Timecop is an interesting, creative story about a time-travel cop played by Jean-Claude Van Damme whose pregnant wife is murdered – he eventually goes back in time to fix it. It’s an interesting story albeit a bit simplistic & monotonous in patches for many-time rewatchers. There’s some good action as you would expect from any prime Van Damme movie. I rate it as an upper-OK movie.
Other key cast members Ron Silver who plays the main antagonist quite well. Ron’s character is a senator who goes back in time to earn money the easy way and support his campaign to become POTUS. There are two significant females in this movie: Mia Sara plays Van Damme’s wife adequately, and Gloria Reuben plays Van Damme’s corrupt partner quite well.
This was a pretty good action movie in the 90s. It has an interesting core concept and some entertaining scenes. Some good action and some good humour. But the action does get a bit monotonous at times – some of the action scenes could do with condensing.
Sylvester Stallone plays the policeman, Sandra Bullock plays his partner on the force, and Wesley Snipes plays the outlaw they’re trying to apprehend. They all do a decent job but are working with a fairly mediocre script here, even though the core concept is quite creative. In fact it might not be creative at all – it might just be a sneak preview of what’s really on its way, since many of the strange futuristic concepts in this movie are already half way standardised in the real world today. Having said that, after a long, over-extended, thinly-spread monotonous action scene near the end, the very ending of this movie is actually quite a pleasant one as the friendly/draconian society returns to time more tolerable and everyone left alive gets along just fine with the saviour/dictator gone and his mercenary too.
Overall I rate it an (upper) OK movie, considering its quality & density of entertainment value for action movie fans.
Jumper is a fun movie with a good amount of action to match its fantasy concept. Hayden Christensen stars as the main character in this movie – he’s a boy who discovered he can teleport, or ‘jump’, to pretty much anywhere in the world. Samuel L Jackson plays the main man tracking him down, trying to kill him – Samuel leads a squad of agents tracking down all ‘Jumpers’ to kill them on the spot. They both do a great job in the roles here.
Other key cast members include Rachel Bilson who plays the lead female role adequately. And Jamie Bell does an alright job in playing an experienced Jumper who helps Hayden’s character secretly before eventually befriending him and mentoring him in being a good Jumper.
One of the most memorable parts of this movie, is a cheeky line at the beginning where the lead character, acting as a narrator to the audience, says: “I wasn’t always like this. Once I was a normal person. A chump, just like you!”
Go on Hollywood, tell us what you really think about us!
Jumper (2008) is a Decent movie over all. Not many boring bits if any. It delivers a respectable level of entertainment quite consistently.
If you like the concept of this movie, where certain people can jump between places around the world, you may also enjoy movies where certain people travel through time, into the past and the future – such movies include Looper (2012) with Bruce Willis; Timecop (1994) with Van Damme; and the Back To The Future movie series.
Limitless (2011) starts off a bit weird – hard to get a grip of where things are going, and hard to see where the cool action might be coming from. But it becomes very interesting within the first 15 minutes and then even more interesting within the first 25 minutes.
The core concept is about a new drug called NZT-48 that when taken unlocks the full power of the mind, enabling the taker to perform remarkably well in mental tasks and social scenarios, while having extra confidence, motivation and discipline to do physical work too. The concept seems to be based on the real effects of testosterone, which some people optimise by abstaining from bedroom activities, while others inject it – often prescribed to older men as a form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to get back to the levels of confidence they had in their prime, although the side effects are significant – when you take testosterone from an outside source, your body stops producing it naturally, so when you stop taking it, you flatline into extreme anxiety and depression. Natural testosterone lifts our confidence in social scenarios, countering anxiety so we can perform smoothly and courteously but firmly, with a clear mind. It doesn’t boost our IQ though – that’s something unique to NZT!
Bradley Cooper stars in this movie, as the main character we follow, called Eddie Morra. We see him from before he tried NZT, to his first time with it, to a lot further on. He performs excellently in his role here. A real star performance.
