
No More White Aliens
**CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS**
I saw Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets last night. Overall, theres a lot to be said about a movie that couldn’t be made until the technology advanced to this point (a note that Luc Besson made about making the film and thinking it was impossible until he saw Avatar) rewarded with effects and scenery were truly encapsulating. The wonderful and visually delicious planet of Alpha is said to be a home with “every species sharing their knowledge”, yet it doesn’t feel that way.
The movies alien focus is on a lost species called the Pearls, whose home planet was destroyed for the “greater good” as decided by some shitty humans (sounds familar), trying their best to make a new home for themselves among the stars. The film shows us new characters and a somewhat interesting plot but neglects one of the main promises we were given.
So often in these endless space operas, they promise us new and exciting aliens who are really just humans. The Pearls, mainly done in CGI, are in essence just white, skinny, shiny humans. The other featured race is a community of large, brown, big eyed giants (I’m oversimplifying, but thats the gist) who don’t speak English and eat humans brains. Charming. And of course Bubble, a shapeshifting blue blob that is pop star Rihanna in many costumes. We see a couple other races, but mainly we see humans. So, you can choose between the skinny white race that can build their own spaceships, the race of brown idiots, or Rihanna.
Frankly and truly, it’s not good enough. If you’re promising me a world of EVERY species, I want more than 10. Race can be a touchy subject in sci fi, because of the standard argument that “the aliens are brown but they aren’t brown people”. Yet, sci fi has groomed us for years to learn Earth societal traits being applicable in space such as slavery, stolen lands and the inequality of species (Avatar, Star Wars, every other major sci fi chain). Valerian is as guilty as this as anyone else, having the main conundrum of the film to help the poor aliens whose home we destroyed or keep up the public image that humanity has cultivated for so many years. Not only do we see the classic white savior complex in this film, we also see a smart race of white skinny aliens as the “good ones”.
I want more. I want not only something new, but something subversive in my movies. I don’t want to see the large brown humans as savages, and I don’t want to see the heroes as two white kids. This is the same argument scholars have been making about every form of media for years so this is truly my two cents, but Valerian could have done so much with their races and instead turned it’s back on the most creative aspect of the film: diversity.
