Friday, July 25, 2014

Lucy - Analysis and Review


The Dr. Manhattan movie starring Scarlett Johansson

If you know who Dr. Manhattan is, then you pretty much know where I'm going with this. If you don't then just read the review.

The Plot

When Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) gets tricked by her boyfriend to deliver a briefcase to some shady people, her life goes spiraling out of control. She is forced to become a drug mule for a new drug that gets sealed insider her stomach, along with three other strangers. However while in temporary captivity before she makes her drug run, her captors savagely beat her which causes the drugs to enter her system. This drug begins amplifying her brain capacity to a level far beyond what anyone can imagine. And a ruthless drug lord is unaware of what kind of goddess he created.

Analysis

The once widely accepted belief that humans only use 10% of their brain capacity has recently been proven false. At the time that Bradley Cooper's film Limitless tackled a similar idea it wasn't met with a lot of hostility as much as this film. I'm putting that out there because I know there are several film critics, youtubers, and various other individuals who call bull shit on this premise. They hate this "archaic" defunct belief so much that they automatically assume the movie is stupid for still holding on to a now false theory. But the thing about it is, even though I know this, it really serves the purpose of the story. I'm not going to defend its scientific inaccuracy mainly because stories require something to drive them, and that is what this movie needed. 

Review

When I think about this movie as a whole, I think of it as really cool ideas that never really figured out how to work properly. Yet at the same time while it may not mesh well together, that's not to say it isn't entertaining. It is weird though. From opening the film with a prehistoric woman to immediately jump cutting to modern times with very little idea of pacing or how to properly do so was very jarring. The editing of National Geographic footage in scenes in order to sell a metaphorical point was kind of weird. This movie is just weird. I like weird. Did I say this movie was weird?

This movie is like a weird mash up of the best sci-fi films (ex. 2001: A Space Odyssey) and the best sci-fi animes (ex. Akira) that don't really add up to much. We're not really sure what is the drive of the story because when one believes the plot will be one thing it might also be about another but turns out to be neither. 

When Johansson's Lucy gains her superhuman powers, she becomes emotionless and is driven solely by...... nothing. One would think that a woman who gets abused by the Korean mafia would seek out revenge, but that wasn't the case. Because she becomes emotionless, when the opportunity comes to kill the man responsible (played by Oldboy's Choi Min-sik) for her abuse, she doesn't kill him. Simply because she is no longer driven by anger. She does gain a mission of wanting to spread her newly acquired knowledge after talking to an expert in the field (played by Morgan Freeman) but that does not seem so urgent. It is not what propels the story forward. In fact she is so emotionless and so invincible that one may not be able to find anything relatable to her. 

There was one singular plot point that could've been the drive of the whole movie. Lucy wasn't the only one who had drugs sewn inside their bellies. And in a scene where she discovers that she is disintegrating and requires more of the drugs to keep her alive, we finally see some vulnerability to the invulnerable character. So one would think that she has to hunt down those other three drug mules in order to keep herself alive. No, she gets the police led by a French detective played by Amr Waked to do the hunt for her. It completely takes away something that could've been the central drive of the story, but then again seeing as how Lucy has evolved too emotionless and extremely efficient, she knows how to handle things more easily. 

To put it simply, you're watching this movie because you're fascinated by what Lucy is eventually going to become. You're not watching it because the story is so engaging, because it almost doesn't exist. And despite having Choi Min-sik playing the villain (who does an excellent job in I saw the Devil) he is not really given much to do other than shoot people that piss him off. So really, you're only interested in watching because you're more fascinated into what Lucy is turning into rather than whatever story they're trying to tell.

I'll give the supporting cast a unified decent performances all across the board. Waked was a good detective and...love interest? Choi Min-sik does mysterious evil well...mainly because there was nothing else about his character other than he's evil. Morgan Freeman was...Morgan Freeman. It is really Johansson who delivers a great performance. However the performance was so emotionless because she evolved to not feel emotions that it is hard for one to connect with her. So....it is great to watch but not a very compelling performance.

I should note that there are several special effects shots in this movie that look like they belong in a PS3 game rather than a movie. They're passable, but compared to other special effects films this year, this was weak in comparison. Given their low budget, it is indeed impressive that the effects are as polished as they are. But again, having been spoiled by films that cost five times the price of this movie, the effects just come off as weird. Which is fine because...this thing is weird.

Final Thoughts

Lucy is an enjoyable experience just to discover what the end result of the titular character's evolution will be. If you were expecting a revenge story in which a woman gains superpowers and abuses them on those who wronged her, this is not that movie. The villains in the movie think its that movie, but the main character has evolved far beyond the plot to even care what the villains think. It is a fun watch and nothing more.

SCORE: 6.5/10 - I'd definitely buy it, but if you think about it there really isn't much in it

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