Do you consider The Fifth Element to be cyberpunk? ( lemmy.zip )

The futuristic city with flying cars at the beginning of the movie definitely has all the cyberpunk visuals, and technically Zorg is the head of an evil corporation. But the real villain of the movie is incoming force of evil/darkness. And the plot is resolved through the power of love. Even the President of Earth is actively trying to help do the right thing and save the planet.

While there are some great cyberpunk visuals at the beginning of the movie, I don't know if the themes are there to call this cyberpunk. What do you think? Would you consider The Fifth Element to be cyberpunk?

Here's a trailer. It's currently streaming on Hulu.

Professorozone ,

My vote would be no. Just straight up sci-fi.

Simulation6 ,

Not a lot of cyber in it, more just sci-fi.

Kolanaki , (edited )
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I dunno... It shows off the actual government and they actually seem cool? (I mean they are actually trying to stop evil and the president shows compassion towafd his people) The only corporation we see is Zorg, and they don't seem to have the kind of control typical of a corporation in a cyberpunk setting. It certainly doesn't seem like a dystopia. Maybe if the government was in league with Zorg it would have.

But I also don't know much about the world outside of it shown in 5th Element and Valerian. The setting is, apparently, from/inspired by a book/comic series; though I don't remember what it is called. I think the cigarette thing is a bit of a fucked up nanny state idea. Gives you a preset number a day and they're like backwards from real ones with a long ass filter and a tiny little bit of tobacco.

The story itself certainly is not cyberpunk. It's science fantasy.

ProfessorOwl_PhD ,
@ProfessorOwl_PhD@hexbear.net avatar

I'd say it's more of a fantasy story in a cyberpunk setting. There are cyberpunk elements, but I don't really think the story itself is exploring any of the anti-capitalist or transhumanist themes of cyberpunk, just using them as a background.

qjkxbmwvz ,

Been a while since I've seen it, but one thing that I'm remembering differently than a lot of folks in this thread is that I don't remember it being outright dystopian. Sure, evil corp and all. But Earth government isn't really evil, the arts are still cherished, and while life seems hard it seems more like a dysfunctional society than a dystopia. Just my take though (and doesn't address OP's question).

My fun anecdote is that maybe 10 years back I got a free LaserDisc player. The local library happened to have The Fifth Element on LD, so naturally I rented it. You had to request media at the front desk, so I wrote down the call number and he returned with a very confused look --- "you know this is LaserDisc, not DVD or Blu-ray? Like, it's...really big." Not the same quality as Blu-ray, but was definitely more fun :)

Flyberius ,
@Flyberius@hexbear.net avatar

It's multipasspunk

TrickDacy ,

Gimmedacasshhh

Bz2486 ,

Negative, I am a meat popsicle

TrickDacy ,

Please place your hands in the yellow circles

Jayb151 ,

That's...a... very nice hat.

aeronmelon ,

"You like ittt?"

dances

Album ,
@Album@lemmy.ca avatar

One of my favorite movies. I really don't consider it cyberpunk but I also wouldn't say it's not. It's got a lot of the aesthetic theme and it's dystopian but it's not got much else.

TropicalDingdong ,

I think it definitely is, especially if you go back to the original Heavy Metal source material. Its just a very 1970's/ New York portrayal of what Cyber Punk can be. The original material is also very much more in the film noir/ crime drama vein, which also aligns with some older cyber punk classics like Ghost in the Shell, Robocop, Total Recall, Bladerunner, etc.

The 90's version is brighter and more up beat than the 1970s version, but are actually pretty close overall. My assessment is totally cyberpunk, just not the narrow view of what cyber punk actually is. Its story hits the right beats and the world is the right size, shape and feel. I think both the original material and the new material are very much cyber punk.

Here is a youtube video comparing the elements of both the 1970s Fifth element and the more recent one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_Iq57hIB8

ricecake ,

It's not a cyberpunk story, but it's a cyberpunk world.

Kyatto ,
@Kyatto@leminal.space avatar

Simple and accurate, I agree with this.

GrayBackgroundMusic ,

Ooh very succinct.

Frank ,
@Frank@hexbear.net avatar

It's not not cyberpunk.

It's close enough and shares enough of the same things to be analyzed as part of the genre.

I do think that to a large extent the big evil bowling ball of doom is supposed to abstractly represent capital or something adjacent.

Things like the depiction of the indigenous resistance movement as unsophisticated dupes and terrorists merits analysis; why did the French director depict them this way? How can this be a reflection of French colonial history? Same with the depiction of the white Archeologists and the presumably middle easter kid subjected to colonialism in the beggining though I think there's less there.

Leelu can be analyzed through the "born sexy yesterday" trope and there's a lot of questions to ask from a Feminist slant.

The movie actually acknowledges some of the harms and contradictions of capitalism, while underplaying others. Showing the relationship between Corben as a cabby working for Zorg and ultimately being one of the people who thwarts Zorg is nice.

The decision to never have the protagonists and the antagonists directly interact is a neat one and opens up some very good questions about narrative norms - turns out the hero doesn't actually need to confront the villain!

It does have a lot of cyberpunk themes; mighty and powerful corporations and governments can't save themselves so they need a working class guy and his weird buddies to save the world. The upper classes are depicted as a gaggle of decadent idiots who have no idea what's happening, while the corporate leader is a hyper-competent bastard who completely understands all the harm his sytem causes and loves it.

And it's also just a silly adventure film with lots of style and cool visuals and a sappy power of love resolution.

sbv ,

You sound like you watched the movie yesterday. Props.

The questions around French culture/history are interesting.

I don't remember the whole "no direct interaction" thing. That's interesting too.

Splatterphace ,

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    sbv ,

    I think Hammerjack is trying to inject a little life into our community. They contribute a tonne, so let's roll with it.

    Hammerjack OP Mod ,
    @Hammerjack@lemmy.zip avatar

    Like the other person said, I'm just trying to start a discussion. I don't actually care what the answer is, I'm just providing a topic. I try to find movies where i could see the arguments for and against being cyberpunk and I'll post it here to see how others feel.

    Honestly, I consider these posts a success if the top two comments are "of course it is!" and "of course not!" because that means i picked a good movie that walks the line between cyberpunk and not and typically leads to a good discussion.

    Also, I've been trying to post something here every day for almost three months now and it's hard to keep coming up with items that fall firmly into the cyberpunk category. So I start to question how I define cyberpunk and these posts help quantify it.

    sbv ,

    Yo, I really appreciate your efforts. Lemmy can be a ghost town. Folks like you are what bring it life.

    I also appreciate your shout-outs. I'm putting a bunch of movies from this community on my watch list.

    Rolando ,

    I'm just here to say when I saw this as a kid, I had a massive crush on the President's Aide.

    TropicalDingdong ,

    Is that the total number scenes they are in?

    Like, so specific...

    aeronmelon ,

    CyberPop

    inmatarian ,
    @inmatarian@lemmy.world avatar

    TV Tropes calls it Cassette Futurism, which is part cyberpunk.

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