Title: Lucy
Director: Luc Besson
In theaters: July 25, 2014 from Universal Pictures
Genre: Sci-fi/Action
Rating: R
Rating: 2½ out of 5 stars
Lucy is not a good movie, but since we were using a gift card and just having a night out since Amber’s out of town for the week, it was fun enough. First, you have to overlook that it’s not actually true that people only use 10% of their brain, a “fact” the movie is based on. I’m okay with overlooking that, although I do think they could have made more or less the same movie with a different base theory that wouldn’t have immediately turned some people off.
It’s like the movie is stuck. It wants to be an action flick, but how much action can you really have when the main character can control people, objects, is incredibly intelligent and doesn’t feel pain. You’re never worried about her. She’ a superhero, except without the need to really fight evil. Her mission is some kind of self fulfillment, quest for knowledge thing and that’s where the movie somehow goes awry. The philosophizing about the purpose of life, the meaning of time, the origins of the universe. I feel like they should have stuck with the action, because when things are moving, and shooting, and bleeding, you forget that the plot is really pretty dumb. It’s not even believable within the world they’ve created.
I have to admit that I liked some of the style choices that other reviewers, and my husband, found cheesy. I enjoyed the nature clips and the percentage markers showing how much of her brain Lucy was using.
And the end line lost me. “Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it.” I’m not sure what they were going for. Should we kill a bunch of people? Turn into some kind of weird black rubber monster? Become a computer? Move beyond pain, desire, love? Learn everything until we explode and become part of the universe? (Sorry, there might have been a spoiler in there.)
If you’re going to see a movie this weekend, I would probably choose something else.
Sounds meh, but I’d still try it
LOL! I had the same questions with that last line! Like you, I liked some of the cheesy stuff (nature, percentages) but the actual story was just so lame. And it seemed to get worse as the movie went on. But maybe that’s because I started to give up hope that the movie would turn into something good 🙂
I gave up on it turning good pretty early and just tried to enjoy it for what it was.
I’ve seen the trailer and it didn’t make much sense to me so I figure this one’s not for me.
I was curious about this one but based on this review it sounds awful so I will pass lol
Thanks for an honest review. We probably wouldn’t have seen it anyway, but this helps solidify that decision!
I’m glad your review reinforces my decision to not go and see this one.