Jump to content

Lucy (2014 film): Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 25: Line 25:
==Plot==
==Plot==
{{expand section|date=July 2014}}
{{expand section|date=July 2014}}
In a world run by [[the mob]], [[street gang]]s, drug addicts, and corrupt cops, Lucy ([[Scarlett Johansson]]) is a woman living in [[Taipei]], [[Taiwan]] who is forced to work as a [[drug mule]] for the mob. Lucy is tricked into delivering a locked case by a young man who works for the Korean Mob. After begging for her life the young girl is offered a job. She then finds herself waking up with an incision on her abdomen and learns a drug has been implanted in her body, as well as three other people. It inadvertently leaks into her system, which allows her to use more than the [[Ten percent of brain myth|normal 10%]] of her brain's capacity, thus changing her into a [[superhuman]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/scarlett-johansson-will-take-drugs-and-kick-some-ass-in-luc-bessons-lucy&order=asc |title=Scarlett Johansson will take drugs and kick some ass in Luc Besson's Lucy |work=JoBlo |first=Jesse |last=Giroux |date=26 April 2013 |accessdate=24 July 2014}}</ref> As a result, she can absorb information instantaneously, is able to [[Psychokinesis|move objects with her mind]], and can choose not to feel pain or other discomforts, in addition to other abilities. With only a short amount of time to find the men responsible she contacts a well known Doctor whose research may be the key to saving her.
In a world run by [[the mob]], [[street gang]]s, drug addicts, and corrupt cops, Lucy ([[Scarlett Johansson]]) is a woman living in [[Taipei]], [[Taiwan]] who is forced to work as a [[drug mule]] for the mob. Lucy is tricked into delivering a locked case by a young man who works for the Korean Mob. After begging for her life the young girl is offered a job. She then finds herself waking up with an incision on her abdomen and learns a drug has been implanted in her body, as well as three other people. It inadvertently leaks into her system, which allows her to use more than the [[Ten percent of brain myth|normal 10%]] of her brain's capacity, thus changing her into a [[superhuman]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/scarlett-johansson-will-take-drugs-and-kick-some-ass-in-luc-bessons-lucy&order=asc |title=Scarlett Johansson will take drugs and kick some ass in Luc Besson's Lucy |work=JoBlo |first=Jesse |last=Giroux |date=26 April 2013 |accessdate=24 July 2014}}</ref> As a result, she can absorb information instantaneously, is able to [[Psychokinesis|move objects with her mind]], and can choose not to feel pain or other discomforts, in addition to other abilities. With her abilities growing, Lucy only has a short amount of time left to find the men responsible for her new found powers and contacts a well known scientist and doctor whose research may be the key to saving her.


Before Lucy can speak with the doctor she flies to Paris and contacts a local policeman to help her find the other three packets of the drug. Her powers growing she is able to disable an entire police-force followed by the men who made her a mule. Lucy recovers the drug and must hurry to meet the doctor, with whom she agrees to share everything once each cell in her body is controlled. She then creates a supercomputer filled with all the knowledge before vanishing and becoming everything.
Before Lucy can speak with the doctor, she flies to Paris and contacts a local policeman to help her find the remaining three packets of the drug. Her powers continue to grow, leaving her able to disable an entire police-force followed by the men who made her a drug mule. Lucy recovers the drug and must hurry to meet the doctor, with whom she agrees to share everything she now knows once each cell in her body is controlled. She then creates a supercomputer filled with all the knowledge before vanishing and becoming "everything".


==Cast==
==Cast==

Revision as of 05:35, 26 July 2014

Lucy
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLuc Besson
Written byLuc Besson
Produced byVirginie Silla
StarringScarlett Johansson
Morgan Freeman
Amr Waked
Choi Min-sik
CinematographyThierry Arbogast
Edited byLuc Besson
Music byÉric Serra
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release dates
  • 25 July 2014 (2014-07-25) (United States)[1]
  • 6 August 2014 (2014-08-06) (France)[2]
Running time
89 minutes[3]
CountriesFrance
United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40 million[4]

Lucy is a 2014 French-American action film directed, written and edited by Luc Besson, and produced by Besson and Europacorp. It was released on July 25, 2014.[2] The film was shot in Taipei, Taiwan, Paris, France and New York City, USA. It stars Scarlett Johansson as the title character,[5] along with Morgan Freeman playing Professor Norman.[6][7]

