Luc Besson‘s "Lucy" opened this weekend, and if there was any doubt that audiences want to see Scarlett Johansson kick ass, those were put to rest. The movie outmuscled the Dwayne Johnson-starring "Hercules" for the top spot, and even managed to score better-than-expected reviews (including ours). Indeed, the critical community hasn’t been this kind to a Besson film in years, and perhaps it has to do with the overall ambition of the film.
Over the weekend, the filmmaker’s Statement Of Intent—presumably from press notes or other materials from the film—started being tossed around online, and it draws some quick parallels for those looking to quickly understand his action thriller. He describes the shifting tones and narrative of the movie as going from "Leon The Professional" to "Inception" to "2001: A Space Odyssey." And while I haven’t caught up with "Lucy" yet (I will, if only because it has the great "Borgen" and "A Hijacking" star Pilou Asbaek in a small role) most reviews do say the final third of the movie is totally bonkers. Even our own critic called it "complete Looney Tunes, a whirling fantasia of effects and images that begins to bend the fabric of space and time." On the level of Kubrick? Probably not…
But still, what do you think? Is Besson shooting for the moon here, or is on to something with these comparisons? Hit us up in the comments section.
La note d’intention de Luc Besson pour #Lucy pic.twitter.com/YGrc12l2lN
— Filmosphere (@FilmosphereCom) July 26, 2014
HERE BE SPOILERS! Don't read if you haven't seen the movie!)
Besson was referencing 2001:A Space Odyssey from the get-go. I think this is his remake, and I think he reclaimed humanity's destiny from the mysterious 'aliens' of 2001 by having Lucy herself, in her fully-realized state, enact a time loop to go back and pass on 'information' (at a cellular level?) to hominid Lucy that initiated the development of her line into homo sapiens, and thus into herself, who eventually reached her hyper-realized state via the drug overdose and went back to pass on information to hominid Lucy…yeah, I think you can see where I'm going with this.
Actually, Besson keeps telling us this throughout the whole movie. At the beginning, when the boyfriend tells Lucy he visited her at the museum, he was referring to the remains of the Australopithecine hominid named 'Lucy' by her discoverers that were on display there. Then we saw a little vignette of hominid-Lucy playing around in a pond, starting as if she senses a predator, then eventually going back about her business. At the end of the movie, we see the same scene again, only this time, hominid-Lucy is face-t0-face with hyper-realized-Lucy. She performs the same behaviour she did in the original scene, only this time, we see what she is responding to when she starts. It's hyper-realized Lucy, come thru time to pass on the 'information' that will allow her line to develop into homo sapiens. See? We didn't need no stinkin' aliens – WE did this!
Anyway, I love what Besson gives us with this film, lots to think about, and no down time with waltzing space stations like in 2001 and an endless space voyage (although there was that homicidal computer…). Instead we get Korean drug lords shooting it out with, well, everybody, basically, and wacky car chases with vehicles performing maneuvers that, I suppose, COULD have been set to classical music (and BTW, did I catch a fleeting reference in there to the car accident that killed Diana, or am I reading too much into a wacky car chase?)
This movie is visually spectacular. Even if I didn't like the story line(pseudo-science "statements" are totally ridiculous), the movie was entertaining. For Besson to compare Lucy to 2001 IS pretentious. Story is a bit borrowed from Altered State. Worth seeing even if for the visual aspect only.
if Mila starred in it , the acting would not be as good and therefore the ability for the audience to enter Lucy's world would not be possible… and then yes it would be a dumb ass movie only meant to show off Mila's sexy outfit. The movie's success is very much dependent on Lucy's
(Scarlett's) ability to act , the success of the action scenes and the fact that the fantasy story is exploring actual theories about quantum physics ….. which makes it more realistic than Spiderman
I loved it .
The only reason why critics were kind to this film is the fact that you now decided that everything Scarlett doing is a masterpiece. If Milla Jovovich were starring this picture you wouldn't even piss on it.