Analysis on the movie 'Lucy'
Lucy's boyfriend tricks her into delivering a briefcase to a supposed business contact. She is then abducted by thugs who try to use her to her body to transport her drugs abroad. A packet containing the chemical CPh4 is surgically placed inside of her stomach, but the packet leaks and is transported into her system unintentionally, giving her superhuman abilities, including telekinesis and telepathy. Lucy is then in desperate need for help and calls a scientist for help. However her powers spiral out of control leaving the ending outcome anonymous.
The Genre/sub-genres:
The genre of the movie 'Lucy' is seen as a science fiction action thriller. There are many key elements to a scifi movie that lie present in the movie 'Lucy'. One of these key elements are 'futuristic materials'. This is possibly the biggest factor that contributes to this movie being classed as a scifi. The reason that this is, is because in this movie the main character (Lucy) is kidnapped by some Chinese Mafia members that (without her consent or permission) drug her with a chemical known as CPh4. In this movie CPh4 is believed to increase the usage of the humans brain power with the ability to help the brain reach its maximum capacity of 100% (when in reality we only use 10%). This is an element of scifi because this kind of technology isn't present or reachable at our current/present time. Another contributing factor to 'Lucy' being a science fiction based film are the powers that she is able to possess within the movie. In the movie 'Lucy', after the main character is drugged with the chemical CPh4, she slowly starts to develop more and more impracticable features. The powers that she possesses are: the ability to retrieve information telepathically from any type of informative based technology (e.g phones, laptops, computers), the ability to control the mind of anyone/anything, the ability to connect with other beings bodies and see if they're healthy or not and why ; she also possesses the power to slow down time. They key elements to an action thriller that this movie possesses are: the usage of fire arms,fighting scenes, explosions, kidnapping and the usage of bombs. These are key elements to an action thriller that are clearly present in the movie 'Lucy'.
Characters (How they are linked to scifi)
Lucy: Lucy is the main character of the movie. She is linked to science fiction because of the mystical and inexplicable powers that she possesses. These powers are: telepathy, mind control, ability to slow down time, time travel, ability to retrieve information from technological devices and ability to see the well being of a body from a single touch.
Professor Samuel Norman: Professor Samuel Norman is the second most important person in the movie. The reason that Professor Samuel Norman is linked to the scifi genre is because of his insane knowledge and understanding of the human brain. His study and knowledge is what draws the attention of the main character 'Lucy' as she comes trying to seek help. In many scifi movies there tends to always be a intellectual science professor as it can be seen as one of the key elements of a dystopian futuristic scifi movie. Many examples of this are: Spider man, Iron Man, ect.
The setting of the movie and what makes it a sci-fi:
The movie 'Lucy' has a quite urban setting as it is set and based in the busy streets of Taipei (city in Taiwan). Although Lucy may have an urban setting, one of the key aspects of the movie that make it a scifi is it's historic atmosphere that is present at the very end of the movie which is shown to the viewer as 'Lucy' time travels to the past world using one of her special powers.
Themes:
The narrative themes in this movie are: Futuristic technology, mystical powers, utopian world and criminal activity.
The Institution Behind the film:
The Production company:
The companies that helped with the production of this movie were Canal+, Cine+, TF1 group and Europa Corp. Luc Besson was the director of this movie.Luc Besson is a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known for directing and producing thrillers and action films that are visually rich. The Cast:
Scarlet Johansson (Lucy)
Morgan Freeman (Professor Samuel Norman)
Choi Min-SIK (Mr Jang)
Amr Waked (Pierre Del Rio)
Analeigh Tipton (Caroline)
Johan Phillip Asbaek (Ric Hard)
Mason Lee
Loik Brabant (1st Professor)
Date of Release:
August 22nd 2014
Budget and Box office Information:
The budget for this movie was 40 million US dollars and the amount that Lucy made internationally was 100 million dollars.
Critical Reception:
The movie Lucy gained a magnificent 6.4/10 on IMBD, 66% on Rotten Tomatoes and 61% on Metacritic. The criticism on this movie found online is that 'its too unrealistic and has no logic'. This has not won any awards yet.
Target Audience:
The movie 'Lucy' was aimed for both genders male and female. I believe that this is because although this movie may have a lot of action and intemperate scenes, the main character of this movie is a female and carries quite a dominant look all throughout the movie. This could in turn draw the attention of females as well as males. This movie is also aimed at people from ages 12 and upwards as anyone younger wouldn't be able to view such graphic content.
WWW: You may have delivered this late but it's an excellent summer project - worth waiting for! With this level of detail and engagement I definitely think we need to be aiming for at least an A grade in Media - it will then come down to your commitment and organisation to make sure it happens. You clearly know this movie well and I'm particularly impressed with your analysis of how it fits the Science Fiction genre.
ReplyDeleteEBI/LR: A minor point - always check the formatting on your blog because some of the text is initially unreadable due to the white blocking. Also, when you use information found from other websites always credit that website as part of your post (e.g. source: IMDB). Finally, you raise an interesting point regarding target audience and a strong female character - write a comment below this one telling me more about Lucy as a main character. Is she strong and independent or does her character tend to reinforce traditional gender stereotypes?
Lucy (unlike many other female characters in our present movies) has a very unique approach to the movie industry. Females in the media industry are usually portrayed to be weak, helpless and inferior to men in today's society as most of the time movies tendd to have the female characters being rescued by the male. However, the movie 'Lucy' has a different approach towards female characters in this as Lucy (the main character) is shown to be a strong, intelligent and independent woman ; with dominance over most of society.
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