What You're In For:
After being coerced into delivering a mysterious package to a crime syndicate, Lucy is forced to take part in their smuggling rink in order to earn her freedom. Waking from an altercation with her captors, she discovers that a pouch of synthetic drugs have been surgically implanted into her abdomen. In route to her rondevouz, Lucy is attacked, causing the drug pouch to rupture and leak into her body. Immediately after, Lucy's brain power begins to steadily increase, allowing her to do tremendous things. As her powers grow stronger, she begins to restructure the science of our world, and become something beyond our imagination.
Who's Involved:
"Lucy" is a production of EuropaCorp, TF1 Films Production, and Canal+, Written & Directed By Luc Besson, and Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi, Amr Waked, Julian Rhind-Tutt, and Analeigh Tipton.
Travis’s Take:
"Lucy" is a film that fails to deliver on every level, stumbling through a laundry list of filmmaking flaws along the way, and ultimately offering up a messy 89 minutes of complete dreck. As if the science (fiction) wasn't hard enough to swallow on its own, the filmmakers have decided that there is simply no sense in pairing logic to Lucy's abilities. We're treated to mere morsels of exposition to support these anomalies, and the film runs on the assumption that the resulting action sequences are enough to sustain the plots fluidity. There is no narrative structure here, but rather a downhill dive into obscurity. The film movies along at a quick pace, building momentum parallel to Lucy's rise in cerebral capacity, but falters as each outlandish concept is hurled towards the audience. The only characters we can truly buy in to and relate with are throwaway plot pawns, and the films primary hero is an unrelatable and unreadable character with a non-existant character arc. Ironically, the only thing the film executes successfully is its runtime, allowing us to escape the theater quickly with a few of our brain cells still intact.
Austin's Take:
I'll be honest and up front, "Lucy" was a colossal failure. It's been quite a long time since I've seen such chaos and garbage on screen. Lucy tells the story of a 20 something year old named Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), who is tricked into delivering a package that unbeknownst to her, carries a potent new drug called CPH4. The deadly deal goes down and the next thing Lucy knows, she's waking up with a bag of the drug surgically stowed away inside of her. Through a series of events, the bag breaks open releasing the drugs throughout her body. Instantly the side effects of the narcotic takes hold giving her the ability to access full brain capacity. Also included in the effects are psychic abilities, teleportation, telekinesis, envision things others can't, see the roots of trees growing, and the desire to stare quizzically off into space. None of which is more over the top than the idea itself. The story is based around the notion that we humans only have access to 10% of our brains capacity. If the percentage were to increase, so would our ability to do wondrous things, such as control matter and see cell phone signals floating in the air (so cool). What's funny is that at almost every turn the film discredits itself. A professor named Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman) explains that since humans have never experienced a larger capacity with the mind that we in fact don't know what could really happen. So if we do not know what would happen then that must mean we have no idea what WOULDN'T happen either. This in turn opens the door to all the bizarre sequences of events that takes place in "Lucy." Writer and director Luc Besson, leaves every ounce of explanation from this film and tries to ride the story out on the assumption that what you see is just the way it is. Through the terribly paced, silly, and downright ludicrous moments, "Lucy" becomes a full contradiction. Lucy is not supposed to feel fear, but she does. She is unable to experience desire, but she does. Physically, she should not be able teleport through space and time (all while sitting on a chair in the middle of a gun battle), but and I'm sure you guessed it, she does. Filled with obvious flaws from top to bottom, "Lucy" would be a good lesson on how not to make a movie. The film wasn't lost to begin with, and when I say begin, I mean in theory. It just so happened to fall off course through its writing, directing, editing, acting, CGI, and above all the concept. We may never know what could happen if we were to achieve a higher level of brain capacity, but I do know one thing, stay away from "Lucy."
I'll be honest and up front, "Lucy" was a colossal failure. It's been quite a long time since I've seen such chaos and garbage on screen. Lucy tells the story of a 20 something year old named Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), who is tricked into delivering a package that unbeknownst to her, carries a potent new drug called CPH4. The deadly deal goes down and the next thing Lucy knows, she's waking up with a bag of the drug surgically stowed away inside of her. Through a series of events, the bag breaks open releasing the drugs throughout her body. Instantly the side effects of the narcotic takes hold giving her the ability to access full brain capacity. Also included in the effects are psychic abilities, teleportation, telekinesis, envision things others can't, see the roots of trees growing, and the desire to stare quizzically off into space. None of which is more over the top than the idea itself. The story is based around the notion that we humans only have access to 10% of our brains capacity. If the percentage were to increase, so would our ability to do wondrous things, such as control matter and see cell phone signals floating in the air (so cool). What's funny is that at almost every turn the film discredits itself. A professor named Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman) explains that since humans have never experienced a larger capacity with the mind that we in fact don't know what could really happen. So if we do not know what would happen then that must mean we have no idea what WOULDN'T happen either. This in turn opens the door to all the bizarre sequences of events that takes place in "Lucy." Writer and director Luc Besson, leaves every ounce of explanation from this film and tries to ride the story out on the assumption that what you see is just the way it is. Through the terribly paced, silly, and downright ludicrous moments, "Lucy" becomes a full contradiction. Lucy is not supposed to feel fear, but she does. She is unable to experience desire, but she does. Physically, she should not be able teleport through space and time (all while sitting on a chair in the middle of a gun battle), but and I'm sure you guessed it, she does. Filled with obvious flaws from top to bottom, "Lucy" would be a good lesson on how not to make a movie. The film wasn't lost to begin with, and when I say begin, I mean in theory. It just so happened to fall off course through its writing, directing, editing, acting, CGI, and above all the concept. We may never know what could happen if we were to achieve a higher level of brain capacity, but I do know one thing, stay away from "Lucy."
Filmmaking Report-Card:
Screenplay: 2/10
Directing: 3/10
Editing: 1.5/10
Cinematography: 4.5/10
Acting: 4/10
Over-All Experience: 3/10
The Final Say:
Above everything, "Lucy" is on aggravating film to watch. It simply ignores detail, plot structure, character force, and any explanation of what's going on. An angry "yah right" can be said for everything about the story and what happens throughout. With such a short run time, this picture will leave you feeling as if it may never end. Save your money, no need to waste your time, and keep your distance from this disaster.
Final Score: 3/10
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