Thursday, August 14, 2014

Movie Review Madness: Lucy


The previews to Lucy looked rather intriguing and you can’t go wrong with Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman. Right?  Well…let’s just say they were fine but the movie was different. As in, we walked out after final credits and said, “That was weird.” I can’t put my finger on what went wrong, but I was never fully engaged in the flick. The director, Luc Besson, does great action sequences, and this wasn’t a cheap film. But….it was just okay.  

My husband said that maybe it had too many big ideas. Lucy was trying to make us think about human capability and our use of brain cells and also the concept of time. That’s a lot of material to cover.  

The movie starts with a sequence showing cells splitting and leads to the ape named Lucy – one of our ancestors. Then we leap to Scarlett’s Lucy hanging out in Asia. She gets coerced into carrying a brief case into a fancy high rise to give to a man. Well, this goes horribly wrong. The case has some drug that accelerates brain capacity. Lucy is injected with a baggie of this for smuggling. The bag leaks and she’s going crazy with intense ability to hear, see, absorb, and comprehend everything in the world.  

She looks up Morgan Freeman (playing a professor/researcher/doctor) who is the specialist in the brain cell field. He’s fascinated by her story and she shows up to meet him and be studied. However, she only has 24 hours to live because everything in her has sped up to warp speed. Meanwhile, the Asian men are after her to reclaim their prize. So, it’s a race against time. It’s Lucy explaining how she’s thinking and trying to understand what this means. The researchers stand around befuddled as they try to figure out what questions to ask. Are you confused yet? And/or do you care about Lucy?
 
That’s the key – do you care? There are talking head scenes and then violent shoot ‘em up scenes. The movie is trying for two very different viewpoints. So, I can’t recommend paying money in the theater for Lucy. Wait for rental or Netflix and see if your brain explodes with interest or boredom.

4 comments:

  1. What a shame you didn't enjoy it. It doesn't sound like my kind of film but then, as you may have worked out, I'm not very good at watching films. I keep wanting to get up and make a cup of tea!

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  2. You've mentioned the same issues as several other people I've read. I adore Morgan Freeman, but I might leave this for later.

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  3. Well, bummer. The previews made this movie sound sooooo intriguing. I reckon I'll pass on this one for now.

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  4. It's always disappointing when movies with big stars go terribly wrong. The premise sounded interesting, but it shouldn't have gone off in so many different directions. Thanks for the heads up, Joanne!

    Julie

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