Robert De Niro also plays a significant role in this movie, as a Wall Street tycoon called Carl Van Loon who recruits the already extra-ordinarily successful Eddie Morra.
Obviously the pill-pushing aspect of this movie is not impressive, and that certainly counts against how I would otherwise have rated it. As it stands, overall, I give this movie a Decent rating. It’s better than just OK, but not massively better than that.
This movie also serves as an indicator of what the people who run the world think of as being the ideal thoughts and actions of the ideal man at the pinnacle of culture and intelligence. As well as what they want us to think represent these things.
The way it ends with an all-seeing all-knowing Eddie Morra, strikes a remarkable resemblance with the movie Lucy – check that movie out too if you enjoyed this one. Lucy is also about taking a drug that eventually unlocks 100% of the power of the mind.
See also, the TV series Limitless
If you enjoyed this movie, see also the 22 episode long series called Limitless, released in 2015, based on the same concept as this movie, but with different cast members. It’s not so dense in plot development, and has a murky unsatisfying ending, but is plenty of fun along the way – about as enjoyable as this movie.
Jupiter Ascending is an action-drama sci-fi starring Channing Tatum as an alien ex-legionnaire who is half-human half-wolf, who comes to Earth to rescue the reincarnated queen of a humanoid vampiric alien race who extend their life by breeding humans on various planets and harvesting their essence. While its story and its special effects contain plenty of sci-fi, there are clear undertones to what really goes on in this world that few people know about except those who are directly involved in it. This may make you wonder who wrote it – turns out it’s written & directed by The Wachowskis – the same pair who wrote & directed The Matrix – another movie with uncanny parallels to reality, including some very similar concepts (such as breeding humans as a resource, although in the case of The Matrix, it’s done by robots, for battery power).
Channing Tatum does a decent job acting in his role here. His performance is generally action packed, with a little drama.
Mila Kunis plays the lead female – the member of alien royalty born on earth and raised with a simple life – quite shocked when she realised she’s someone special. Her acting is so-so, she’s not really my cup of tea – to me she seems like a skin-deep minded, hot-headed drama queen rather than the feminine maiden of an action hero movie. Still, she’s not terrible.
Great to see Sean Bean play the main side-kick to Channing Tatum’s character. I once heard someone say he always adds massive value to any movie he’s in, and I can’t disagree.
Other cast members include Eddie Redmayne and Douglas Booth – the rival brothers who are both members of royalty in this alien race. They are the main antagonists in this movie and do a kind of adequate job although neither are to my taste either.
If not for so much drama and even horror genre creeping in, I would probably rate this movie as Pretty Good. First time viewers may love it. But when it comes to rewatching, if you’re only after an action hero movie, you may find the drama scenes quite tedious and spoiling the mood. So as it stands, I rate it Decent, alongside many other classic action-drama movies that just lack a smooth enough vibe and consistent enough action to warrant a higher rating even though there are many pretty strong action scenes within.
This movie is a bit sickly at near the start, with talk about harvesting organs from a still living man, followed by surgery visuals, the likes of which we get again in an unexpected close-up about half way through the movie. There’s also slightly too long of a car crash scene near the start. This movie clearly wants to traumatise the audience a bit, and/or incite bloodlust in those prone to it. Due to its name I guess we shouldn’t expect clean action – a touch of horror shouldn’t be surprising here.
Mood setting is generally excellent, with great timing where it matters. There are also a few great touches of humour in this movie.
The action gets very interesting at times, and is satisfactory at other times.
The combat is fanciful – hardly realistic – but the sentiment is frequently on point.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead role very well, as if he were made for this role. Additional cast members are generally pretty good too.
All in all, due to its qualities, with the odd drawback, plus the fact it’s not so realistic a movie as what I normally review, I’d rate this movie Decent – no more, no less. It’s a fun movie to watch every now and again, but its depth of vibe is limited due to its near cartoony nature. For this reason it’s comparable to movies like Bloodshot and Black Panther which have a similar mix of realism vs unrealism (albethey generally more believable), and a similar level of action.
