If you have seen Lucy, what did you think of it? *Spoilers*

I loved the movie. It has a lot of sci-fi, a bit of Watchdogs, still it has very interesting ideas and theories to it. Ideas like:

[Looking to the future] "If its habitat is not sufficiently favorable, or nurturing, the cell will choose immortality, in other words, self-sufficiency and self management. On the other hand, if the habitat is favorable, they will choose to reproduce — that way, when they die, they hand essentialinformation and knowledge to the next cell, which hands it down to the next cell, and so on. Thus knowledge and learning are handed down, through time."

And it is enjoyable to watch, yet a bit ludicrous.

I think Choi Min-sik deserves better.

Yeah, internationalization has its pains.

I thought it was a fun watch. The lunacy was a special kind that only Luc Besson can deliver. Although the stakes are kind of lost when your protagonist is omnipotent and all powerful. It was an interesting take on a how a human being deals with becoming a god. Like an alternate take on Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen.

He'll always have New World. One day, Choi, one day you'll be like Rain and star in crappy movies produced by the Wachowski siblings.

I just saw it today. It definitely up there with Master of Disguise and Battlefield Earth as one of the worst movies I've seen.

It was complete nonsense and not in a good way; it takes the whole power fantasy trope way too far and lacks any kind of subtlety or nuance. Not a single part of the movie makes any sense. She has no weaknesses and she can do absolutely anything at all, meaning there is no narrative tension: Oh no! She's stuck in this perilous situation, how will she survive? Oh, never mind, she just waved her hands and suddenly everything is magically okay now...

Basically, replace the phrase "a wizard did it" with "drugs did it".

Er, evolution by process of natural selection/evolution by process of artificial selection isn't "sci-fi". Life has been doing that on this planet for around 3.6 billion years so far.

What is sci-fi though is the antiquated idea of people only using 10% of their brains.

I like how the thread is supposed to have spoilers, yet apparently anything anyone has said so far I saw in the trailers for the film. Is it that shallow of a movie were spoilers are impossible to give?

Saw the trailer until the part about having unlocked 100% of the brain potential, then I promptly dismissed it as beyond bullshit. Reading this thread has confirmed me that i did the right thing by not seeing it.

I don't get why people always call out Battlefield Earth as the worst movie ever made. I mean unless they mean like, Escape from NY is the worst movie ever made - in that campy cheesy way. While on the other hand Master of Disguise is a travesty in every way that should never be watched by anyone. almost as bad as Dinner For Schmucks.

It is shallow.

Here's some spoilers: At the end she makes a magic computer with her mind then travels through time then magically turns into a god...I'm as confused as you are.

I'm not really sure what to say about Battlefield Earth, it's been a while since I saw it, but I distinctly remember that nothing about it was enjoyable.

@beachthunder: I think it's fun in a silly way. I mean Travolta looks ridiculous, it's awesome.

Lucy is kind of the contrary to those movies where science and transcending humanity are to be feared which makes this movie have an interesting twist. As Lucy gets closer to transcending the more wondrous it becomes. As Lucy gets closer to transcending, she actually becomes more saner instead of going for the "I WILL RULE EVERYTHING!"

ps. I also noticed how people say "Its cliche" when they really mean "I don't like it" because it is so unusual I have no idea what is "cliche" about it.

Fun movie but felt silly. Not something I'd actively seek out to watch again in the future.

It's a terrible movie. It treats the viewers like idiots. It's a cool concept that turns into a very cliched story with over the top moments. Becoming a God and a liquid computer is the dumbest things I've seen in a long while.

Such a shame, I was really looking forward to it.

its an enjoyable movie when you relax, lower that one eyebrow, and set your smugness to "off"

I was certainly entertained by it, but it's undoubtedly one of the dumbest fucking movies I've ever seen. It doesn't bother creating its own rules to abide by, nor does it care to even try. It's just complete and utter nonsense. Scarlett Johansson is good in her part, at least. As a huge Besson fan, I have to say that his output over the last few years has been largely lacking. I know he's capable of delivering much better.

Terminator 2? I haven't seen it so I don't know the context. EDIT: Lucy, that is, not Terminator 2. I've seen Terminator 2./EDIT

Bob Chipman said pretty much the same thing on The Escapist and I thought it sounded pretty interesting. I'll probably watch it one of these days.

Is the part where she asks a guy if he speaks English, shoots him, and then asks his buddy the same question as racist as it seemed in trailers?

It wasn't about race, more she just needed soneone who could speak English. She ends up knowing everything 5 minutes later anyway. By everything I mean omniscience.

It's an okay film but I didn't get anything from it other than a decent roll from scarlet.

Btw, when I say a liquid computer I mean a computer with data that spits out a USB stick that has omniscient data on it.

