The Fifth Element is a springy, flamboyant, and fiendishly comprised sci-fi-noir comedy about good vs. evil. In 2214’s Brooklyn, New York, a cab driver named Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) is on his last legal legs; with few points left on his license as a rundown cab driver—along with an ex-wife, troubled military past, old trophies, and no money to show for it— living on the fringes. Unbeknownst to him, Earth faces a once-every-5000-years prophesied force of evil in the shape of an ever-growing fireball that hurtles towards it, which is promised to be vanquished by an advanced alien race known as the Mondoshawan in 1914 Egypt to a sect of secret priests. A priest witnesses the Mondoshawan take an ancient weapon of pure goodness and perfection from Earth known as the fifth element, passing down their promise through ensuing generations. With 300 years of knowledge in his back pocket and a vow to protect life at all costs, current-day priest Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) enlightens the fireball-alarmed US government of the fifth element: a perfectly engineered superhuman eventually nicknamed Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) that stops pure evil in its tracks. As Dallas eventually becomes intertwined with this militant-religious-E.T. collaboration, and corrupt enterprise CEO Mr. Zorg (Gary Oldman) uses all his wealth’s might to stop them, Dallas, Leeloo, and Father Cornelius explore the gross imperfections of beyond-late-stage capitalism, human greed, and silly places and faces to save the world.

The best way to capture The Fifth Element is by describing what it emanates. Part Blade Runner/Alien plus religious fanaticism, part Die Hard (even without Willis’ presence), and part National Lampoon’s Vacation, at least in humor, this oddball of zany darkness is equally provocative and silly if it isn’t as slick as it wants to be. Fifth displays a world of filth, where landfills and skyscrapers appear little different beyond their occupants—but it’s not like these desensitized inhabitants expect better anymore. With walls overloaded with janky advertisements, home-visiting dumpy restaurants on ships, no place for garbage to idle (let alone be used for brighter purposes!), and scarce sources of peace or happiness, the ordinary likes of Dallas—as he gazes upon his memories and glories in shelf cluttering trophies towards the film’s beginning’s—can only hope to survive. In this NYC, mistakes only lead to physical or mental demise, and succeeding means post-consumerist, over-industrialized misery. For those hungriest for more, the rules don’t matter—for cruelty and bribery work wonders, as Mr. Zorg displays.

Whether firing 500,000 employees supposedly for the economy or snake oil selling with fatal safety nets in case unhappy customers try to attack, Mr. Zorg destroys lives whenever he needs to:
”You see, Father, by creating a little destruction… I’m in fact encouraging life,” he tells Cornelius after smashing a vase for cleaning droid to attend to. Whether he studied humanity’s cyclical pattern or bullshitted that ‘destruction creates life’ mantra, he feeds a system angled to save through opening jobs. Regardless of the majority’s wage and benefits, so long as they have a job, the economy and everyone in it is great, right? Wrong. And that’s essentially a blunter reflection of current-day billionaires: greed and uncapped directives that lead to the mass exploitation of people and resources to fill their bottomless pockets. “Drill, baby, drill,” newly elected and former President Donald Trump promised during his election campaign and inauguration this last Monday, removing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, amongst other environmental protections. Evidently, Fifth’s elemental lessons have yet to sink in.

The campy, slapstick tone, although more amateurish than intended, along with a sense of hope from human love and Leeloo’s so-called superiority (albeit with an over-the-top performance from Jovovich), helps lighten the load of the film’s otherwise brutal observations—“bada boom” “boom” “yes, big bada boom,” a confused Dallas and petrified Leeloo tease upon their first meeting and her first attempt at English. That being said, it’s probably the film’s biggest fault: the themes muddle under the weight of its silliness. It’s also incredibly overstuffed, sexist towards its female objectification, and disruptively CG animated despite a ‘97 release date. It forces things to rush at a body-grindingly, male-oriented, fast pace through cartoonish visuals. These components significantly decrease Fifth‘s otherwise primarily enhanced performances, complexly woven ideas, and a curious-comedy balanced sci-fi narrative. Fortunately, enough tension, character depth, and humor-disguised depression make The Fifth Element at least a pretty thoughtful time-passer. For Willis fans and sci-fi comedy fans, there’s a bit to take away from this rare Luc Besson success.

Screens Wednesday, 1/22, 7:00 pm @ Coolidge Corner Theatre
Part of the ongoing repertory series: Projections
Part of Ingrid Stobbe’s Seminar: The Fifth Element @ 6:15 pm