Sequel
If you enjoyed this movie, you may also enjoy its sequel: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). However, that movie is a lot messier and of course less original since the lead character has already been fully established. And unlike the original, the sequel is not even classified as an Action movie by Google – it’s classed as a Horror instead!
Doctor Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) was also featured in a few other Marvel Studios films released between the two actual Doctor Strange movies, including Thor: Ragnarok (2017); Avengers: Infinity War (2018); Avengers: Endgame (2019); and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
Not much of a martial arts movie per se, but many of the characters in this modest sci-fi action movie have special powers like telekinesis, electrocution and healing abilities. Plenty of action, and a pretty good cast. Not much plot, but quite worth watching if you’re bored and are a fan of this genre and haven’t seen this movie before.
Robbie Amell does a pretty good job as the main hero of the movie, with electrical powers. Stephen Amell (Robbie’s real-life cousin) also did a pretty good job playing the semi-bad guy with telekinetic powers who befriends Robbie by giving him a shady job. Sung Kang also impresses as a senior police officer who has a soft spot for Robbie’s character. These were the main standout cast members to me, but some other supporting actors put in strong performances too, such as Vlad Alexis (telekinetic), Laysla De Oliveira (pyro), and Simon Northwood (nearly indestructible) although these people only had minor supporting roles. Some other actors did a decent job too, such as Greg Bryk (mindreader) and Aaron Abrams (police officer). Further cast members that I haven’t named here, were not necessarily bad, they just didn’t stand out so much to me – this may be due to the lack of substance in their role, or they may have had more of a soap opera vibe which is not my cup of tea.
If you enjoyed Code 8, you may also be interested in the sequel, Code 8: Part II (2024), which is just as good a movie.
Bloodshot is a novel concept – creative and action packed – great for anyone who’s never seen it before. It is a bit one dimensional still though. The introduction of the hacker is a nice plot development but aside from that it’s all very simple.
Vin Diesel is his usual self – a fairly entertaining action hero, but a bit dryer and slower than my favourite action movie stars, although he oozes energy from underneath the surface. This role doesn’t perfectly suit him, but he does pretty well in it nevertheless.
Supporting cast includes Eiza González, the lead female – she does quite well in her role as an attractive assassin being controlled by Guy Pearce’s character. Lamorne Morris does quite well as the coding whiz who hacks the controlling technology to set Vin’s and Eiza’s characters free.
Guy Pearce does alright as the main nemesis on the brains side – the guy who controls Vin Diesel’s character until he breaks free – but he is a bit too meek in demeanour for such a power hungry role – a naturally stronger character here could have made this is more convincing movie.
Sam Heughan does a good job as the main nemesis on the (tech assisted) muscles side – he has a very convincing attitude for the role.
Alex Hernandez also does alright as one of the main team members. Good attitude for the requirement of the role.
Toby Kebbell also does quite well, as the first victim of the mind-controlled main character played by Vin Diesel. He displays an impressive contrast of acting styles here, from a savage psycho killer with a screw-loose wacky side, to an innocent and vulnerable victim with strong understanding and quick reactions.
Talulah Riley plays Vin Diesel’s wife – her performance was fair enough, although it was a bit washed & wafery – a more attractive & powerful woman like Eiza González could have done a better job in this role and helped make the movie more convincing since the plot is so heavily based on Vin Diesel’s character being so attached to his wife and so moved and vengeance-seeking when she’s killed.
Overall it’s a busy action packed movie and quite creative in its core concept, but is a bit one dimensional in terms of extended plot detail. It’s especially interesting for those who haven’t seen it before or in many years. Due to the strong special effects, fairly rich action, generally decent cast, and quirky concept, but with a dodgy nanite theme in-keeping with so many movies released around 2020; I rate Bloodshot about equal to its rival Hobbs & Shaw, or Black Panther 1 and 2. Indeed it’s disappointing to see so much pushing of the idea that technology in our body is a beneficial and even cool thing, especially when it comes to nanobots messing around in our blood according to their own discretion or an outside controller. Bloodshot is an awesome movie the first time you see it, if you can forgive its dodgy theme features, but significant tedium sets in and significant flaws become much more apparent if you rewatch it too often.
