though. I remember laughing at some of them back in the day but today I can see how they don't really fit the tone of the movie. They can kind of throws you out of the movie when they make these jokes.

I found that this movie was a true trailblazer in many aspects though. I can see that Ruby Rhod was a very early precursor to the persona of Lil Nas X today. It also looks like the movie Zoolander ripped off the character Mugatu from the character Ray in this movie. The hair and the characteristics are quite similar except Ray is a good guy and Mugatu is a villain. Leeloo was also one of the first heroines that had a brightly colored hair style. Stylistically this movie was way ahead of its time.

As for watching this movie in 4k Blu-ray, don't bother. The original Blu-ray was probably the pinnacle of quality for this movie. 4k really brings out the grain in this movie. It's very noticeable and the HDR color is only slightly noticeable. This is either a very bad 4k transfer or the original Blu-ray is the limit for the quality for this movie. I didn't hear much extra in the audio department either. It's too bad because an action title like this would have really benefitted from a sound remix.

Overall, I was still able to enjoy this movie very much. It's still in my nostalgic classics but has dropped down a few notches. Some of the special effects aren't quite as impressive and the tone of the movie is all over the place. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. This movie borderlines as a movie geared toward children but with lots of adult themes. I will probably watch this movie again with friends but I wouldn't recommend this movie for kids of this generation.