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DVD Review

The Fifth Element was a fairly early DVD and  probably one of the best early releases.  The picture is very sharp and clear and the colors are nothing short of spectacular.  Bright colors, neon lights and textures seem to fill the screen at almost every moment.  The transfer is very clean and I noticed no sign of film flecks or artifacting.

The soundtrack is also very good, putting the five main channels to good use.  Use of the rear surround channels is heavy, which I normally like.  Sometimes, however, the fade between front and rear channels is a bit too abrupt, however, especially when voices are involved.  The sound of vehicles whooshing by is quite appropriate however, and especially cool in chapter 11 when cabs are spinning around in mid-air.

Menus are very few and quite bland.  Both widscreen and fullscreen versions are present on the disc, which is nice for families with mixed tastes.  The only "extra" is scene access, which is really more of a standard feature on DVD.  One nice thing is that the scenes are divided in to 36 chapters, allowing for fairly precise scene location.  Basically this is a good show-disc for picture quality and sound, but not a great example of DVD features or innovation.  If you like the film, though, it has never looked better than on DVD.

Movie Review

At the onset of The Fifth Element we learn that a great evil will come to claim the earth sometime in the 23rd Century and the only defense against it will be a combination of five "elements", the key to which is held by friendly aliens.  We soon jump into the future when it becomes clear that this evil has arrived.  The friendly aliens return, bringing this ultimate weapon back to earth, but they are attacked and it appears all hope of salvation is destroyed.

Through a series of coincidences our hero, Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), ex-soldier and current cab-driver is brought together with Leelou (Milla Jovovich), who we soon learn is in fact, the fifth element.  Together they must secure the other four elements and they must do so despite intervention by two competing evil forces, the success of either leading to doom for life as we know it.  The main villain is played quite effectively by Gary Oldman, who manages to play a comical, yet sinister character. 

Packed full of spectacular visual effects and lots of action, The Fifth Element is an entertaining, if a bit confusing film.  While the plot is straightforward enough, an extremely artsy approach, combined with some occasionally rapid editing and periodic muffled dialogue can make this film a bit dizzying on the first watch.   Personally, I enjoyed this film more on subsequent viewings than on my initial one. 

This is a different take on the future and one that is entertaining to watch.  Lots of action and entertaining characters, some of which are a bit annoying, but still intriguing, make this a film to watch again and again.