Finally got to see Lucy
SPOILER FREE
Lucy is the type of film which ends up becoming a victim of it's own hype. It's storyline sounds promising and has potential, but it's greatest downfall is being 84 minutes. This is not the proper running time for a movie that wants to be so ambitious with it's plot, and present interesting concepts. This movie should've been 2 to 2.5 hours to properly flesh out the characters and plot angles, and coming from the man who did La Femme Nikita, Leon The Professional, The Fifth Element, The Messenger: Story of Joan of Arc, and Taken, that's really disappointing. Though he's had his share of screw ups recently, cough Taken 2 cough.
Because of Lucy's lack of development towards it's characters and plot, it falls into that category of being pretty damn generic. Lucy deals with a woman who accidentally becomes caught in a dark deal, ends up turning the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic. That is not the type of story that can be properly told and wrapped up with just 84 minutes of screentime. Scarlett Johanssen and Morgan Freeman do the absolute best with what they got to work with. They are to be applauded for this but not all the way. The one thing that works against this movie is it's script. The film is not terrible like a lot of people claim it to be, but logic and elaboration are two major factors missing in the screenplay. One cannot deny that the film has a level of energy to it, and comes off rather silly at times like the first Taken did. With that film, you had fun watching Liam Neeson cleverly outsmart the bad guys, taking them down one by one. You don't get that feeling here with Scarlett Johannsen's character. The characters in this movie feel like cardboard cutouts of typical heroes, sidekicks, and villains that you see in any other bizarre action movie of this magnitude. Luc Besson is a very stylistic director and his trademark style is visible here with cheesy thrills, fast pacing, foreign country setting, and vulnerable turned tough female chick kicking ass. Perhaps he was so focused on getting the style of the movie down directing wise, that he didn't have enough time to polish the script up the way he should. Whatever the problem was, Lucy suffers because of it. It's not a terrible movie in any sense of the word, nor is it great. It's entertaining because of the high level energy and enthusiasm carries, but if you're looking for strong character development and a cohesive plot, you're going to be quite out of luck. Even the ending of the film leaves you scratching your head on some level. Here's hoping that an extended version comes out sometime down the road that can give audiences more elaboration on the plot, and fill the gaps in the plot with more logic. A very crooked thumbs up. If this film was 2 hours long, it probably would've fared much better with moviegoers.
6.5/10
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