Blue Beetle (2023) is a fairly fun & engaging movie that forms part of the DC Extended Universe alongside characters like Superman and The Flash who incidentally both get namedropped in this movie.
Blue Beetle has some well composed action, some fresh humour, some funky music, some cool special effects, and some entertaining cast members.
The lead character is played entertainingly by Hispanic American actor Xolo Maridueña (from Cobra Kai, the recent Karate Kid spin-off satire series) and the lead female protagonist is played by Brazilian actress & model Bruna Marquezine who is equally attractive so they make a convincing couple. In real life, Bruna is nearly 6 years older than Xolo, and is almost the same height as him but looks taller than him when wearing heels. Nevertheless, this movie has them in suitable enough roles to make the chemistry convincing – it even makes jokes about them having a reverse of the classical roles, since he’s a broke college graduate in need of a job and she’s a famous businesswoman capable of dragging him out of the dirt.
As far as this movie’s core concept goes, the Blue Beetle is some kind of hard-to-control sentient alien technological lifeform with a mind of its own. It bonds with a host body and protects it, like a cross between Iron Man, Deadpool and Venom. Like Venom, it’s initially hard to control, and there’s some black goo going on as the Blue Beetle initially bonds with its host. It can also transform into any shape imagined. Like Iron Man, there’s a digital visor and force fields when it’s flying & fighting, and it shoots energy beams and things like that. And like Deadpool, it does a few ninja moves and has a tight rubber body suit with a pair of horn-like adornments coming up the back and over the head (a pair beetle claws in this case; a pair of swords in Deadpool’s case).
The main antagonists in this movie are played by Susan Sarandon (brains) and Raoul Trujillo (braun). They both do a fair job of acting here – especially Susan considering she’s already in her mid 70s here – she’s got a bit of a Killary vibe about her in this movie. Raoul plays the man whose life she saved, then altered with alien energy & technology from the Blue Beetle to give him superpowers to rival Xolo’s character. He eventually becomes a good guy and kills Susan’s character by unnecessarily blowing himself up, as if suicide is not one of the biggest sins of all. Bad influence much?
The main down side to this movie though, is how it’s pushing pills and massively over-glorifying college from the outset, then proceeds to show the star of the movie getting way too affectionate with his smartphone, resting it on his chest, promoting extremely unhealthy levels of exposure. So ultimately, this movie boils down to just another Hollywood con job. No surprise, is it? Still, if you’re able to overlook these filthy shortcomings, to enjoy the strengths of this movie for what they’re worth, you’ll probably be sufficiently entertained upon first viewing, and probably also when re-viewing a year later. There’s no macho superhero here – it’s got a soft male lead – but he’s a likeable character and is well suited to the fun, lightly comedic and somewhat juvenile vibe of this movie. It’s not a streamlined grown up martial arts action hero movie by any means. It’s nothing like Bloodsport. It’s probably mainly made for kids, which makes the downsides even more disturbing.
All things considered, I rate this movie as Decent, for action hero movie connoisseurs, compared to everything else that’s out there. I rate it on a par with the likes of Black Panther, Bloodshot and Jupiter Ascending, since it has similar levels of pros and cons to those movies.
I deem it most suitable for mid-aged children, but stress it needs a highly educated form of parental guidance to counter the problems mentioned earlier. It can also be very suitable for older children and even adults if they feel young at heart.
If you enjoyed Code 8, you may also be interested in the sequel, Code 8: Part II (2024) which is roughly the same genre and a similar level of quality.
Part II sees the return of real-life cousins Robbie Amell and Stephen Amell. Robbie having that Tom Cruise vibe, and Stephen having that Bradley Cooper vibe.
