ASMSG Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Emagazine August 2014 | Page 13

SFP Indie Issue 3

L UC Y :
Asking the
Wrong
Q ue s t i o n
Stephen Ramirez

I saw the much-anticipated ‘Lucy’ last weekend
and, before going into my review, I’d like to make
a few preliminary comments. First, I am a huge
fan of Luc Besson. Ever since ‘La Femme Nikita,’
I was convinced this guy could do no wrong.
Second, I am in love with Scarlett Johansson—
don’t tell my wife. Third, I’m very aware that no
matter what I say here, this movie will make a ton
of money. So that said, what’s my take?
I was disappointed.

Originally Posted Here:Lucy - Asking the Wrong
Questions

SPOILER ALERT!
THIS WAS TWO MOVIES
Apparently, ‘Lucy’ couldn’t decide what it
wanted to be. On the one hand, it is a
smart, funny, bloody sci-fi thriller that
doesn’t skimp on the action. On the other,
it’s an vfx-laden treatise on the history of
man and his ability to utilize the untapped
potential of his brain. Judging by the
official trailer, I was promised the former.
And I was getting it in all its Luc Besson
glory until Lucy finally meets Morgan
Freeman’s Professor Norman in Paris.
There was an upside to the mindy, spacey
stuff that takes us from man’s beginnings
with the original Lucy to the wonders of

the universe. I enjoyed the visual effects—
especially when Lucy stops Time with a
wave of her hand. Sure, that’s cool. And
the movie came in at ninety minutes,
which meant we weren’t saddled with a
slow-moving second act. But when the
screenwriter stops caring that Lucy is on
the lam and an evil Korean guy is after
her, and opts instead to focus on her
morphing into a frickin’ computer made
of giant Nutella-like tendrils, that’s when
you lose me.
EVERY HERO NEEDS AN ARC
This is a basic tenet of screenwriting. As
we’ve learned over the years, it’s the
Hero’s Journey, people. The hero—or the
protagonist—reluctantly sets off on a
journey where a bunch of stuff happens.

Whether it’s good or bad stuff doesn’t
really matter. In the end it’s life changing.
And there’s always a final battle, which the
hero must win. Then he returns home
changed and tells the others what he
learned. The model may be old, going all
the way back to Gilgamesh, but it works
.
So what happened to Lucy? Well, she
didn’t come back! Instead of an arc, we
got a trajectory. She never gets to have the
final battle with Mr. Jang—that’s left to
the battle-weary French cop Pierre Del
Rio. Once Lucy’s brain reaches a hundred
percent utilization, she trips off
somewhere beyond Time and Space,
probably meeting up with an alternate
universe version of herself, which is the
OS from ‘Her.’ Seriously? What am I

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