Review of Lucy (2014) by Liam C — 09 Jul 2015

Luc Besson does 'Limitless', which is the modern comparison that everyone is comparing this to because this idea has been used before, and seeing as how it's Besson, it won't be a simple action film.

Right from the very start this film is very intriguing right from the very start, our lead is put in a very confusing scenario and we are right there with her; Johansson's acting is so authentic that it comes across like she doesn't even know what's in the script, but surely she would have seen that handcuff. Besson says the script took 9 years to make and I don't think that means he was writing it for that long, I'm thinking he just added little pieces here and there over the years. Saying that, the story in this is minimal and it's just about experiencing it for the most part; indeed there is a set-up in here and Lucy does need to collect some packets, but all that is over in 50 minutes and it looks like the film could wrap-up there. I like how she got her abilities and they manage to make the crazy-goings ons work well for the universe they've set up.

This isn't a think-piece that sits down and talks with its audience for its running time, it has some smart ideas that it wants to convey on the backdrop of an action film that it uses to tell those ideas. It's an allegory. It isn't an excuse to say what I have nor is it meant to come nor is it supposed to be seen as a negative, it's just that I have seen this sub-genre, of sorts, done many times; the film has an idea on its mind but that isn't the only focus is but it is there and it isn't like they forget about it, either. People compare this to 'Transcendence' due to its similar themes, and that came out earlier in 2014, it was something that tried to be a think-piece but that failed. It is trying to say something to the general audience that wouldn't seek out in their films otherwise. Some say that Morgan Freeman is pretty much playing the same character as he did in 'Transcendence' but that's wrong, this film is actually good and he was actually given something to do. Honestly his bewilderment with what was going on was acted like the scene with Lucy that I mentioned earlier, it felt real; even I did question that he can't be the only one that does what he does in this universe. Choi Min-Sik continues to show how versatile he is, and Amr Waked worked well with Johansson and the film overall has a very good cast.

I don't fully agree with the complaint that Lucy is invincible and that we can't feel sorry for her, true she takes down people with little to no effort, killing them before the door has even been opened, with a blank expression on her face seemingly being on auto-pilot. But we all know what the end game for this film is; we see her desperation on the plane in a scene that really had me on edge with my eyes open. There was a scene earlier on where she talks to her mother and, to a lesser extent her friend, that was a little sad just because you know she won't see them again, now, I'm not spoiling the film but I just gathered from the scenario she won't see them again. She explains how she now sees the world and I just had the image of her burning up from the inside. Perhaps I'm being too deep but one the whole, it is enjoyable to see her exact out her revenge on the people that got her into this mess in the first place; I felt bad for her all the time being put in this awful situation.

The technicals of the film are very well done, the action was well put together, the car chase was insanely fun, everything just had a nice shine to it, the visual effects were well done, like the 3D, and the music was great. The film had an exceptionally fast pace and coupled with the short running time, the film was over before I knew it, but not in a negative way. As is to be expected from Besson, the film has humour and humour that is actually funny, the first subtitled piece of dialogue that we see is, 'my leg', and that made me laugh more than it should have. I thought she'd make a joke that she was asked to give a catchier name to the drug but didn't even know what it did yet.

As I mentioned earlier, Besson isn't going to keep it simple as we see spliced in clips of animals during the earlier parts of the film and I don't really know why. It's clear what it represents with the parallels with humans and that we haven't evolved, and if that wasn't enough, the person Lucy gets to help her reinforces this. It gets scrapped later on probably because of this character, but I had the feeling that the director was hoping we would still be remembering the footage and putting it together ourselves with events that come later. There were just some other things I noticed, there's a scene where Lucy turns around when she is on the phone and turns around to the camera just so they can have that shot and then she turns around again; sure, you could say she was scouting the area, but she already disguised herself. Im kind of surprised that drug was kept as a secret for so long and that the scientists at the end didn't keep just a little bit to examine.

The film is gleefully aware of what it is, silly fun but also very surreal and rather uncommonly ambitious and much better and different than many would have probably expected. In, whatever was going on at the end, I felt kind of sad seeing time just go back like that, I don't know why, perhaps because it went back to a simpler time? And then it ends so suddenly, the kind I like, it just leaves you in shock. It's rather ironic that for a film so short my review was this long but 'Lucy' is a very unique type of film, but created by Luc Besson, you should always expect something exciting, with good acting, well crafted action that tackles some interesting ideas, 'Lucy' is an original and enjoyable film.