Once upon a time there was a precocious 10-year-old French child with dreams of Hollywood stardom blazing in his young eyes and a well-read space opera comic book in his back pocket.

That kid was director Luc Besson and the precious comic was Valerian and Laureline, the fabulous French graphic novels by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézieres. Besson's new film chronicles the wild adventures of a sexy pair of intergalactic spacio-temporal agents as they investigate an all-consuming evil that threatens to destroy a colossal communal space station known as Alpha.

So influential was Besson's immersion into this psychedelic world of starships, aliens, robots, exotic planets and cosmic creatures that many of the visuals and concepts trickled into his cartoonish 1997 sci-fi adventure, The Fifth Element.

Now, fifty years later, as special effects have transcended anything the filmmaker could have ever imagined, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is hurtling into theaters on Friday with its visual feast of sci-fi delights born from the pastiche of these cult comics Besson devoured growing up in Europe.

Starring Dane DeHaan and Cara Delvingne, this supernova of startling imagery is poised to explode across theater screens worldwide, showcasing nearly 2500 special effects elements from Weta Digital and Industrial Light and Magic.

Being the biggest independently financed film ever produced at a cost of $185 million, Valerian needs to accelerate at lightspeed into movieplexes and entice fans of hardcore sci-fi flicks and comic book junkies to earn back its stratospheric investment.

To prime you for the vibrant Valerian experience, I've composed a viewers guide to some of the key elements and characters you'll see in this sci-fi spectacle.

Many of the spaceships and aliens encountered might already seem familiar as the Valerian comics and spinoffs have been "borrowed" by a multitude of modern filmmakers like George Lucas and his Star Wars Empire, which owes a HUGE debt of gratitude to the Valerian books.

Strap into your crash couch and let's descend into the colorful collage of one of comics' most important space opera sagas ever conceived and sing the heavenly praises of Valerian and Laureline.