Plot

In a world run by the mob, street gangs, drug addicts, and corrupt cops, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is a woman living in Taipei, Taiwan who is forced to work as a drug mule for the mob. Lucy is tricked into delivering a locked case by a young man who works for the Korean Mob. After begging for her life the young girl is offered a job. She then finds herself waking up with an incision on her abdomen and learns a drug has been implanted in her body, as well as three other people. It inadvertently leaks into her system, which allows her to use more than the normal 10% of her brain's capacity, thus changing her into a superhuman.[8] As a result, she can absorb information instantaneously, is able to move objects with her mind, and can choose not to feel pain or other discomforts, in addition to other abilities. With her abilities growing, Lucy only has a short amount of time left to find the men responsible for her new found powers and contacts a well known scientist and doctor whose research may be the key to saving her.

Before Lucy can speak with the doctor, she flies to Paris and contacts a local policeman to help her find the remaining three packets of the drug. Her powers continue to grow, leaving her able to disable an entire police-force followed by the men who made her a drug mule. Lucy recovers the drug and must hurry to meet the doctor, with whom she agrees to share everything she now knows once each cell in her body is controlled. She then creates a supercomputer filled with all the knowledge before vanishing and becoming "everything".

Cast

Production

Filming started in September 2013 at the Cité du Cinéma, a new megastudio located on the outskirts of Paris.[14] According to EuropaCorp CEO Christophe Lambert, this film had the highest budget in the company's history. He also stated that Luc Besson had never put so many special effects into a movie.[6] On 5 September 2013, scenes were shot at the cliffs of Étretat in northern France.[15]

Filming in Taipei, Taiwan, began on October 21, 2013 and lasted for 11 days.[16][17] One of the locations filmed at was Taipei 101, one of the world's tallest skyscrapers.[12][18] Select footage was filmed with IMAX cameras.[19]

On October 23, The Hollywood Reporter stated that Besson had become enraged by all the media attention the shoot was getting that day.[12] Rumors circulated that Besson was so frustrated with the constant disruptions that he considered leaving Taipei to film elsewhere. Meeting reporters in Taipei a day after he finished shooting the Taiwan part of the film, Besson blasted the media. "We don't want pictures with new dresses of Scarlett," he said. "Sometime [sic] I lost a bit of my concentration because I'm bothered by that." Because of constant paparazzi intrusions he said that "shooting at night time was a nightmare". Besson singled out two unnamed agencies from Hong Kong for special condemnation. News reports emerged that he wanted to leave Taiwan early to register his disapproval of their actions, but Besson labelled these as incorrect.[20]

Release

On April 2, 2014, the first trailer for Lucy was released.[21] A behind the scenes preview of the film was released on July 10.[22] On July 25, 2014, the film opened at 3,172 theaters in the United States.[23]

Critical response

Critical reception to Lucy has been described as mixed and polarizing, with additional commentary focusing on surprise that it has tracked behind Hercules (which opened on the same day) in terms of critical appeal.[24][25] On Rotten Tomatoes, Lucy holds a score of 60 percent, based on 112 reviews, with a rating average of 6 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Enthusiastically silly, Lucy tries to power through its logical gaps with cheesy thrills and Scarlett Johansson's charm – and partly succeeds."[26] On Metacritic, the film has a rating score of 60 out of 100, based on 39 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews."[27]

Justin Chang of Variety called Lucy "a slickly engineered showcase for a kickass heroine whom we instinctively, unhesitatingly root for" and an enjoyable, "agreeably goofy, high-concept" speculative narrative devoid of self-importance because "it pays deft, knowing homage to any number of Hollywood sci-fi head-trip classics, embedding its ideas in a dense labyrinth of cinematic references that somehow end up feeling sly rather than shopworn."[28] Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian called the film "mindless and mixed up, but propulsive and fun" and added that "Scarlett Johansson shines in this pseudo-intellectual action flick that represents Luc Besson's finest work" since the film The Fifth Element; he gave Lucy 3/5 stars,[29] while IGN's Jim Vejvoda rated the film a 7.2 and said "this movie is all about Johansson, who's in almost every scene. She ably plays the title character as she transforms from average person to omnipotent entity" and "ultimately, more of Lucy works than doesn't. It's a fun movie even if its 'science' more than strains suspension of disbelief. It's a credit to Besson's style and Johansson's performance that Lucy isn't a train wreck."[30] The San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle said, "You can scoff at Besson's philosophies and hypotheses, but to do that would miss what's in front of you. Lucy is an impeccably realized vision of Besson's view of things."[31]

