Xixax Film Forum

Release date: August 8, 2014

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Analeigh Tipton, Min-sik Choi, Amr Waked

Directed by: Luc Besson

Premise: A drug mule accidentally swallows her cargo and finds she now has superpowers.

i think even the most pessimistic can say this looks like a fucking blast.

I was in Taiwan when they shot it. It was kinda a big deal and the paparazzi hounded the shit out of Luc Besson but I hardly heard anything about ScarJo. really weird priorities.

Limitless 2: With Action and Boobs.

Limitless 2: Lost Her in Translation

I thought this had been put to rest already.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_percent_of_brain_myth
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-only-use-10-percent-of-brain/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDF2rjFd8hY

It is Luc Besson though, can't expect him to let facts get in the way of an action movie.

SPOILER - This is one of the best scenes. Just watch it in the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-kfWKs29A0

how can you not love that face...

SPOILER

(spoiler?)(haven't seen the movie) so when she uses all of her brain she turns into a supercomputer? oh interesting. i haven't mentioned but i saw portions of transcendence, as in the entirety of transcendence played for me over a television while i zoned out when i could, and i guess this one is maybe both what i wanted from robocop and transcendence, with dashes of her, and yeah i mean that might be true

might

Finally got around to watching this, and it's great. Highly recommend it. Honestly, this is sort of what I wanted from Hanna, and is satisfying where that movie is not. (Unfair, but true.)

Yes the 10% thing is a myth, but the movie completely owns how ridiculous it is. As does Luc Besson: "It's totally not true. Do they think that I don't know this? I work on this thing for nine years and they think that I don't know it's not true? Of course I know it's not true!" (more here (http://www.vulture.com/2014/07/luc-besson-director-lucy-chat.html))

It is true that we only use 15% of our brain at one time, so that's something.

The middle hour is one of the most thrilling movie experiences I've had recently. Don't want to get too spoilery. Just watch it if you have any interest. It's a tight 90 minutes. Left me wanting more, yet objectively I knew they gave me just enough.

SEVERE SPOILERS

To answer what happens at the end, it's apotheosis. She pretty much becomes a god. I thought it was a potent metaphor for human potential, perhaps even human spiritual potential. Lucy achieves unity with the universe by activating her whole self.

(She is not in the flash drive, btw. The flash drive can be used to access her. "I am everywhere.")

The ending suffers from Tree of Life having been made first, for sure. Otherwise I thought it was pretty good.

Just one plot hole that actually did bother me during the film. Why did she not just take a 5 minute break to deal with the gangsters? Maybe let's not do the time warp until things are safe? If she was that smart, surely she knew how vulnerable she was going to be. Not sure how to fix that, but it definitely muddled things for me.

Side note: Any other particularly good movies about apotheosis? I've been working on a related story idea, which thusfar is different than anything else I've heard about. (Partly why I wanted to see this.)

I had a hankering to revisit this and don't regret it. This might be Scarlett Johansson's best performance (in her top 3 at least). Her "character turn" in the first act of this movie is one of the most delightful and thrilling things I've ever seen.

Pretty much agree with my original review. The plot hole that I mentioned has not improved with the passage of time. Still dumb in a way that prevents this from being a classic.