“Lucy (2014)” Movie Review

“Lucy (2014)” Movie Review

(Summarized review can be found here: http://www.wljack.com/2014/08/movie-review-lucy-2014.html )

Introduction

Due to her boyfriend’s exploitation, Lucy is accidentally involved in a drug deal. A bag of new and powerful synthetic drug is forcefully inserted into her body to be transported to other place. When the drug leaked out from the bag, a strange reaction occurred in her body and she started to gain more access to her brain capacity beyond what a usual human could.

What power will Lucy gain after utilizing more and more of her brain capacity?

Will she reach 100% of brain capability?

Let’s discover more about what will happen to Lucy at your nearest cinema!

Review:

“Lucy (2014)” is directed by Luc Besson who is also the writer/director for some prominent movies such as La Femme Nikita and The Professional to The Fifth Element.

The movie consists of a mixture of straight-forward drug-dealing storyline and an intriguing sci-fi plot of how human could become when he/she is able to utilize more than 10% of brain capacity. Most of the ideas in this film might not be scientifically proven but it could be amazing to witness the works from the writers’ imaginations on what a human could do if his/her brain potential is unlocked beyond normal people.

The story proceeds quite slowly at the beginning of the film but gets more well-paced as Lucy gains more ability. There are intermittent scenes showing how many percentage of brain which Lucy has unlocked at certain stage of the film. For example, at 20%, she could control her own cells. At more than 40%, she could even control matter and so on so forth. This is a good addition for the film as it makes it easier for us to keep track with her progression.

However, the flow of the film is often abruptly interrupted by documentary footages (like National Geographic) in between scenes. While I have to agree that some of these scenes might be a little useful in helping us understand more about the sci-fi theory of the film, I felt that a lot of the scenes are a little too excessive and irrelevant to the film.

As for the casts of the movie, Lucy (2014) utilizes nearly 90-100% of its screen time for Scarlett Johansson. It almost feels like she’s inside every scene. On the other hand, the other cast members felt like extras in the show. Even Morgan Freeman’s character as Professor Norman is almost like a cameo appearance. Of course, he is very well suited to his character who is a wise professor that studies regarding human brain capacity. (I guess no one could deny the fact that he really looks wise.)

Let’s back to Scarlett Johansson’s acting. To be honest, I personally think that she has put up an outstanding performance as Lucy in the film. She is seen with a lot of changes in personalities from the beginning of the movie till the end. From an originally timid Lucy till a brain-energized Lucy who gets less human during later part of the film, Scarlett Johansson without any doubt has played the role spectacularly convincing. She has proven herself as a great actress in this film and you will definitely love her even more after watching Lucy (2014).

As for the script, it can be a little cheesy at times. The movie focuses on a human who is supposed to be smarter than anyone else. But the lines make the character to be lacking of intelligence and can be laughable as well. Even some scenes which are supposed to be in a darker or deeper mood turned out to be hilarious for the audience due to the cheesiness. Of course, fret not, this is slowly compensated by brilliant lines and scripts near the end of the movie which can be quite thought-provoking to the audiences. It has successfully captivated the audiences that follow the story closely and successfully left the light-hearted viewers in confusion trying to interpret the meaning of the final moments of the film. It leaves many possibilities and questions on what happens to Lucy during the final scene.

The CGI effects are overall decent except for some scenes which involve the image of ancient creatures. These scenes felt like being rendered by technology from the last decade. Although it’s just a very brief moment but the lower quality of CGI effect is noticeable. For background soundtracks and sound effects, some felt misplaced and can’t blend well with the scenes. However, I need to admit that I do enjoy the musical scores during some thrilling scenes in the film.

Overall, the movie has featured a lot of scenes which are very cool and stunning. I like the scene where Lucy drives. That scene is really impressive. I also love to see how Lucy uses her power. She is like an overpowered superhero. In fact, due to the over-powering of Lucy, there is lacking of sense of threat to her. We could almost sense that the villains have no match to her and this does reduce the fun a little. Imagine if you play a game whereby you totally outmatch the opponent. Isn’t the thrill less due to the lacking of challenges??

What I like about the movie:

1. Intriguing Sci-Fi of how humans would become if their brain potentials are unlocked
2. Scarlett Johansson’s impressive acting
3. Progression shown as Lucy unlocks her ability
4. Ending left the audience thinking and digesting the meaning.
5. A lot of cool and well-choreographed scenes

What I dislike about the movie:

1. Too many documentary footages whereby not all are necessary
2. Other cast members felt like extras or cameo appearances
3. Cheesy scripts and lines
4. Inconsistent visual effects quality and sound effects which do not harmonize well with scenes
5. Overpowered protagonist

Verdict:
This movie deserves a 7.0/10.0!

“Scarlett Johansson is astonishing in this film. I enjoyed the movie very much due to her spectacular performance!” – WLJack

“I find it a bit difficult to understand the ending of the movie. But it’s an entertaining one.” – Fellow reviewer, Jose Yap

Absolutely 100% recommended for Scarlett Johansson’s fans and recommended for audiences who love Sci-Fi movies.

The people who want everything in the movie to be logic would find it hard to love the film. Those who hate Scarlett Johansson might not like the movie as approximately 90-100% of the movie consists of Scarlett Johansson face in it. Of course, why would there be anyone who hates her anyway? She’s just amazing!

Million thanks to Nuffnang for the opportunity to attend the #NNPremiereScreening of the movie!  #LucyMovie

Published by WLJack.