FIFTH ELEMENT, THE: DVD

A story about love and survival, heroes and villains, good and evil, set in a strangely familiar yet intoxicatingly different 23^rd Century. Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) is a New York cabbie who drives a flying taxi. In order to save the world from the ball of fire zooming through space, Dallas becomes an unlikely hero, when he is sent to a luxury resort on a space cruiser to recover the stones representing the four elements, earth, air, fire and water. The four elements need to be put together with the fifth, which comes in the form of a beautiful genetically engineered girl, Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). Zorg, (Gary Oldman) the evil lord tries to stop good from overcoming evil.

"Don’t be misled at the beginning of the movie, the titles are in French. This DVD transfer of ‘Le Cinquieme Element’ comes from the French print. But don’t worry, the movie itself remains the same, only the titles and credits have changed. Best described as a visual bonanza, ‘Le Cinquieme Element’ was a huge hit at the box office and now it’s available in its original widescreen glory on DVD. The special effects were a big drawcard and understandably so; they are amazing, and this applies to this DVD transfer. The advantage of the DVD version is the you can pause the picture for a perfect freeze-frame because there’s a lot more detail in some of the special effects sequences than you originally thought. Other than some minor "blockiness" in a few of the backgrounds (this just an imperfection in the encoding process) the transfer is fantastic and detailed. The colours particularly standout with Jean Paul Gaultier’s flashy futuristic costumes. The other strength of the movie is the soundtrack; it's a great score by Eric Serra including a massive assortment of sound effects with huge dynamic range. It will certainly give any sound system a good work out. But the extras department is disappointing: other than the standard language and subtitle options, a poster gallery and some filmographies are all that's been offered. No behind the scenes doco, no commentary, no isolated soundtrack. Not too exiting at all. Other than this obvious omission, The Fifth Element is a great roller coaster ride of action and special effects and is seen at it’s very best at home on DVD."
Ben Hooft