10 Things Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets Gets Hopelessly Wrong
4. Gigantic Exposition Dumps
Valerian's structure can be described as hyperactive splurges of CGI linked by enormous, indigestible chunks of exposition. When Valerian and Loreline are first introduced, they bicker for a good few minutes explaining their respective personalities.
Various scenes of people standing around explaining the plot are a recurring motif, with one character actually using the unholy words "As you know..." before explaining elements of the plot everyone present is already aware of.
The computer on Valerian's ship is a prime offender as it reels off a gazeteer of Alpha as the heroes land on a world they are already intimately familiar with. The entire backstory of the put-upon fish people refugees is spouted by the fish person emperor in a narrated flashback sequence.
Worst of all are a trio of flying monkey-duck-rat things who offer plot-essential information to the characters without any explanation of how they came to know these things or what they have to do with any other part of the plot.