Luc Besson’s “La Femme Nikita” and “The Professional” remained two of the French director’s most iconic action movies till this day, with large cult following and countless of remakes done ever since. It is obvious that with this latest effort called “Lucy”, Besson attempts to lure us back into the centralized world of female action hero that paved way for Anne Parillaud and Natalie Portman into the stardom. In “Lucy”, Besson even peppers it with thought-provoking science fiction details to go along with. As a result, it has an interesting premise that teases the possibilities when human beings are able to do more than just the usual 10% of their brain capacity. But once you push it over the threshold limit, things can get uncomfortable and horrifying from there.
SMART OR DUMB: There are not many words I can used to describe “Lucy” in this case – or perhaps rudimentary words such as ridiculous, annoying and train-wreck are unceremonious but accurately rhyme with “Lucy”. Presented with an opportunity to develop a larger-than-life godlike femme fatale story about a woman who is seeking for revenge after “poisoned” by a powerful drug during her reluctant stint as a drug mule, the plot develops with aggression but also increasingly becomes dumber and monotonous. As expected, Lucy is a thinly-written titular character that has to undergo that compact 20 minutes introductory. Amr Waked is undeservedly been underdeveloped as French police officer and the veterans such as Morgan Freeman and Oldboy’s Choi Min Sik unable to uplift the mood.
"A TREE OF LIFE?": The burden of “Lucy” is to create a limitless possibility of human cerebral capability, for which it is able to show convincingly in those intense action-driven moments, no thanks to Besson’s camera-works. Unfortunately, what starts out as an excitement to see the titular character kicking-ass is relegated to the grounded Matrix-style moments. The linear progression of our heroine mental capability is quite often interrupted with superfluous cuts of “Tree of Life” segments and God’s (ahem Morgan Freeman) lecture of hypothesizing the human intellectual evolution. Now that is not at all annoying because the aesthetic artistic flow of Besson just cannot keep up with what is about to happen.
YOU LOOK LOST: A science fiction can be a draining adventure and nothing beats you more than to lose the connection the plot. I could not recall the amount of times when I lost myself in this field trip during the course of 90 minutes. I knew I lose it when she said she can remember how her mother’s milk was. I lost it further once her vaporizing-cerebral capacity reached 40% and even more during the climax.
Watching “Lucy” is like watching two different movies. For a movie that will eventually make you to wonder of how far-stretched our cerebral capability can go, the movie nails on the aesthetic and artistic values, even resonance nicely when the nuggets of philosophy come in places. But when it comes to making you to believe the possibility and making sense of the whole idea of what drives the character to fight back, the movie leaves you without a proper answer and less human.
SMART OR DUMB: There are not many words I can used to describe “Lucy” in this case – or perhaps rudimentary words such as ridiculous, annoying and train-wreck are unceremonious but accurately rhyme with “Lucy”. Presented with an opportunity to develop a larger-than-life godlike femme fatale story about a woman who is seeking for revenge after “poisoned” by a powerful drug during her reluctant stint as a drug mule, the plot develops with aggression but also increasingly becomes dumber and monotonous. As expected, Lucy is a thinly-written titular character that has to undergo that compact 20 minutes introductory. Amr Waked is undeservedly been underdeveloped as French police officer and the veterans such as Morgan Freeman and Oldboy’s Choi Min Sik unable to uplift the mood.
"A TREE OF LIFE?": The burden of “Lucy” is to create a limitless possibility of human cerebral capability, for which it is able to show convincingly in those intense action-driven moments, no thanks to Besson’s camera-works. Unfortunately, what starts out as an excitement to see the titular character kicking-ass is relegated to the grounded Matrix-style moments. The linear progression of our heroine mental capability is quite often interrupted with superfluous cuts of “Tree of Life” segments and God’s (ahem Morgan Freeman) lecture of hypothesizing the human intellectual evolution. Now that is not at all annoying because the aesthetic artistic flow of Besson just cannot keep up with what is about to happen.
YOU LOOK LOST: A science fiction can be a draining adventure and nothing beats you more than to lose the connection the plot. I could not recall the amount of times when I lost myself in this field trip during the course of 90 minutes. I knew I lose it when she said she can remember how her mother’s milk was. I lost it further once her vaporizing-cerebral capacity reached 40% and even more during the climax.
Watching “Lucy” is like watching two different movies. For a movie that will eventually make you to wonder of how far-stretched our cerebral capability can go, the movie nails on the aesthetic and artistic values, even resonance nicely when the nuggets of philosophy come in places. But when it comes to making you to believe the possibility and making sense of the whole idea of what drives the character to fight back, the movie leaves you without a proper answer and less human.
| Rating: | |
|---|---|
 | Story: 1.5 Casts: 2.5 Cinematography: 4.0 Effects: 4.0 GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 8.4/20.0 |
"Lucy" stars Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-Sik and Amr Waked; presented by Universal Pictures; directed by Luc Besson from his screenplay. The movie was rated 18 and was released in Malaysia since August 21, 2014. The movie runs about 89 minutes.
