Took my kids at their request. Wow - so, so dumb, on so, so many levels. Not even worth a more detailed overview - just so dumb.
It looks very, very stupid bad.
The “we only use 10% of our brain” part pretty much killed my interest entirely. I love Luc Besson, but holy shit, that is just goddamned stupid.
It was pretty terrible. Luc is really losing his edge. The Fifth Element is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Losing his edge? What was the last good film Luc directed since The Fifth Element and Leon?
Don’t forget. Luc Besson the writer of Le Femme Nikita, The Transporter and Taken is also Luc Besson the writer of Taxi, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc and Transporter 3.
I’m surprised it’s as bad as you people say. I normally enjoy these sort of “product of a government experiment in psychic powers escapes and goes on an Akira rampage” stories.
OK, we all know the ‘only use 10% of our brain’ is pure BS but I have to say that on the evidence of this movie in Besson’s case it may be true.
I fail to see how the “10% of our brain” myth has anything to do with the movie. It’s just a bit of technobabble and the movie would be no different if there were another explanation for her increase in intelligence (“the drug increases synaptic connections” or “it speeds up chemical reactions”). If the movie is bad, that particular thing has no bearing on the quality.
One review I saw said that Morgan Freedman was talking so long about the 10% thing that he just wanted him to shut up… and that when you want Morgan Freedman to stop talking, that’s a sign that a movie has gone seriously wrong.
Just to clarify here in America *Leon *was simply called The Professional. It was Natalie Portman’s breakout role.
In the book discussion group I belong to, once a year instead of reading a book for one month we have an all-Saturday movie day. The group mostly reads science fiction and fantasy, so the movies we watch are mostly science fiction and fantasy. We try to have a theme for each year’s movie day.
For instance, the following are some of the themes for our past movie days:
Science fiction movies from the 1950’s
Cult science fiction movies 1968 - 1988
Time travel movies
I plan to propose that in the future we do this theme:
Wha? - Science fiction movies that make no damn sense
The movie that inspired me to do such a theme is this one:
Alphaville (1965, France, dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
I saw this a couple of months ago and was astonished how it used major talent applied it to an incredibly ridiculous plot. I saw Lucy yesterday and was similarly amazed. Can anyone suggest some other movies that would fit this theme? Note that I don’t want science fiction movies with just a few significant plot holes and don’t want ones on a shoestring budget. I want ones that make no sense but were made by major talent.
Thanks, Hail Ants. I wondered about that. I liked The Big Blue too in that artsey way that appeals to college kids.
Thanks WordMan for saving me $8 times n.
But is it allegorical? 
Prometheus leaps immediately to mind.
I went to see it because I liked District 13 (16 years after The Fifth Element), because the trailer was cool, and because Limitless, with a similar plot, was much better than I could have hoped.
This is not a film. It’s a laser light show for a Pink Floyd soundtrack that inexplicably got left off. All you have to do is remove any of the scenes with Lucy and the stock footage and CGI are perfect Floydian faux profundity.
The review at The Atlantic is titled Lucy: The Dumbest Movie Ever Made About Brain Capacity. It’s full of spoilers because it lists 26 dumb things the movie does.
What’s astounding about that review is that those are mere minor flaws. I could probably come up with another 26 things that are even more gigantically dumb than those. Here’s the biggest:
The fake drug is synthetic. Anybody can make more of it at any time. Lucy didn’t take it all; it’s already out there in the world. The scientists - who are useless appendages to the plot, since all they do is dissolve the drug in liquid, something anybody in the hospital could have done - might do so themselves. The whole movie turns out to be a countdown about defusing a bomb that has already gone off.
I was thinking in the new Inception thread how similar in structure these movies are. At base they are nothing more than comic books about people with superpowers. And all comic books about people with superpowers can be stripped down to two narratives: 1) the rules are made up; and 2) when the plot requires it, they suspend the rules.
I contend the whole movie was filmed for no other reason than to do the car chase, which was spectacular and utterly idiotic.
Wendell, *The Matrix *was bad but Matrix Reloaded was F- quality. It’s Lucy dumb.
What is amazing is that yes, it most certainly tries to be, adding yet another layer to the stupidity.
If you are in this thread and worried about spoilers, well then - shame on you
But yeah, her going back and having a Michaelangelo Cistine Chapel moment with her Anthropological namesake was one of the unfortunately many points where I couldn’t hold back the sincere laughter. It was fuckin’ hilarious.
Okay, okay - I have a phrase - I challenge you to come up with a better one to capture the tone of this movie: arrogant vapidity
It’s a shame for Scarlett Johansson’s career–it was (I think) her first chance to carry a movie. Looks as though she’ll be back to “the girl” roles.
Not a chance. With the money this movie is making I guarantee there’ll be a sequel:
Her vs. Lucy: Intelligence Squared
Maybe if Scarlett agrees to make a personal visit to all ticket-buyers…
Try to imagine Lucy as a Uwe Boll production.
Oddly enough, the Rotten Tomatoes rating is only 58%, as of this post.
:dubious:
Maybe it could be, I suppose.
But wow, does it look stupid.