THE FIFTH ELEMENT

Here is the decision plainly: this is a visually ambitious science-fiction fantasy that never becomes more than piece of fluff. Its robots, strange creatures, special effects, and futuristic city may attract viewers, but the story is too self-conscious, too campy, and too derivative to justify the trip.

The film also builds its central message around romantic love saving the world. Its priest is supposedly Catholic but never points to Jesus Christ or the Bible, while the movie's mystical ideas substitute a human “supreme being” for biblical truth. The content includes moderate violence, profanity, sexual material, smoking, and brief frontal female nudity.

If you are choosing for your family, skip this one and choose something more substantial.

In 1914 Egypt, a priest and an archaeologist learn that evil will return in 300 years. Only the four ancient elements—earth, fire, water, and wind—joined with a mysterious fifth element can stop it.

Three centuries later, a growing black sphere threatens Earth. Scientists reconstruct Leeloo, a super-powered woman believed to be the fifth element. After escaping a laboratory, she ends up in the taxi of Kaleb Dallas, who helps her find the stones needed to save the planet.

Two stars means a film with attractive surfaces but too little substance underneath. THE FIFTH ELEMENT looks good, with futuristic settings, special effects, robots, strange creatures, and an energetic visual style.

But the movie is too self-conscious, too campy, and too derivative. Its villain is ineffective, its hero is a divorced derelict with a traffic record, and its supposed supreme being is not meaningfully developed. The priest's religion is strange rather than Christian, and the movie's humor often feels forced. It may find a cult following, but it is a pale comparison to STAR WARS.

THE FIFTH ELEMENT presents a romantic and mystical worldview. It teaches that romantic love between Kaleb and Leeloo will save the world, while the four natural elements join with a mysterious fifth element to defeat evil. The priest's supposed Catholic identity is emptied of Christian meaning: he never mentions Jesus Christ or the Bible and instead speaks of Leeloo as a supreme being.

The movie also presents evil as a growing black sphere rather than a personal moral enemy. Its ideas draw from mystical thinking, aliens, ancient secrets, and a human figure treated as perfect. These elements replace biblical salvation with a mixture of romantic idealism and spiritual fantasy.

The film's flamboyant, sexually suggestive drag character is given substantial screen time and functions as a comic counterpoint to Kaleb. The character's behavior and the group that follows him add another expression of the movie's campy, self-conscious view of human identity and sexuality.

Romantic love cannot save the world. Scripture says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8), but salvation comes through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ, not through human romance.

THE FIFTH ELEMENT has colorful effects and an imaginative future, but its shallow story, mystical worldview, and troubling content outweigh its attractions. For your family, our answer is simple: SKIP IT. For better choices, see.