Valerian's new trailer is pure sci-fi glory - here's the 6 best moments

The Fifth Element director Luc Besson is diving headfirst back into epic science fiction with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The new trailer debuted earlier today, and wow - this movie may be the sci-fi savior we need right now.

I’m drooling. Let’s run through some of this trailer’s coolest moments.

Welcome to Alpha

Alpha Station appears to be one of the film’s most impressive visual effects. It’s a space station that contains the knowledge of all species across the known universe (hence the nickname from the title), and the attention to detail here makes sense considering this has been a passion project of Besson’s for decades.

Let’s go to the beach

That beach planet looks super chill. That’s the kind of place I’d go on vacation. Check out those mega-sized shells jutting out of the water! It almost looks like a Mario Kart level.

This little piggy went to market

The sheer size of this marketplace is staggering. Its look reminds me of the way Besson approached streets as multi-leveled floating lanes in The Fifth Element; he uses the same vertical mentality here. And what’s up with that pink sky? Is this a section of the Alpha Station, or is it a whole different planet?

A whale of an escape

Is this an underwater environment, or are Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) still flying through space as they evade these giant whale-looking creatures? Just how many different environments does Besson have in store for us in this movie anyway?

Cool gun, bro

We’ve obviously seen loads of different weapons in sci-fi films throughout the years, but a double-barreled gun that has the ability for each barrel to move independently and lock on to a target seems like a fresh spin to me.

Rihanna’s got the moves

That face Valerian makes in the gif? That’s the exact face I made the first time I watched this trailer.

Directed by Luc Besson and starring Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Ethan Hawke, and Clive Owen, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets hits theaters on July 21 in the US and August 4 in the UK.

Images: STX Entertainment

Ben is an entertainment journalist who has written about movies online for nearly a decade. He loves the Fast & Furious franchise, prefers Indiana Jones to Star Wars, and will defend the ending of Lost until his dying day. He shook Bill Murray's hand once (so he's got that going for him, which is nice). Ben lives in Los Angeles with his wife.