The 5th Element

The Revised Element

The 5th Element is a fun movie to watch if I turn my brain off, but since we had to analyze certain aspects of it, I found myself pouring over every little detail of the movie. This over-analysis soiled one of my previously scifi film favorites and warped its image into some hodgepodge of different stories barely strung together by flashy special effects and entertaining cuts.

What I mean by this is that the main plot didn't feel as relevant or integral as it should have to the rest of the movie. You can remove the whole good versus evil subplot and The 5th Element would remain largely unchanged, I think the movie would actually come off as more cohesive and less reliant on pure luck and happenstance.

A revised version could be that the stones, that Zorg is after for his art collection or to sell, could be priceless religious artifacts akin to the 10 commandments. The Plava Lagoona concert would be part of a centennial relocation of the stones ceremony, hosted by Ruby Rhod. Korben could still be a retired war hero, who accepted the mission of escorting Leeloo, a perfect being and the next holder of the stones, because he just got fired from his taxi job and needed money. Cornelius would be some officiator of the mission, but couldn’t go with Leeloo because he has priestly duties. The Mangalore revolution could also become more relevant if they were more clearly defined as terrorists who find the passing on of their sacred stones as something sacrilegious, thus giving them a reason to know where the stones are and want to reclaim them at all costs. We could even keep the business relationship between Zorg and the Mangalores.

While I get the scale of The 5th Element would be much smaller, I think this is a reasonable sacrifice in order to make the movie more enjoyable on a less mindless level.