Film Review: Lucy.

 

So I finally went to see Lucy sometime last week and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it alot. This review is fairly late because I've been super busy and unable to blog, so I'm sorry for that!

Direction, written and edited by Luc Besson Lucy is a French, sci-fi, action film about a young American woman (Scarlett Johansson) who is living and studying in Taipei, Taiwan. Her boyfriend tricks her into delivering a briefcase to his employer who is a Korean mob boss and drug mule called Mr Jang. The briefcase contains a very valuable bag of an artificial drug called CPH4. The bag is forcibly sewn into Lucy's abdomen and three other drug mules. She is taken into captivity and after a beating from one of her captors, the bag breaks causing the substance to flow into her system resulting in her new abilities like telepathy, telekinesis, mental time travel and the power not to feel human emotions. Morgan Freeman also stars as Professor Norman who helps her.

I have to say Scarlett Johnasson is not a favourite actress of mine, infact she often annoys me in films for reasons I don't even know why. But I can still root for her and enjoy the characters she plays, like The Black Widow in Captain America or The Avengers. In this film however she blew me away with her acting and was totally badass as the hero. To ground Lucy in the beginning, she plays the scared, hysterical woman perfectly to the point where you believe in the character so much. As she begins unlocking the potential in her brain and the new abilities, she begins disassociating with humanity and their emotions. This transition is so smooth from Johansson that you are actually a bit fearful of her because of her fading facial expressions and monotone voice.

Lucy's special effects were both stunning and absurd. As she keeps gaining every ten percent of her new abilities, the effects of the films grow bigger and more spectacular as she restructures the world around her and takes out her enemies like they are nothing.

The only two criticisms I have of this film are that I don't think the directors gave much thought or effort to the supporting cast. I love Morgan Freeman but his scenes often left me bored and wanting more of Lucy. He is charming as Professor Norman but he is only used to explain the film's scientific theories along with clarifying what Lucy is actually doing in that moment. He doesn't really bring any weight to the film and you wouldn't really miss him if he wasn't in the film.

My second criticism is that I felt the ending was very anti-climatic. I won't spoil anything for anyone who wants to see it but the scene and music really build up the idea of an explosive ending but then just leaves you hanging completely. After the fast pacing of the film, it just abruptly stops and doesn't really give a clear explanation of what's just happened.

But other than that, I did enjoy the film and will probably most likely watch it again. As I say, I don't really like Scarlett Johansson as an actress but she did surprise me in this film.

Have you seen it? Did you like it?
Please leave any thoughts you have in the comments below.

Thankyou for reading.
Laura.