French director Luc Besson goes for a mainstream American sci-fi adventure - kind of. It has the requisite special effects, and the majority of the cast are British or American, but Besson's directorial style brings an unmistakably European, arthouse sensibility to the whole thing. That's a surprise, because otherwise it seems classic Hollywood teen oriented space opera, with a suitably dumb plot. If ever there was an example of just how arbitrary the goals of the heroes can be, this is it: to defeat the villains (led by the brilliant Gary Oldman) the good guys must get four stones, arrange them in a square, and put a semi-naked chick (Mila Jovovich) in the centre. Whatever. 

Our chief hero is played by Bruce Willis. Willis, I suppose, has to be given points for trying offbeat material such as this and Terry Gilliam's terrific (and quite similar) Twelve Monkeys, but the effort is undermined if he doesn't bring anything beyond his Die Hard personae with him. Here, surrounded by performances that range from the merely hammy to the highest of high camp, Willis seems out of place. When the climactic scenes develop into the high energy shoot-out Willis fans expect, the effect is jarring, because up till now Besson's interests have been elsewhere. This is not an action film, nor - really - a science fiction film. It's more a sort of ultra high budget costume party, and it's the trappings that matter.