Lucy: Movie Review

I’ve read quite a few reviews of this movie, and most of them are negative. I don’t understand it. Perhaps, those naysayers are simply too pretentious and caught up in their own ideals of what makes good entertainment to give anything which doesn’t fall into their concrete guidelines a chance…or maybe they’re just angry that a woman got so much screen time? Eh, who knows. 

Frankly, I don’t care. 

I loved the movie, and here’s why: It offers a unique perspective. There have been several “explore the possibilities of the mind” movies, in the past decade or so, and most of them are, predictably, entertaining. People are utterly fascinated by, and completely ignorant of, the human mind. Why do we think? Why do we dream? How are memories stored? These are all questions that nobody really has an answer to. (Except one: 42) There are several theories, though.

I watched Inception when it came out, and I rolled my eyes at the end. It’s meant to make you think, I guess, and my significant other thought. I didn’t. The ending was predicable, as most Hollywood “blockbusters” are. Limit was an ok movie, in the same genre, and it entertained. I didn’t walk out of the theater thinking that my mind had just been blown, however. 

(Spoilers after the break. This is a movie review, so there is going to be discussion about plot-lines and characters.)

Lucy blew my damn mind. Not because of the method in which Scar-Jo’s character attained her “100%” because that’s been done, but with the way she handled it. There was no lust for power, no desire for riches or fame, no drive to explore the world. No. The almost first thing she did was call her mother…

She was lost, and she needed answers, so she sought those answers from a leading Neuro-Scientist, “Professor Norman” (played by freaking Morgan Freeman, everybody! Woo!). She contacts him and asks what she should do. He tells her, “Share your knowledge.”

So, she does. The entire movie is a race against the clock: Lucy’s ultimate demise, the Drug Lord and his goons who are chasing her, Time itself. Her goal is to meet Professor Norman, and share what she knows. She gets there, and picks up a “reminder” along the way.

There’s action, and death, and drug use. The brief kiss could have been left out, but I believe it was put there for a reason, all the same…not sure it’s a good reason, but hey. I’m not the writer, here; Luc Besson is. And that guy! He can tell as story. The Fifth Element, Transporter, Leon: The Professional, From Paris with Love, Colombiana… 

So much awesome under Mr. Besson’s belt. He is genuinely one of my favorite story-tellers, so perhaps I went in to this movie with an already biased idea of how good it was going to be…or maybe it’s just a freaking awesome movie!

This isn’t what I would call an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but it’s still thrilling. All-in-all, I have to give it 8/10 stars, or whichever method of measurement you’d like. It’s a good movie. It’s worth the ticket price. It’s worth the 89 minutes of screen-time. The ending is …ugh! But, it’s still worth it!

Go see it. If you like Science Fiction…real, true, unrealistic, Science Fiction…you’ll love this movie! If you’re looking for spaceships and explosions and half-naked women, and gratuitous romance, you won’t.