Luc Besson | 86 mins | streaming (HD) | 2.35:1 | France & USA / English, French & Korean* | 15 / R
After years producing movies in the Taken stable, Besson directs one himself. Unfortunately it’s a poor effort — not a bad movie, exactly, but a deeply silly one.
Forced to be a drugs mule, Scarlett Johansson accidentally ingests the product and unlocks her brain’s unused potential — yes, that long-debunked chestnut. Such daftness passes muster in, say, superhero origins, where no one’s expecting plausiblility, but Lucy seems to want to genuinely consider scientific ideas… between mediocre action sequences, anyway, which feel like they’re pulling punches to hit 12A/PG-13, even though it’s 15/R.
Less than an hour-and-a-half long, it still feels a slog.
* IMDb also lists Spanish and Chinese, but I swear they’re only spoken very briefly. If we’re being that picky, Italian’s in there too, I think. ^
I like what the film tried to do (even though it is a debunked concept), they just could’ve done it a whole lot better
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Some parts almost work, but at every turn either the idea gets in the way of the execution or the execution gets in the way of the idea!
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This reviewer is talking nonsense. In my opinion, Lucy is, without question, the best film ever made. The way it’s shot is absolutely perfect. You feel tension throughout the entire film, and with every scene the tension and your curiosity about what happens next keep building.
Sure, the core idea is only okay, but the film itself is, to me, flawless. The cinematography is what makes it work. Take the hotel reception scene, when Mr. Jang walks in while Professor Norman is lecturing in the background. That scene plays almost like horror: it’s clear that something terrible is about to happen, and it delivers exactly the feeling you want from a film. The film manages to do that again and again, with total clarity.
It’s my favourite film of all time. I’ve watched it nine times, and every single time it delivers the emotions you hope for when you watch a movie.
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