Lucy (2014)

Written by Per Gunnar Jonsson on May 11, 2018

A lot of people appears to have gotten into some hate-mode when watching this movie. I guess they did not check up what the movie was really about before watching it. The movie is not perfect, it has its flaws, but a 1 or 2 star bullshit rating is hugely unfair. Personally, I really liked this movie. It is science fiction, pure and simple. If you expect science without the fiction, well then you should go and see some other movie. With Luc Besson both writing and directing and statements like “merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic” in the blurb … well I got pretty much what I expected.

The movie starts off making you think it is a “simple” revenge story with science fiction elements in the form of the superhuman Lucy. However it gradually evolves into something else. Lucy knows that she cannot survive in her new state and it becomes a quest to preserve the knowledge that she has acquired while she still has the time and at the same time dodging the drug dealers that are the cause of her situation in the first place.

Lucy is great. Her powers and how they develop are awesome. I really like surprise effects in movies and books of the kind that you get when someone like Lucy reveals her powers to the “mundane”. Especially when the revealing means swatting a few bad guys. This movie is full of moments like that. It is quite a roller coaster ride of action with Lucy exhibiting her growing powers. Not too surprisingly the movie is also full of scientific bullshit and plot holes. I do not really care. I’m in for the ride and it is a fun ride.

Scarlett Johansson is very good in her role as Lucy. Most of the other actors are ok although the Asian drug boss could have been better. He came out more like a brainless thug than anything else. Certainly not as the mastermind of a criminal organization.

The ending was a bit unsatisfactory compared to the rest of the movie though. I was a bit disappointed that the big fight at the end more or less was done without Lucy. The long cinematic sequences where Lucy wondered about in time and space felt a bit like yawn-filler-material. The actual ending, well that “I am everywhere” bit was really been there, seen that, done that. Also, if she was indeed everywhere, why the hurry to create that fancy memory stick?

Anyway, apart from that I really enjoyed this movie.