<P> Valerian received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its visuals while criticizing the plot and some of the casting . On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 49% based on 237 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5 / 10 . The site's critical consensus reads, "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets uses sheer kinetic energy and visual thrills to overcome narrative obstacles and offer a viewing experience whose surreal pleasures often outweigh its flaws ." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film has a score of 51 out of 100, based on reviews from 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". On French entertainment information website AlloCiné, the film has an average grade of 3.0 / 5, based on 31 critics . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B --" on an A+ to F scale . </P> <P> David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a grade of B -, praising how "unapologetically idiosyncratic" the film is, while also saying "the vividness of this place only underscores the lifelessness of the people leading us through it...There are 394 million stories on the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian's might be the only one we've seen before . Still, any excuse to visit this place is one worth taking ." Peter Sciretta of / Film touted the first half of Valerian as "unpredictable and bonkers insane", while calling the second half more formulaic and "far less exciting", though he still encouraged seeing the film in 3D "on the biggest screen possible". Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club wrote that it was "rare (...) to see a film this extravagant that also feels, for better or worse, like the work of a single personality . The longer action scenes may not always rank with Besson's early' 90s highlights (...) or the mania of the more recent Lucy, but there isn't a moment in this ludicrous, lushly self - indulgent movie that doesn't feel like its creator is having the time of his life ." </P> <P> Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave a negative review, saying: "The Razzies don't need to wait until the end of the year to anoint a winner for 2017...Hollywood studio chiefs can breathe easy that, this time, at least, they'll escape blame for making a giant summer franchise picture that nobody wants to see, since this one's a French import ." A.O. Scott of The New York Times was also less than happy with the film, writing the effort "feels as if it were made up on the spot, by someone so delighted by the gaudy genre packaging at his disposal that he lost track of what was supposed to be inside ." </P> <P> Despite the film being a disappointment at the box office, director Luc Besson claims a sequel is still possible due to positive fan reaction . </P>

Valyria and the city of a thousand planets