Saturday 2 August 2014

Lucy


Science fiction movies are a bit hit and miss. By their nature they test your credulity and your willingness to go along with the premise - or perhaps I should say that my willingness to go along with it - depends on a range of changeable factors.

The more entertaining the movie, the more visually interesting it is, the more that I emphasise with a character, then the more likely it is that I will enjoy the offering.

Scarlett Johansson plays 'Lucy' who finds herself in the clutches of Taiwanese gangsters who forceably implant drugs in her stomach with the intention that these be secretly sent to overseas markets. At the same time that we see Lucy in this plight against her wishes we see Morgan Freeman delivering a learned lecture on the  wonders of the human brain which we wasteful people only use to about 10% of its capacity.

I always find Johansson interesting in movies and Freeman's glorious voice gives such authority to his fictional lecture that you half feel you are in the hands of a true educational experience.

What follows this set up is high speed action, violence and a fictional adventure that blends the two plot points but is mostly ridiculous. But in its own way the movie, with its two likeable leads is entertainingly ridiculous, in part because with a running time of ninety minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome.

A nice filler for those who enjoy their science fiction adventure laced with blood and gore.
★★★

2 comments:

  1. Maybr science fictions films are good but it is not my cup of tea.

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    1. Gosia, I watched some science fiction films from the 1950s on television this week. They were very mild and not at all scary by today's examples.

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