It’s a French sci-fi comic book film. It’s not explicitly based on any particular one but that’s what it’s trying to be. As such it is fundamentally big, bomba

It’s a French sci-fi comic book film. It’s not explicitly based on any particular one but that’s what it’s trying to be. As such it is fundamentally big, bombastic, and kind of stupid in much the same way Marvel’s films would be in later years. Except with a French flavor. All it’s ambitions lie in being cool-looking and kind of absurd, not in telling a subtle story full of well-acted characters. French films have a reputation in the US for being smart and classy and this film was maybe less stupid than an American comics adaptation but it is still kind of fundamentally a big, stupid, gorgeous film. The Frenchness left a lot of people underwhelmed because they were not ready for a big stupid comic book romp. I’d read enough Moebius when it came out to know what groove it was aiming for so I loved it. I don’t know how it holds up in a modern world full of big stupid leave-your-brain-at-the-door American comic-book blockbusters. It was a nice taste of that sort of thing in a stand-alone package. Also you might want to try watching some movies that are not big stupid sci-fi things before giving up on the entire medium? Find your local art house if you live in a decent-sized city, subscribe to their newsletter and spend an evening seeing something that sounds interesting now and then. They’ll probably have a few of the big dumb effects showcases too, because those reliably bring in money, you can continue to ignore them in favor of stuff like “we have this amazing psychedelic animated fairy tale from Hungary for one week only” or “a loving remaster of one of David Lynch’s twistier works”.