Do you consider The Fifth Element to be cyberpunk?
Do you consider The Fifth Element to be cyberpunk?
The futuristic city with flying cars at the beginning of the movie definitely has all the cyberpunk visuals, and technically Zorg is the head of an evil corporation. But the real villain of the movie is incoming force of evil/darkness. And the plot is resolved through the power of love. Even the President of Earth is actively trying to help do the right thing and save the planet.
While there are some great cyberpunk visuals at the beginning of the movie, I don't know if the themes are there to call this cyberpunk. What do you think? Would you consider The Fifth Element to be cyberpunk?
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I typically view cyberpunk as a world dressing that acts more as a backdrop and I think The Fifth Element fits it pretty well.
I feel like the rest of it kind of just layers on. Kind of like the game Cloudpunk. It's set in a futuristic dystopian world that reminds me a lot of Blade Runner but feels a lot like a mystery and adventure game. The cyberpunk aspect doesn't feel like it's the most notable part.
This is a very fair take on the whole genre influence thing. More aesthetic similarities yet less story mechanics that are found to define genres. Let's give open creativity a chance before we stick some label on that produces low effort drudgery.
Very true. Just like there's high fantasy vs low fantasy, there's almost a "cyberpunk by aesthetic" and "cyberpunk by themes" distinction in cyberpunk.