By contrast, John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter stated that "plenty of films and novels have envisioned what would happen if we gained conscious control over our entire brain," but that "it's hard to recall one whose ideas were more laughable than this one." He stated that the audience may "roll with the film" as Lucy does things beyond human capability, but that the film does not justify "Lucy's increasingly godlike abilities, which soon include time travel and levitation. Every now and then, a nugget of real philosophy is dropped into the screenplay, but it's surrounded by so much blather that even a generous viewer has trouble using it to justify what Lucy experiences."[32] Writing for LA Weekly, Amy Nicholson stated that Besson "must think the audience is operating with even fewer synapses [than the capacity of ten percent]. Here, his style is slick but hand-holdingly literal" and "as the newly bionic Lucy seeks vengeance, Besson even tries to convince us she's a strong female character, which to the majority of male action directors simply means a sexy, silent badass. The real females in the audience may wonder why a genius would limp across a multi-continental gunfight in five-inch Louboutins."[33]

Among the film's main criticisms are the ten percent of brain myth and Lucy's invincibility,[28][32][34][35] as well as use of animal imagery to convey "obvious points."[24] Ralph Blackburn of Belfast Telegraph called the notion of only using ten percent of the brain an "often-quoted idea" that "has obvious Hollywood potential," but, according to leading neuroscientists, is "nothing more than an urban myth." He cited neuropsychology professor Barbara Sahakian, quoting that "it's impossible to work out how much of our brain we are using quantitatively. However, it is definitely much more than 10 per cent."[34] Chang stated that because Besson "seems more interested in engaging, playfully yet seriously, with the various biological, philosophical and metaphysical riddles that [the film] raises," the story is lacking as an action film and is not "much of a thriller – it's virtually an anti-thriller, devoid of suspense or any real sense of danger due to the fact that its heroine is more or less invincible," and that "at times it's hard to shake the sense that a smarter, more unbridled picture might have found a way to slip the bonds of genre altogether."[28] Like Chang, DeFore felt that one of the flaws with the film is Lucy's invincibility because it "nullifies much of the drama to come."[32] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune said that the first twenty minutes of the film are good, but that by half an hour of runtime, the audience will realize that Lucy has no limits, which makes the film dull after a while with a "limited payoff".[36] The Boston Globe's Ty Burr, on the other hand, stated of the criticisms: "who comes to a Besson movie seeking logic? Lucy stays true to its own invented physics."[37]This movie is horrible.

Lucy has been compared to various films; common examples include Akira,[38][39] 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Matrix, The Tree of Life, Transcendence, and especially Limitless.[28][32][34][35] Chang said, "Lucy's gradual rise to omniscience and omnipotence recalls Neo's own such journey in The Matrix, while her many black-suited Korean opponents suggest another army of Agent Smiths...And in those moments when Lucy uploads herself, Big Brother-style, to every computer and TV screen in the vicinity."[28] Hoffman said, "The end of the movie goes completely off the rails, but in a way that is charming in its stupidity. It's like 2001: A Space Odyssey for those with short attention spans, and those people need to have their minds blown, too, I suppose."[29] Matt Prigge of Metro New York, while calling the film "stupid, smart and awesome," stated that it "smartly goes in a wildly different direction than the amusingly amoral Limitless, in which Bradley Cooper's character abused a similar drug, but used it to gain success, money and power. He was selfish. Lucy is selfless. At first she has super-clarity. Then she has super-brain power." Prigge added that "Lucy is Limitless, it's Limitless with more than a dash of The Tree of Life, and even a bit" of the film Under the Skin, which also stars Johansson.[35] Burr commented that "where a fully juiced cerebellum just made Cooper's character really, really capable, Lucy undergoes a metaphysical makeover that, by the film's midpoint, has started to rearrange time, space, and her body."[37]

