Monday, July 28, 2014

"Lucy" Review: Pros and Cons

This weekend, Lucy ($44,025,000), the new sci-fi flick starring Scarlett Johansson, comes out on top, crushing its competitor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Hercules ($29,000,000). After getting tangled up with the wrong guy, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) finds herself forced to carry the synthetic drug CPH4 which has been gruesomely implanted into her stomach. She then suffers a brutal beating which pops the pouch of CPH4. As the CPH4 circulates through her body, this drug deal victim can now access more than 10% of her brain. With predatory ferocity, Lucy sets out to seek revenge on her attackers and attain the rest of the CPH4 she needs to survive.


Sounds pretty cool, right? With a cast consisting of well-known, talented actors like Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman, you’d expect a sure fire hit. Let’s evaluate Lucy's pros and cons, shall we?

Pros:

• As the CPH4 continues to increase brain capacity, the person begins to become “unblocked” and is stripped of emotion, empathy, sympathy, and pain. Scarlett Johansson delivers an incredible performance as an unfeeling, dangerous super genius. With a constant blank stare and occasional unnerving head tilt, Johansson perfectly portrays how a person stripped of all emotion and pain is essentially deprived of their humanity, making them all the more dangerous.
• The film also addresses man’s ignorance when it comes to science. We believe we have advanced so far that we are the rulers of the universe when, in reality, we have just skimmed the surface. The havoc wreaked by Lucy shows how incapable we are of controlling natural phenomenon.
• Morgan Freeman’s voice (enough said)

      Cue the creepy head tilt...
Cue the creepy head tilt...

Cons:

• Before you go see this, know that the science is completely botched. However, if you can get over that, it might not be too much of an obstacle. Admittedly, though, it did make it difficult to take the film seriously at times
• Several cheesy lines are heard throughout the movie, especially ones regarding the brain. It seemed as if the script writers threw in the word "brain" way too much in an attempt to give the film a feeling of scientific validity
• The general plot is very straight forward and predictable. In an attempt to make things interesting, weird, LSD, trippy scenes were thrown around that were often incoherent and unnecessary.
• To be honest, Morgan Freeman’s character was unnecessary and his presence was probably simply a publicity strategy to get audiences to come.
• Lastly, if you were looking forward to an edge-of-your-seat action thriller, this film actually veers more towards the psychology and focuses less on brute force fight scenes (not necessarily a con, but I figured you should know).


All in all, Lucy is geared towards a very specific audience and may not be for everyone. It definitely has interesting aspects, but ultimately, if I were you, I’d probably RedBox this one.
Favorite quote: "It's like all things that make me human are fading away." ~Lucy explaining her situation to Dr. Norman (Freeman)
Movie Score: http://www.amazon.com/Lucy-Soundtrack-Motion-Picture-Serra/dp/B00M0JHA0C
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