Bubble is the heart of the film. She is the thousand planets distilled into one person. Beneath the neon and the shape-shifting, Valerian has a surprisingly dark core. The plot revolves around the "Pearls"—a race of tall, pale, serene humanoids whose planet was destroyed by human negligence. The commander of Alpha (Clive Owen, doing his best evil bureaucrat) is covering up a war crime. He literally nuked a paradise planet to retrieve a rare creature (the converter) that produces infinite energy.
Besson has admitted he doesn't care about realism. He cares about credibility . He wants you to believe that a giant jellyfish-eating creature lives in the market, not because it makes sense, but because it feels right. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets lost money. It ended the trend of big-budget European sci-fi for a decade. But in the streaming era, it has found a cult following. Why? valerian and the city of
But here is the secret: The leads don't matter . Bubble is the heart of the film