"LUCY" is more of an intellectual film discussed as an action film

Rating: 6/10 (17 August 2014)

Back in late 80's and early 90's Luc Besson burst on to the world cinema scene as one of the few directors who were able to combine the depth of typical intellectual french cinema and action sequences in almost poetic way. His early movies "The Big Blue", "Nikita" and "Léon: The Professional" to just a name a few, were great testament to his unique way of story telling as well as directing style. The characters he creates, being also a writer of the scripts for most of his movies are usually loners who care about themselves until something or someone changes their life irreversibly.
Smart Hollywood producer once said that directors are like pitchforks for a while they are in tune with what is hip and top quality, but after while they loose their tune and they never come back to the time of an excellence from their youth. Well that is one man's opinion, because everything is cyclical so something that was in fashion many decades ago eventually will comeback in to fashion again. We often use the technology that helps us to achieve the final product that is theoretically improved. In reality we recycle old ideas and it is very hard to not give them our own individual twist. Mostly for directors it is almost impossible to top the success of the movie that brought them fame and recondition. You aways will be judged more harshly now then before, because more is expected of you. But to be a great director you need a life experience and that comes with time.
"LUCY" is one of those movies that you will either like it or hate it depending on if you like Besson's narrative style.
"A woman (titled LUCY played by excellent Scarlett Johansson) is accidentally caught in a dark deal, turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic."
In this straight forward premise Besson is hiding deeper meaning to what otherwise would have been predictable and unoriginal story. There is a lot of intellectual information delivered in a coded way by using so called cut aways and fast montage that illustrates the parallel between the story of the main character and the evolution of life on our planet as we know it. This at first might be quite confusing for the viewer but eventually you understand subconsciously what Besson is trying to tell us. By choosing symbolically the name LUCY he points us in the direction of understanding that Scarlett Johansson's character is a first human being to ACCESS 100 % of the brain capability paralleled by a sorry of the first 3.2-million-year-old ape "Lucy" who was the first Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered by Donald Johanson and Tom Gray on the November 24, 1974 on the coast of South Africa.
Those of you who expect an all out action film might leave the cinema disappointed. "LUCY" is more of an intellectual film discussed as an action film, if that makes sense. Scarlett Johansson is excellent specially in the first act of the film as a "stupid blond" that gets mixed up with the wrong kind of people that take advantage of her innocence. She is super emotional and as an actor does some great technical work with tears coming of one or the other eye which is not easy. The slow transition from victim to the empowered super human being that eventually can control the reality of time and space is done gradually and is symbolically plastered over the screen with the big number of the percentage of how far of the transition she is in. Morgan Freeman as usual, brought his depth and amazing voice to play Professor Norman that Scarlett Johansson's character comes in contact with. The third act might not be as good as the first two which for a big Hollywood movie might be a bit of a letdown but the intellectual message passed on to us is in itself is full of depth on the intellectual level. I do appreciate what Besson was trying to do here even if he didn't quite succeeded, but at least he chose to challenge himself and us intellectually and I will always like the director who puts first strong intellectual narration over visual content.
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