Jaw dropping Lucy unstoppable
Correspondent | Friday September 12, 2014 13:45
Angelina Jolie should consider herself replaced simply because Zoe Saldana and Scarlett Johansson are taking over as the female action figures. They are taking Hollywood by storm with their leading roles, going at it pound for pound.
For several years, Jolie has been the superwoman of the big screen with powerful thrilling performances in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Salt, Wanted and Mr and Mrs Smith. However, a new dawn of female actors, mainly Saldana and Johansson, have now brought their A-game and a new dimension to the fray. Saldana starred in Colombiana, Star Trek Into Darkness as well as the recent smash hit Guardians Of The Galaxy. Meanwhile, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) isn’t taking this battle lying down as she is back to add to her other acrobatic action roles in the box office sensations like Iron Man 2, The Avengers as well as Captain America The Winter Soldier. Johansson plays the title character alongside Morgan Freeman in this Luc Besson written and directed film.
Besson, who is a French native is well renowned for his writing skills as he has written great movie storylines for thrillers The Trasnporter 2 and Taken 2, which starred Jason Statham and Liam Neeson respectively. So it is easy to expect excitement from Lucy.
In this action, sci-fi 90-minute epic the action-packed film has a fresh new storyline and concept, making it unpredictable.
Yours truly alongside other enthusiasts thronged the big screen to bare testimony and buckled up for a whole new adventure.
The film screenplay is marvellous and new to the eye in the sense that it mixes and blends a variety of pre-historic events of biology together with modern technology to create an interesting science fiction dialogue of human nature.
Also worth noting is that there is even a glimpse of the Okavango Delta in some of the pre-historic scenes.
Johansson as mentioned commands her role brilliantly in the female leading role. She makes a statement performance all the time, a few of which standing out for me.
Notably the part when she makes a call whilst the doctor on the other hand carries out a surgery on her.
Her fighting scenes were also well orchestrated to a point where one feels that Lucy is actually unstoppable as she was butt-whooping all that stood in her path and every time doing so with a new strategy. She uses knives, gun-action, super powers, which were totally exhilarating with her ability to have control over anything (turning her hair black in an instant at the airport to disguise).
Morgan freeman also brought his trademark suspense performance, which we know him for from movies like Olympus Has Fallen, Oblivion and The Dark Knight. This spiced things up a bit and increased the steam for the film, lecturing as professor Norman correspondingly gave the audience an explanation as to what’s happening with Lucy’s transformations. The mafia gang or drug lord led by Min-Sik Choi (Mr. Jang) is one of the movie’s other strong points as it gave that vibe of ruthlessness. Mafias always add up that element of action that has aggressive consequences, which is something I applaud Besson for blending well.
Other elemnts that give this film an edge are the locations as well as the special effects. Paris, Taiwan and New York are the places that this film was shot. Different locations enhance the visuals and bring that spark to the whole picture as it becomes more adventurous, which explains the high level of picture quality and energy in Lucy.
One may also take note of the special effects that make the high quality sci-fi and the transformation of Johansson after the blue CPH4 drugs enter her system.
The sound or music was also good, as it corresponded with the action for an interesting atmosphere.
In Lucy, Besson has created a story through which a case of mistaken identity lands a young woman into hot water of drug trafficking. It was supposed to be a simple job. All Lucy had to do was deliver a mysterious briefcase to Mr. Jang.
But immediately Lucy is caught up in a nightmarish whirlwind where she is captured and turned into a drug mule for a new and powerful synthetic drug.
When the bag she is carrying inside of her stomach leaks, Lucy’s body undergoes unimaginable changes that unlock her mind’s full potential a 100 percent. With her newfound powers, Lucy turns into a merciless warrior intent on getting back at her captors. She receives invaluable help from Professor Norman, the leading authority on the human mind, and French police captain Pierre Del Rio.
For a movie that had a small budget of $40 million, Lucy has done superbly well. Though it never reached number one at the American box office with its best rank being number three in its opening week, it has now amassed $121.2 million and stood at the 10th spot last weekend.
Lucy was well received as it opened in Japan with $200 million though it is much less powerful to the US dollar and had an overall sum of $1.9 million from 205 screens worldwide on its premiere week.
In my books I would give it a 7/10 rating because I am still not convinced with the ending. Besson could have done better rather than Lucy ending by compiling herself into a USB flash drive. It was awkward but funny though. Lucy is in its seventh week worldwide and locally is on its second week so do get a glimpse before screen time is over.
UPCOMING WORKS: The evergreen Scarlett Johansson is currently filming another smash blockbuster by Marvel comics, Avengers -The Age Of Ultron, which is billed, for next year.