Lucy
Go! Gets carried away at times...But so will you.
Action sci-fi with big brains.
I used to have a girlfriend named Lucy, so I figured that this film would be something I would immediately understand. It turns out that all Lucys are not the same. Some can accidentally access the 90% of the human brain that we allegedly don't use. Having actually seen the film, I was pleased that the Lucy I was involved with with was limited to a regular brain capacity because apparently, when Lucys hit 100%, things. get. super. weird.
Suspend yourself from reality for a moment (which if you can't do, 89 minutes of Lucy is going to be a struggle). Imagine that we each use only 10% of our brains...even although, apparently, humans do use their whole brain and the concept of using only "10%" is everything from a myth to a misconception to a downright lie. So assuming that the entire foundation of this film is pretty shaky, you are probably imagining that the bricks and windows that house the rest of the plot are equally fragile. You are right, but this is no ordinary plot house. This is a floating plot mansion with big guns, Taiwanese gangsters, international intestinal drug muling, thumb-to-temple telepathy, Morgan Freeman (Morgan Freeman!), a banging electro "doof doof" soundtrack and, of course, Scarlett Johansson. And Morgan Freeman!
Suspend yourself from reality for a moment (which if you can't do, 89 minutes of Lucy is going to be a struggle). Imagine that we each use only 10% of our brains...even although, apparently, humans do use their whole brain and the concept of using only "10%" is everything from a myth to a misconception to a downright lie. So assuming that the entire foundation of this film is pretty shaky, you are probably imagining that the bricks and windows that house the rest of the plot are equally fragile. You are right, but this is no ordinary plot house. This is a floating plot mansion with big guns, Taiwanese gangsters, international intestinal drug muling, thumb-to-temple telepathy, Morgan Freeman (Morgan Freeman!), a banging electro "doof doof" soundtrack and, of course, Scarlett Johansson. And Morgan Freeman!
Scarlett plays Lucy. Lucy gets caught up in a drug muling party (woohoo!). Spoiler spoiler spoiler...And she then begins to access parts of her brain beyond the (mythical) 10%, which means she can do a bunch of cool and terrifying and highly unlikely stuff. Morgan Freeman is a scientist who has spent his lifetime researching the (mythical) concept of the 10% and what would happen if people could access more. Lucy is super smart and she finds him. They hang out and try to understand it all. It's all part of the story - go and see it, you'll be fine.
Details aside, the plot is (ahem) mental. You may remember the director, Luc Besson from the Fifth Element, so the Frenchman has action sci-fi form. That was a weird and wonderful movie, set on a in a semi-alien world so far into the future and distant from reality that orange tank tops and soul patches are fashionable. Contrastingly, in Lucy, Besson implies that what is on screen is actually possible and jams the story bang into our present world. He asks a lot of the audience to jump into his imagination canoe while he navigates the gushing rapids of the action between obstacles of scientific improbability. It will frustrate a lot of people, but you don't dip your paddle into white water to go and look at the rocks - you get in for the exhilarating rush of the ride and the risk that everything might come crashing down. Relax and go with it; trust Besson's stylised navigation and you'll find parts of this film that excite and inspire in equal measure (and occasionally splash you right in the face; ice cold, baby, ice cold).
Details aside, the plot is (ahem) mental. You may remember the director, Luc Besson from the Fifth Element, so the Frenchman has action sci-fi form. That was a weird and wonderful movie, set on a in a semi-alien world so far into the future and distant from reality that orange tank tops and soul patches are fashionable. Contrastingly, in Lucy, Besson implies that what is on screen is actually possible and jams the story bang into our present world. He asks a lot of the audience to jump into his imagination canoe while he navigates the gushing rapids of the action between obstacles of scientific improbability. It will frustrate a lot of people, but you don't dip your paddle into white water to go and look at the rocks - you get in for the exhilarating rush of the ride and the risk that everything might come crashing down. Relax and go with it; trust Besson's stylised navigation and you'll find parts of this film that excite and inspire in equal measure (and occasionally splash you right in the face; ice cold, baby, ice cold).
Together with Besson, Johansson is crucial to this film and as an actress she is becoming a perennial badass. Badass-ness is crucial to a film like this (if you could use 100% of your brain and weren't a total badass, you'd be letting yourself down) and her steely but vulnerable performance pretty much keeps everything together. With stunning visual effects at Lucy's disposal that tiptoe along the thin line between our understanding of what is real and what is computerised, this film looks simply boom-boom-pow. Parts of this film are very, very memorable.
So go. Suspend your intellectual constraints and consider the possibility that most of what we think we know about humans is wrong; that without time we don't exist; and that evolution is only a whisker away from fulfilling its glorious potential. Or just go watch a super-hot-super-smart-lady mess with a bunch of Taiwanese gangsters (and Morgan Freeman!). Have it your way.
So go. Suspend your intellectual constraints and consider the possibility that most of what we think we know about humans is wrong; that without time we don't exist; and that evolution is only a whisker away from fulfilling its glorious potential. Or just go watch a super-hot-super-smart-lady mess with a bunch of Taiwanese gangsters (and Morgan Freeman!). Have it your way.
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