LUCY (Luc Besson, 2014)

Guaranteed summer fun from Luc Besson. Tight like an overwound watch at the beginning, the second half gets weighed down by the overuse of Matrix-style effects and conceits, and the seriously provocative ideas the director presents at the beginning de-evolve into the sort of pseudo-philosophical platitudes that seemed profound when you were 15 and getting high for the first time.

This is still the hands-down, go-to summer movie for me, it’s just not a classic on the level of ‘Leon: the Professional‘ or ‘le Femme Nikita‘. Like George Clooney with ‘the Monuments Men‘, Mr. Beeson suffers the side-effect of being both the writer and director of this project. His ideas on time and civilization and the purpose of life being the transmission of knowledge are well-presented, in a large part by clever re-use of ‘Baraka‘ footage during a lecture by the noted brain scientist Morgan Freeman plays, but by the close of the film, his well of fresh ideas has run dry, and we’re left with cosmic semi-gibberish, borrowing a little too freely from ‘2001‘ and ‘the Matrix‘.

In spite of these criticisms, it is impossible not to enjoy Scarlett J. when she’s on her game (and she is) and has a gun in her hand, and kinda foolish to expect anything significant from Luc Beeson ever again (although I did, I did). In fact, her phone call to her mom at the inception of her metamorphosis is touching and a damn sight better than Natalie Portman’s in ‘the Black Swan‘ (which undoubtedly was one of the scenes that made her Oscar-worthy); however, in this shining moment, and symptomatic of the major failing of this enterprise, Scarlett utters what is probably the worst line of dialogue I’ve heard all year (“I remember the taste of your milk in my mouth”).

Add my voice idol, Morgan Freeman, and the first English-language film for the original ‘Oldboy‘, Min Chik-soi (although, like Song Kang-ho in ‘Snowpiercer‘ he’s in great enough demand that he doesn’t actually have to parlez Anglais) and I’m all in. Mr. Freeman’s dialogue with Miss Johannsson over his hotel room TV is also another scene full of emotion, but most of the time he’s just there to fill this weak characterization with gravitas. Mr. Choi has plenty of dialogue, but it’s all in Korean and none of it is subtitled (an interesting choice by Beeson, Choi still conveys, although we are in the dark most of the time, much like Lucy).

As a side note, I won’t say Min Chik-soi was wasted in his role as bad guy. He was as good a choice for the part as could be made and I’m glad to see my favorite Korean actors and actresses gradually crossing over. But it’s basically a shit role in a fluffy summer film and not representative of his range. Considered possibly S. Korea’s premiere actor, the man certainly shines as a psycho in this one.

Much better than a ‘Men in Black’ sequel, but definitely weaker than his best work, Luc Beeson’s ‘Lucy‘ (and, had the character  been male would he have been named Luc?) is enjoyable if approached with the right attitude: a light and disposable summer film with delusions of grandeur. The director still seems to be stumbling down the stony path, with this film misfiring as often as it catches fire. Here’s hoping he uses 20% of his brain power on his next screenplay.

[originally published 7-26-14]