10 Things Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets Gets Hopelessly Wrong
5. 20th Century Stereotypes Still Exist
The opening sequence of the movie features numerous meetings between astronauts of new cultures as they are welcomed onto the space station that eventually becomes Alpha. It seems that even in the mid-21st century, Sikh astronauts are expected to wear turbans and Arab spacefarers wear keffiyehs.
Later, in the far-flung reaches of the galaxy, stereotypes persist in the form of fat, uncultured American tourists and noble savage fish people who wear beads and live in harmony with nature. As if to establish a grimly familiar frame of reference for its audience, the movie puts old white men in charge of the future, too.
Speaking of which, in spite of the proliferation of alien species in Alpha, humans still seem to run everything, like western empire-builders lording it over the natives. Considering Valerian takes place in the 28th Century, it feels way, way too much like the middle of the 20th.
It even has the glimmer of a 'women drivers' joke. In 2017. In the twenty-first century.