It was probably meant for people who want to fuck their sister, because those two had immense sibling energy. Unfortunately they also had immense asexual energy.

The main character is a boy who tells the story of the movie to his big sister while swinging is can of mountain dew. He is to young to understand romantic relationships so he just copies the stuff he has seen on the old VHS of his das/uncle. Thats why the trash props are all plastic tubes and papermash.

Its a tribute to the young fans of scyfi who grew up in this weird male view of what outer space would be confronted with the view of the sisters friends and mothers of those boys who liked the stories as well but spun a wider more based Version of the caged male fantasy of "different".

Trust me watch this shit in acid. It will blow your mind "anders" (as the german kids like to say ;))

Read the comics (Bande dessinée). And it should have been named Laureline. Valérian can manage but Laureline is the true heroine.

Dehaan was kinda hot shit back when he was cast even though it was instant miscast (he was in that weird Metallica movie among other things and he did well in A Cure for Wellness) - but by the time the movie came out he was as cold as two day shit. So that's on Besson. Miles Teller or Alden Ehrenreich would've been better choices because they have punchable faces and a shit eating grins which is integral part of early Valerian - that dude was obnoxious.

funny thing is that Bruce Willis in Fifth Element is actually quite accurate latter day jaded Valerian - so it is not like Besson couldn't figure out how to do that character but i guess EuropaCorp had softened his brains quite a bit.