See also

References

  1. ^ Lee, Hsin-Yin (4 April 2014). "French director's new movie helps promote Taipei". Focus Taiwan. Central News Agency. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
  2. ^ a b Kroll, Justin (23 May 2014). "Universal Moves Up Scarlett Johansson's 'Lucy' to July 25". Variety. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  3. ^ "Lucy". AMC Theatres. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  4. ^ "Lucy". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  5. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (25 April 2013). "Scarlett Johansson to Star in Luc Besson's Latest Action Movie (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  6. ^ a b Connelly, Brendon (2 July 2013). "Luc Besson's Sci-Fi Superheroine Movie Lucy Will Spend EuropaCorp's Biggest Budget To Date". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  7. ^ Sang-joon, TAE (5 September 2013). "CHOI Min-sik Will Star in Luc Besson's LUCY". Korean Film News. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  8. ^ Giroux, Jesse (26 April 2013). "Scarlett Johansson will take drugs and kick some ass in Luc Besson's Lucy". JoBlo. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  9. ^ Park, Si-soo (6 April 2014). "Korean stars grace Hollywood movies". The Korea Times. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  10. ^ "Amr Waked done filming Luc Besson's 'Lucy' opposite Scarlett Johansson". Ahram Online. 26 December 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Li, Kevin (22 April 2014). "Scarlett Johansson 'Lucy' 2014 Movie Cast & US, UK Release Dates: French Director Luch Besson Worked With Natalie Portman, Milla Jovovich, Bruce Willis". Latin Post. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  12. ^ a b c Brzeski, Patrick (23 October 2013). "Scarlett Johansson Begins Taiwan Shoot for Luc Besson's 'Lucy,' Causes Media Circus". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  13. ^ Altatis, Conviron (10 June 2014). "'America's Next Top Model' Alum Analeigh Tipton to Star in 'Manhattan Love Story". Fashion Times. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  14. ^ Keslassy, Elsa (16 July 2013). "Morgan Freeman Set to Topline in 'Lucy'". Variety. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  15. ^ "Luc Besson tourne discrètement sa superproduction à Étretat". 76actu (in French). 19 September 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "Scarlett Johansson spotted shooting film in Taipei". Focus Taiwan. Central News Agency. 21 October 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  17. ^ "Scarlett Johansson filming for 'Lucy'". Taipei Times. 22 October 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  18. ^ "Taipei 101 to be featured in new Luc Besson movie". Focus Taiwan. Central News Agency. 19 October 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  19. ^ "Universal Pictures and Europacorp's "Lucy" Races into International IMAX® Theaters Starting August 8". PRN Newswire. IMAX Corporation. 8 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  20. ^ "Luc Besson Slams 'Nightmare' Paparazzi That Plagued Scarlett Johansson". MovieFone. 3 November 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  21. ^ "Scarlett Johansson Goes Superhuman in 'Lucy' Trailer (VIDEO)". Variety. 2 April 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  22. ^ Cheng, Sabine; Kao, Evelyn (10 July 2014). "Luc Besson explains why he chose Taipei to film 'Lucy'". Focus Taiwan. Central News Agency. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  23. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/counts/chart/?yr=2014&wk=30&p=.htm
  24. ^ a b Sims, David (25 July 2014). "Is 'Lucy' Being Criticized as Dumb Because It's About Being Smart?". thewire.com. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  25. ^ Beifuss, John (25 July 2014). "Movie Review: ScarJo is a SuperBeing in action thriller 'Lucy'". Memphis Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  26. ^ "Lucy". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  27. ^ "Lucy". Metacritic. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  28. ^ a b c d e Chang, Justin (23 July 2014). "Film Review: 'Lucy'". Variety. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  29. ^ a b Hoffman, Jordan (23 July 2014). "Lucy: mindless and mixed up, but propulsive and fun – first look review". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  30. ^ Vejvoda, Jim (23 July 2014). "Lucy Review". IGN. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  31. ^ LaSalle, Mick (24 July 2014). "'Lucy' review: Straight-up action with serious brains". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  32. ^ a b c d DeFore, John (23 July 2014). "'Lucy': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  33. ^ Nicholson, Amy (24 July 2014). "Lucy". LA Weekly. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  34. ^ a b c Blackburn, Ralph (20 July 2014). "Lucy, Limitless, Transcendence - Why the 'underused brain' is a film-makers' myth". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  35. ^ a b c Prigge, Matt (23 July 2014). "Review: 'Lucy,' with Scarlett Johansson, is stupid, smart and awesome". Metro New York. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  36. ^ Phillips, Michael (24 July 2014). "Johannson's limitless Lucy starts well but..." Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  37. ^ a b Burr, Ty (24 July 2014). "In 'Lucy,' a heroine's brain fires on all cylinders". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  38. ^ Seitz, Matt Zoller (25 July 2014). "Lucy". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  39. ^ Toro, Gabe (23 July 2014). "Review: Luc Besson's 'Lucy' Starring Scarlet Johansson And Morgan Freeman". Indiewire. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Lucy (2014 film).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Lucy_(2014_film)&oldid=618506817"