New cast members include Sirena Gulamgaus who does a great job as a kind of tech-psychic capable of listening to the airwaves and controlling the drones. Sirena plays a young girl whose big brother is killed by an allegedly non-lethal drone, so she goes on the run and Robbie’s character takes her in.
Alex Mallari Jr also does a great job as the main antagonist in this movie – he plays a corrupt police officer who is more powerful than meets the eye.
Van Damme stars in this movie, as a soldier brought back to life as a kind of Terminator 1 style cyborg, who then gets taken and kind of “woken up” by a journalist. Dolph Lundgren plays his main adversary – another member of the same cyborg squad, tasked with bringing Van Damme’s character back in, or killing him.
This movie has a very creative base storyline, with credible lead acting, and the odd awesome scene; but it gets a bit boring towards the end as the writers run out of creativity, which makes for less interesting re-watching.
Fortunately there’s at least one decent sequel to keep you entertained if you enjoyed this movie.
The whole saga, in summary
Safe to say, every movie in the Universal Soldier saga (excluding those that did not feature Van Damme) is about a couple of levels worse than the one before it.
The original was fresh & inspired – it had the potential to be one of the best movies ever made – but it dragged its heels towards the end, with an over extended fight scene that gets boring for rewatchers.
The second movie was also quite creative with the computer taking over, and had some great new cast members (especially Goldberg). Its script was quite one dimensional but it was still a decent movie, with decent cinematography and decent entertainment value throughout.
The third movie had a slightly interesting concept and featured some interesting new cast members, but was quite poorly made. Cold and soul-less, almost like a B movie. At times it seemed like it was about to catch fire but it never really did.
Then the fourth and final movie in the series took coldness & soullessness to a whole new level. It never really seemed like it was ever going to catch fire. It was really a chore to sit through the first hour – I think I must have tried to watch it a few times but switched off early every time – I only tolerated it once for the benefit of this review, so you don’t have to!
The One is a pretty cool Jet Li classic. It’s a simple but pleasant sci-fi packed with kung fu by Jet Li. There’s some energetic solo demonstrations of Xing Yi and Ba Gua to enjoy, plus the usual fast-paced choreography.
The main hero and the main villain are both played by Jet Li (they came from different universes). The villain is trying to kill the good guy in order to gain his power. He’s already killed 123 other versions, making the remaining 2 versions of Jet Li very powerful as they’ve automatically absorbed the speed & strength of those who died (power is split between survivors). The bad guy is trying to kill the good guy now, to become the last remaining one, at which point the universe could explode or the remaining one could “become a god” they say.
Jason Statham has a significant supporting role, as does Delroy Lindo (who was also in Jet Li’s movie from the previous year – Romeo Must Die). They play a pair of inter-universal cops here, tasked with keep both versions of Jet Li alive, to prevent The One from being, at all costs.
Based on a trilogy of books by Veronica Roth, the Divergent movie trilogy is a set of dystopian action-drama thriller movies that mirror certain real-world plans & activities so accurately that it makes you wonder who wrote it and how much inside information they are privy to – given the name & heritage of the author I think it’s clear already.
Plot-wise, Divergent has flavours of The Matrix, mixed in with The Maze Runner, mixed in with some kind of teen drama series.
20 minutes in, there are a couple of things I don’t like. 1: explicit depictions of people cutting themselves with a dagger in order to drip blood in some kind of ritual. 2: the idea that institutional rituals are important enough to instantly & permanently separate close family members. The first, I look away from, repeatedly, until it stops happening. The second, I find even more disgusting, considering how it represents the level of power over family units that real world megalomaniacs have long been working towards obtaining.
Cast members
The movie continues with training scenes and bonding between the two lead characters played by Shailene Woodley and Theo James (full name Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis). Both of them are satisfactory in their acting ability, while Shailene seems like a very ordinary butch-ish female, and Theo has massive star power – I can only assume the reason he’s not a much bigger star is because there are certain depraved things he has refused to do, so wasn’t invited into ‘the club’, although maybe the creeps of Hollywood are still trying to lure him in since he starred in a Guy Ritchie led action comedy drama series for Netflix (called The Gentlemen) as recently as 2024.
