I watched Lucy (2014). 6/10. D-. Bad, but I was never mad at it. I was mostly just kind of... passively absorbing it, vaguely bemused, fascinated by how little sense it made.
(If you're following me for my Godzilla Plus reviews, I haven't stopped that. I try to watch something on the treadmill every day, but I had a busy day today and didn't have the mental energy left over for something with subtitles, so I decided to just watch a short movie I wasn't attached to and figured (correctly) would be bad. I'll be back to Godzilla Plus tomorrow with Heisei Gamera 2.)
Once she lucied (25 minutes into an 82 minute movie), I was baffled and fascinated. There's a fairly dull opening with the Korean equivalent of the Triads (for some reason, this movie centers on the Korean mob while taking place in Taiwan. ???), and then some baby growth hormone the triads stuffed in her stomach turns her into Dr. Manhattan.
This movie is kind of like if you mixed Limitless and Warren Ellis' Supergod, with much worse writing than either of those products. The '10% of your brain' stuff is dumb - if this movie was just 'we accidentally turned this lady into Dr. Manhattan' it would be a lot less stupid.
-Scarlett Johansson does not convincingly play Lucy the inchoate goddess in this - her performance in this reminds me of Will Smith in After Earth. She's trying to do this aloof, above it all thing but it just comes across as stilted and lifeless.
-Morgan Freeman is in this, sleepwalking through the role effortlessly, and plays a scientist whose theories are so laughable that he must be at this French university (that doesn't speak French - all the students and professors speak English with a French accent) as the court jester. But, hey, I guess his theories were right so why am I poking fun.
I will say - I really liked this specific moment where Lucy's powers are revealed through her conversation with Freeman's character. Like, you know what, her suddenly appearing on his TV screen because she keeps spontaneously developing superpowers until she turns into God - it's a good moment - it reminds me of some bits in Pluribus where the Hive communicates with Carol Sturka - I like stuff where superhumans are unintentionally alien and offputting.
-I kind of like how myopic she instantly became upon her apotheosis, like the reason I bring up Dr. Manhattan is because she's full 'a dead body and a live body have the same number of particles' in this. She kills so many innocent people in this, it's hysterical.
There's no gradual change, no buildup, she's just instantly disregarding all other forms of life which… I can kind of see working in a smarter movie?
The decisions she makes in this are wild. I was constantly taken aback, like 'wait why the fuck did she do that?' You'll notice I'm not really talking about the specific actions she takes in this, because they very rarely made sense to me.
It's like she has this single-minded tunnel vision for whichever specific goal is in question. Her mind just doesn't process second-order consequences, and she just sets out to achieve whatever goal is in mind regardless of how else it might harm her. She's like a glitchy superintelligence.
Don't watch this movie - but it's got a few good moments where Lucy does look cool and/or scary, and it's kind of fun to watch if you go into it with the mindset of 'how can I rationalize this batshit nonsense.'
