10 Comic Book Movies That Aren't Based On Comic Books
2. The Fifth Element
Luc Besson has given us some bizarre cinematic visions in his time, but arguably the strangest was this 1997 space opera. Bruce Willis played futuristic cabbie Korben Dallas, who got mixed up in a plot to protect a perfect being (Milla Jovovich, and why not?) who held the key to a centuries-old intergalactic conundrum. Aiding and abetting the ensuing carnage were Gary Oldman, Ian Holm and Chris Tucker as a ludicrous variation on Prince. As if pop's purple prince wasn't ludicrous enough! Jean-Paul Gaultier designed the costumes, ensuring the experience got an extra injection of weird. Euro-helmer Besson consulted heavily with comic book artists Mbius and Mézières to help realize a unique big screen landscape, which was both colourful and dangerous. The collection of extreme characters lumped into a universe-spanning storyline best categorized as vague gave The Fifth Element a pulp quality that wouldn't have looked out of place on the shelves of Forbidden Planet.
I am a journalist and comedian who enjoys American movies of the 70s, Amicus horror compendiums, Doctor Who, Twin Peaks, Naomi Watts and sitting down. My short fiction has been published as part of the Iris Wildthyme range from Obverse Books.
