The main reason that there was no sequel to The Fifth Element is that it didn’t do well enough in the US. That’s it really, no big secret and no creative differences. But it does sound as though Luc Besson, who is thought of as a genius in his own field, might have had his feelings hurt when he allowed Robert Kamen to read his script. Either Kame forgot what it was like to offer constructive criticism along with regular, run of the mill, cut your heart out and show you faults criticism, or Besson simply didn’t have it in him to accept that kind of criticism and somehow forgot that Hollywood is a business as well as a place to create, and if someone thinks that something isn’t going to sell to an audience, especially a screenwriter, whose job depends on writing material that people can believe and get behind. However it happened, Besson did apparently co-write the script that ended up being used for the movie, but here’s where things get a bit argumentative. The reason for being this way is because a lot of people loved the movie and managed to get into the characters and the whole idea of a single individual doing what he can to save the world, along with a perfect being that is essentially a tool that can download anything she needs since she learns at such a rapid pace. Leeloo was the type of character that is simply awesome but is also a bit of a MacGuffin since she’s the answer to stopping the ultimate evil, she’s insanely strong and quick, and she’s able to process an enormous amount of knowledge in a very short time.
What balanced her out was the fact that she was very, VERY naive. She didn’t know the ways of humanity or that people were essentially just as horrible as they were wonderful, and her mind and emotions couldn’t fully process the single idea of war when she finally came to learn about it. Considering that she was learning as much as she could by running through the alphabet though one has to at least mention that there are other problematic words and ideas that she should have probably come to before anything that started with a W, such as murder, racism, terrorist, and many, many others that should have shocked her even further than the idea of war. Of course, given that war is one of the most horrible things to ever be experienced by humans, it might be that Besson and Kamen didn’t want to get bogged down by having Leeloo experience a breakdown every time she came to a troubling idea or word. Unfortunately, this was likely one of the reasons why the movie didn’t do well in the US, the continual inconsistencies that popped up and the idea that so much of the story could have been simplified and given a slightly better look if the writers would have found a different way to do things. Of course, bringing things like this up to Besson might result in him getting a little touchy about it.
There was also the issue that people had to deal with a story that didn’t have a lot of explanation to it, they were simply thrust into it and expected to go with it. Normally that wouldn’t be such a huge issue since there are plenty of movies that use this practice and are well-received. In this case, the unfortunate part is that people were given a lot to process without enough of a story to go with it. Again, that might not be an issue with some movies, but exposition is sometimes needed just to bridge the gap between the movie and the comprehension of certain elements that are being used, no pun intended. In this case, the general feeling was ‘here it is, enjoy it, love it’. The problem with that is the fact that it was hard to relate to this story since it was an old story slammed face-first into a new skin as Corbin Dallas is the type of character we’ve seen a lot of, but poured into a colorful, hyper, out of control world that tried to blend some very familiar elements with a lot of material that felt like we were in a Blade Runner movie that had been mixed with Die Hard and Taxi Driver at some point with a James Bond-type villain tossed in for kicks and a loudmouth radio personality played by Chris Tucker to get the buddy element that really didn’t work out.
In a sense, the real reason why we didn’t get a Fifth Element sequel was that the movie was a riot of color and noise with only a minimum of substance, which in turn kind of alienated the viewers and made it nearly impossible for people to get behind it. It wasn’t a horrible movie, but it was definitely a mess.
Follow Us