I really wouldn't say it's unusual. It's about unlocking more than 10% of our neural capacity, which is a huge cliche. She get to 100%, becomes a god and gives Morgan Freeman a disk with all the knowledge of the universe.

Still the premise is a bit simplistic, serving the purpose of triggering the story, and quite fictitious:

By absorbing a substance, she is artificially allowed, progressively, to unlock the conscious use of all her brain.

You don't see that in any sciencific textbook.

I thought the movie's idea was about that too, still it really isn't. The real idea of the movie is that she becomes capable of consciously accessing 100% of her brain. Which I can believe we only access consciously 10% of it by will. Much of the complexity is locked away below our grasp of reality.

What is sci-fi is the premise.

I think I will make a blog about Lucy as I see a lot of misunderstanding about the movie.

Naw the "10% of your brain" thing is just a crutch used by the writers. They could have written so that she was exposed to cosmic radiation from the LHC experiment. They just wanted to tell a story about what would happen if someone did transcend humanity.

And evidently the original ending was way wackier than just *poofing*.

@believer258:

I think the "adverse reaction" from the movie is that audiences wanted or were expecting Lucy to insane and mad with power or go on a revenge spree but instead she is fighting to survive and transcend. It would be easier to understand for audiences if it was a straightforward case of "kill her before she rules the world!" but that is not the story at all.

Its definitely not the best movie this summer (go see Guardians and CA: The Winter Soldier) but when people say Lucy is terrible I wonder if they saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

@jeust: We use 100% of our brain all the time. I'm not sure if whether or not "consciously" really matters.

I thought it was pretty crappy. Had potential, but squandered almost all of it. The phone call between Lucy and her mom was a standout as a terrible moment, mainly due to the mother's horrid acting/dialogue.

Never felt like the main character was in any sort of danger, and by the end she is basically God. Had some neat parts, but not something I'd bother seeing again or recommend anyone else go out of their way to see.

Consciously matters. It's like with a computer, a normal user can do a varied number of tasks, but a programmer who knows deeply about computers can do amazing things, because he knows the subtleties of hardware and software, so he can give and make the computer work more closely to his wishes, and even indulge in desires he wouldn't even have known if he didn't have such knowledge about the subject.

And taking into account that while the brain pales in comparison to the storage capacity of a computer, it is much more flexible, intricate and powerful, being capable of using it to his full extent consciously would change completly the being, turning him/her into a god. You just have to look at Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and see that while science is far from explaning the intrincacies of the human brain and mind, such men are revered and serve as inspiration and basis for the understanding of the human being. A person that fully understood himself would change the world and society, being revered as the ultimate genius, a living god.

She as in danger. When you see her desintegrate in the plane, she was doing so because she was unable to maintain her coesion. Lucy also said that she wouldn't last long because of the same thing. So while she was in no danger concerning the mobsters, the dangers she faced where internal, as she could lose control and desintegrate because of all the changes in her that she was having a lot of difficulty to assimilate and rule over.

It was fucking dumb and amazing. Also, I really liked how Lucy was effectively telling the French cop "deal with the gangsters, I'm too important for this trivial nonsense".

"She might die because of her powers" doesn't strike me as interesting, at least not in a fairly shallow action movie. If there's no antagonist that presents any threat, not sure what the point is. Not that I expect her to die halfway through the movie because someone manages to shoot her in the head or whatever, but there was never even really a threat to her aside from her pre-powers introduction.

It's because this is not a fairly shallow action movie. This is a thesis of what would happen if someone was able to access consciously to all of the brain capacities. It is philosophic, spiritual, with a simple action setup, that does little more than provide a background and some fun from the few action scenes it presents.

I ended up expanding upon my ideas of the movie, and made this blog about the movie Lucy:

my blog post

In itself has my answers to some of the doubts presented in the discussion.

Lucy - Became USB

It was just getting awesome with the Tree of Life universe stuff and jellyfish immortal rain, but then it just ended! It took ideas from other things like superhero movies or Akira, but none of its own imagination. There was a cool car chase that made me think Luc Besson should do a Bourne movie. Of course, didn't expect Leon levels of action sequences, but there wasn't much impressive in that aspect aside from the car chase.

Still glad a female-fronted action movie was a box office success.

I was talking about that...quote...I guess? Whatever that "[Looking to the future]" bit is.

And whilst I'm unfamiliar with the term "absorving", I believe I understand the thrust of your meaning. In which case:

There is an actual thing in real life about atoms and ions and molecules and cells and chemicals that absorb things (or get absorbed by) in order to make other things happen. Such as:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_(chemistry)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_(pharmacokinetics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_(electromagnetic_radiation)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adsorption

I feel that Lucy would have been a lot better if it was a more simpler "Lucy gets some superpowers from drugs, then goes after druglord to take revenge" story rather than her becoming god. After The Avengers and Captain America The Winter Soldier I was looking forward to see Scarlett Johansson kick more ass, not her becoming god/USB 4.0.

