Lucy is a deliriously unhinged future cult-classic, a joyously overstuffed treatise on the Meaning Of Life scrawled in Comic Sans and rendered in a vivid mélange of gunfights, car chases and stock footage. Its frankly ridiculous concept – Local Woman Uses More Than 10% Of Her Brain – could have easily produced an enjoyably daft piece of sci-fi action (think: Limitless meets Salt), but instead writer/director Luc Besson sets out to encompass the entirety of reality in a piece of existential, transcendental absurdity.
Within the confines of a mere ninety minutes, Besson opens Lucy with a single cell dividing, ends the film with a portal to the infinity of space and fills the gap in between with a ridiculously ambitious sweep across the entirety of the universe. It should come as no surprise that there isn’t necessarily room for character, stakes or anything especially coherent in this dense, glorious mess.
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Absolutely great review David. You nailed the major issue i had with this film here: “Our protagonist isn’t given a substantial back story and she’s so powerful that there’s no real stakes.” Lucy to me just became a boring slideshow of what happens next when she ‘unlocks’ that much more of her brain. Besson must have had a smirk on his face the entire time while filming this. 🙂
Totally! That didn’t bother me – I was impressed enough with Besson’s audacity to not need stakes – but I can completely understand why that might turn people off the film!
I’m keen to see this now. Sounds completely outlandish.
Yeah, very much so. It’s a divisive film, but I think it’s worth finding out which side of the divide you stand on!
You have such a wonderful turn of phrase! Great review.
Thanks Laura!
Yo: you fit more into one sentence than I can write in one paragraph – most excellent! Keep it up. Solid review.
Thanks – I’ll choose to take that as a compliment rather than a criticism of my overlong sentences, haha! Have you watched the film?
Have not! Need to… I’m hoping to see Calvary next, which is released where I am next weekend.
That film is so great! Hope you like it
Nonsensical and silly but still intriguing, huh? Interesting.
I already wanted to see it. Now I want to even more.
Definitely check it out! It seems to be 50/50 whether you’ll love it or hate it…
Pretty close to that percentage on Rotten Tomatoes, too. I think it’s at 63% approval.
Lucy could be a camp classic. I loved the film, but on a ridiculously hilarious level.
Yeah, I am looking forward to oblivious teenagers stumbling onto the film in a couple decades time. It’s one of those “how did this get made?” sorta things, in the best of ways.
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