Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Looking Closer

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Looking Closer at Lucy

Looking Closer at Lucy

Last updated on: August 12, 2014 at 2:13 pm by Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer at Lucy 2014-08-12T14:13:15-06:00 Jeffrey Overstreet

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“I have a confession to make,” said a former professor of mine when we sat down to talk over lunch.

He looked genuinely troubled.

“Okay,” I said, a bit anxious, stirring the ice cubes in my tea.

He ran his fingers through his hair until it stood up straight. He glowered down at the shrimp in his stir fry. He sighed and said…

“I went and and saw Lucy.”

I blinked.

“And it was … it was just awful. It was so awful. That movie… it doesn’t have a single idea in its stupid head.”

Well, there’s a review of the new film by Luc Besson for you. But it’s just one review. I haven’t seen Lucy yet — I’ve been out of town at the Glen Workshop for the last couple of weeks. But the clash of opinions about it among critics I respect has been entertaining and intriguing. Some are exasperated by the film’s apparent stupidity. Others, admitting that the film is pretty stupid, are nevertheless reveling in the cinematic energy of it.

David Ehrlich, who reviews movies for The AV Club and The Dissolve, offered some off-the-cuff comments at Letterboxd:

… it packs more raw cinematic energy in 80 minutes than the Marvel universe has in 80 films (there are 80, right?).

boldly silly, yet electrifyingly assured… brilliant and bonkers in equal measure.

Ken Morefield talks about Lucy in a podcast at The Thin Place.

Lucy is a summer popcorn movie, to be sure. But when a movie has this much God symbolism, you can bet The Thin Place is going to ponder what it all is supposed to mean…

At Christianity Today, Alicia Cohn is frustrated by the film:

… Lucy, despite the promise of the trailers, is not a movie about a woman drawn into a sci-fi scenario of superhuman enhancement. It’s a movie about tapping the full potential of humanism through drugs in which writer and director Luc Besson uses Johansson as a stand-in for a characterless stage in human evolution. … [It’s] particularly disappointing because the trailers suggest a journey by the title character toward controlling her own circumstances, while the movie actually portrays a woman who is the puppet of external forces.

Christopher Orr at The Atlantic warns readers about spoilers, but then rants:

… [W]hile Besson has made very, very bad films in the past—most recently, last year’s The Family—this is the first time he has made a film so idiotic that the only way to properly convey its flaws is to enumerate them.

And then he does.

But in a conversation at Arts and Faith, my colleague Christian Hamaker says,

It took about 20-30 minutes for me to realize just how much I was enjoying Lucy. It’s an energetic piece of filmmaking, and the audience laughed several times during the film. I never felt like it was mocking laughter of the what-sort-of-lame-film-is-this-anyway variety, but maybe I misread the audience’s reaction. I know only that my own laughter was caused by the pleasure of seeing well-executed action filmmaking….

…

I enjoyed far too much of Lucy to spend a lot of time discussing what I didn’t care for in it. Wanna hash out the implications of the plot? Go ahead. I’ll be standing in the corner, looking for others who didn’t take the film all that seriously but enjoyed it on other levels.

And Matt Zoller Seitz at RogerEbert.com sticks up for the movie too:

… you’d be hard pressed to identify one idea, scene or element in the picture that is not a cliche.

But the total package feels fresh.

…

“Lucy” is a fun, confident work. It’s fast and tight and playful even when it’s sadistic and violent, which is often. It lasts about 90 minutes and change but feels longer in a good way, because every second is packed tight. It’s full of itself, yet it still keeps winking at you. It wants to be taken seriously, but not so seriously that you don’t laugh at (and with) the sight of Lucy strolling into a gunfight wearing nosebleed heels, or making enemies writhe like marionettes on invisible strings. The movie is alive. It pops.

Previous Post

July 29, 2014

Overstreet's Favorite Films of 2014 — So Far

Next Post

August 12, 2014 Who Among Us Is Thirsty? — A Reflection on the Loss of Robin Williams

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Blog Bloggers on "Through a Screen Darkly" Browser Coming Soon Endorsements Fiction Books Film Forum Film Reviews Inspirations Interviews Journal Kindlings Muse Movie buzz Music Reviews Non-Fiction Books radio Reviewers on "Through a Screen Darkly" The Auralia Thread Through a Screen Darkly Through a Screen Darkly - Bonus Materials Top 10 (or 20 or 100) lists Uncategorized

Select a Month June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 July 2003 May 2003 March 2003 September 1999

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did God make on the fourth day of creation?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Plants Fish and birds Sun, moon, and stars Man