Not as good as I thought it would be. I was expecting an female action hero with superpowers and not become a prequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Or a Sci-Fi version of Maria Full Of Grace. Maybe something along the lines of La Femme Nikita or the Five Element. The movie is worth a rental at least. If it offers an opportunity for more female leads to become action stars, I'm for it.

The one thing I not sure about is how long is Morgan Freeman's presentation at the beginning of the movie is suppose to be. Compare to the progression in time while Lucy is detained. I swear that must have been the longest and most boring lecture to sit in. It funny when everybody is sitting straight and being attentive.

It's not even an antiquated idea, it's a complete misconception and was originally only used as a metaphor.

The movie spends 1h and a half insulting the viewers intelligence. I'm all for some dumb fun but this was bad. Shouldn't take itself so serious too. Worse movie I've seen since Green Hornet. That movie looks good though compared to Lucy.

Yeah, about that dialogue line it is meant to be scientific, and yes I was meaning absorption. That's for noticing my mistake.

"Looking to the future" means that planning the road ahead, and it serves a context to the quote that follows. Meaning the cell when faced with his own survival, chooses either immortality or reproduction, being able to choose both at different times.

I've never liked the stupid "we only use 10% of our brain what if we could use more" premise (which iirc came from someone misquoting Einstein, who wasn't a neurologist anyway) but the previews made this movie look like it would be really bad and really dumb but potentially fun to watch. So I might see it.

Second best film I've seen this year behind Edge of Tomorrow. Enjoyed every minute of it, but the ending felt rushed. ★★★★

I didnt like it that much. I still can't stomach how using 100% of your brain would turn you into, basically, God. I get that its supposed to be science fiction and I'm all for that, but the idea just seems too out there.

It was a dumb, entertaining movie which is exactly what I expected. Nice to see Dae-su Oh kick some ass again like the good ol' days. Philosophically I very much like the idea that God is transient and/or undefinable (yet very much still a thing), but obviously the movie doesn't earn that. In fact the movie says fuck your suspension of disbelief I'm Luc Besson I can do what I want; which is kind of appealing in and of itself. Rocket Launcher slides + X Men (insert Yipes yell here) is fabulous.

Much like Christopher Walken if Morgan Freeman is narrating absolutely anything in the world, even if it's total batshit insane nonsense, (It's all Hypothesis yo, SCIENCE!) it is wonderful to listen to. Scarlett Johansson may not be God, but Morgan Freeman's voice is definitely on a higher level of existence.

Eat organic is a terrible, terrible line.

Hearing that "humans only use 10% of they're brain" nonsense over and over in the advertisements makes me not want to throw money at it.

I wrote a review of this here that expands a bit on my previous thoughts. I think the movie is worth seeing regardless but the dumber (possibly higher) you are the more you will like it. Which isn't to say a smart person will get nothing out of the film, at worst it's a dumb entertaining action movie, at best it's the most insightful moment of your life (I don't think anyone is actually that stupid though, except maybe Luc Besson). I guess that's why it has been so successful other than star power, it really does hold some appeal for any audience.

I might buy this for a perpetually high/generally stupid friend of mine; he'll fucking love it.

Well... It's the most anime thing I've ever seen in a while.

BTW the director learned that the whole human potential thing was bullshit, but he didn't care and went with it anyways (Saw his Q&A at Wondercon last year).

It's light fluff ideas of what happens when a single human becomes more than human, a god like being, with infinite knowledge and power.

Lucy doesn't care that a guy is chasing her, her singular goal becomes to share this knowledge and even that was her just following a suggestion because everything in the world has just become meaningless to her. The whole ending sequence where you see a bunch of creation of the universe stuff, which has nothing to do with the plot, is the movie portraying how meaningless life at an individual scale is to her. (Or really to us, since our lives don't even amount to dust particles compared to the entire expanding universe).

In any case, I don't think this is your typical hollywood action flick considering how the ending turned out to be. It has that indulgent attitude of some scifi anime that explores ideas about what it means to be human. Whether it be Ghost in the Shell with humanity slowly replacing all it's organics with mechanics, then posing the question, "are we still human or are we machines?", Or Serial Experiments Lain with it's literal digital God born out of human collective consciousness using it's version of the internet. (The cellphone thing where she says she exists everywhere in Lucy is a lot like Lain), etc.

I don't think Lucy goes far enough with exploring the interesting bits though. For the sake of the general movie going audience, a lot of the focus is on the action segments with Lucy showing Matrixy powers and less on what it means to go beyond humanity. Ultimately it's a popcorn flick that pleasantly reminds me of other better scifi films, but falls short on being memorable itself.

I cant stand movies that perpetuate the 100% of your brain myth.