Scoop
Sodas & Popcorn – Movie Review: Lucy
Director: Luc Besson
Writer: Luc Besson
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi
Check out the full cast and crew here
So, I was about to see Deliver Us From Evil in a hall all to ‘myself’ until something interesting happened that altered the course of time forever. I changed my mind and decided to see Lucy instead. I know you must be wondering, ‘Why pick Deliver Us From Evil over Lucy in the first place right??’ Well, that’s a story for another day.
Lucy tells the story of a woman who accidentally gets caught in a dark deal and gets some “Limitless” pills mistakenly released into her blood stream. She then experiences some “Transcendence” evolving into a merciless warrior with intelligence beyond human logic and turns the tables on her captors.
Three words to describe this movie. Limitless Meets Transcendence.
There’s Bradley Cooper and then there’s Scarlett Johansson. Two blondes (I think blondes were selected to prove a point) who happened to consume drugs that boosts their cellular and mental capabilities. She then begins to transform and develop superior mental abilities like Johnny Depp from another 2014 sci-fi thriller, Transcendence where Morgan Freeman, again plays basically the same role as he did in Lucy. I am not complaining though. I would watch Morgan Freeman talk about Dolphins for 2 hours. Wait, he has done that already. Sigh.
Gladly, Lucy is better than Transcendence which was a flop but I’d go with Bradley Cooper’s Limitless which was a master piece by Neil Burger (The Illusionist).
The plot for Lucy however unoriginal it may be was in no way simple. It’s a thriller which tries to mess with our minds but wasn’t so successful. For starters, this movie isn’t even for everyone. This will probably be the Cloud Atlas of 2014. The movie that splits everyone evenly. The major flaw it has is there was just too much to take in from a realistic point of view. But hey, we use just 10% of our cerebral capacity right? So I guess seeing something as mind blowing as a woman unlocking 50%, 70% and even 100% of her brain’s capacity will be a little too much to swallow for some of us.
While its scientific technicality (either accurately or inaccurately) is a subject of debate, Prof. Samuel Norman’s (Morgan Freeman) scenes in the classes with Lucy’s transformation were quite catchy and informative enough to lay a good foundation for its audience to understand the movie in the stages where her mental abilities were below 70%. Beyond that point, it got a bit too hard to swallow.
Then one thing I picked out though (which may sound weird) was the fact that she had a good relationship with her folks. In most similar scripts its usually the opposite. I liked that about this one. Brought some warmth to it. Made me tear up a teeny weeny bit *sniff*
The added humor here and there? Nice! Liked that a lot too. Made me relax a little
Scarlett Johansson as Lucy? Nailed it. Just as the Black Widow in The Avengers, she definitely should kick ass much more. Who knows? Her next role in an action movie could kick Angelina Jolie off the charts. I mean, this got her the third spot for the highest-grossing female-driven action film after Wanted (featuring Angelina Jolie) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (feat. Angeline Jolie…AGAIN). It’s about time we had a successor.
Morgan Freeman as Prof Norman. Always on point. Doubt I need to elaborate on his performance. But sorry Morgan. Most of the credit goes to Scarlett for this one.
I even liked the attitude played by the ‘chinco’, Choi Min-Sik (please ignore me. He is actually Korean) as the druglord, Mr. Jang. Very ‘kingpinnish’ I must say.
Luc Besson, an acclaimed Director with works like Leon The Professional and Fifth Element did a great job with Lucy. Giving us intelligent monologues from Johansson which were deep and thought provoking. If you are expecting out of the world action sequences like the trailer promised though, you might be a little disappointed. But there is an awesome car chase and some impressive visual effects here and there.
Verdict
Watching Lucy was pretty much a worthy end to my busy week. To be honest, I wasn’t so keen on seeing it so soon and I kind of expected the weird twists and turns towards the end. So when it finally blew up in my face I wasn’t disappointed. Let me say I was ‘content’.
So Lucy for us at S& P HQ scores a Sodas & Hotdog. This is because it is an intelligent movie which tries very much to carry the audience along, but can’t help but loose us at some points.
We at Sodas and Popcorn would like to know however, who sold the ‘super drug’ better, Lucy [Lucy] or Eddie Morra [Limitless]?
Check out the review of one of the year’s best movies so far. Guardians of the Galaxy.