The chief baddie in this movie is played quite well by Kate Winslet (of Titanic). Aesthetically, she kind of resembles Veronica Roth – the author of the book series that this movie was based on – they could easily be sisters.
Other actors who made an enjoyable contribution to the Divergent movie trilogy include Zoë Kravitz who plays one of the main group of friends in all three movies; Maggie Q who plays a helpful senior figure in all three movies; Daniel Dae Kim who plays a classy advocate of honesty in all three movies; Jeff Daniels who plays the main baddie in the third movie (Allegiant, 2016); and Bill Skarsgård who plays a helpful assistant of the main baddie in the third movie. They all did a good job.
Incidentally, Bill SkarsgĂĄrd looks like he could be the son of Steve Buscemi even though his official father is Stellan SkarsgĂĄrd who looks nothing like him. Bill looks much more like a cross between his mother and Steve Buscemi. Typical Hollywood shenanigans! Have you seen how strongly Cameron Diaz looks like a daughter of Dolph Lundgren? Anyway, back to the Divergent trilogy…
Other supporting actors were generally adequate although not always to my taste, and this may have been quite necessary in order to find people properly suited to their roles which all involved a mix of goodness and badness in their own ways.
The Five Factions
The backstory, explained at the start of the first movie, Divergent (2014), says that after a big war, society was divided into five groups called ‘factions’. These factions are Erodite (intellectuals), Amity (farmers; kind, harmonious & happy), Candor (honest to a fault; seeking order), Dauntless (police & soldiers – admired, brave, fearless, free & wild), Abnegation (nicknamed Stiffs; simple-living selfless altruistic politicians). There are also the Factionless (who are homeless, dirty & depressed), and then there are some Divergents (who possess traits of multiple factions – they are feared & hunted by the people in power).
It’s an intriguing catchy concept, isn’t it? Because it resembles the real world, in a way. It resembles Wang FengYi’s analysis of the five types of people in society, which he associated with the five key religions in China in his day, as well as five key professions, etc. But trust Ms Roth and/or Hollywood to make a few changes. Here’s the most glaring inconsistencies with Wang FengYi’s observations…
The Amity faction is inaccurate according to Wang’s model, because he said Farmers tend to be the Daoists, and they tend to be expressionless – not acting happy. Daoists limit their kindness too, so as not to exhaust themselves, so they always have the ability to be a somewhat helpful to anyone who asks. Meanwhile, regular giving is a tenet of Muslims more than anyone, and according to Wang’s model, and they tend to be Scholars rather than Farmers – so the most kind (over-kind) people should be Erudite based on this theory. Plus, Daoists are also the ones most obsessed with Honesty according to Wang, but they reject obsession with Order – they appreciate order has its place but only in the simplest way, and are mostly fond of natural rhythm – so the Candor faction isn’t accurate either.
Don’t get me started on the Dauntless faction – the police & soldiers of today may be admired by some, but they’re no less despised by others. In a corruption-free world, the idea of them being admired may be fitting, but in today’s world that’s a biased perspective to say the least. Being a copper or a soldier also means being extremely disciplined & controlled – hardly the fun free-spirited daredevil vibe pushed by this movie, but of course Hollywood is doing what it can to boost public support and enrolment for these jobs.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Abnegation is even worse. Since when were politicians ever simple-living selfless altruistic people? In a non corrupt society they would probably be this way, but in the world we live in today, this character description couldn’t be much further from the truth.
In summary
I think Divergent (2014) has a fairly good flow of plot, and a fairly good flow of entertainment value. It’s generally a cool concept albeit a twisted version of the even cooler truth. It’s got a fine balance of action and drama, although any more drama and it would be a problem for those who prefer smooth action hero movies that stay within their genre (like myself).
Overall I rate this movie as Pretty Good, on a par with movies like Wanted and Ghost In The Shell. In fact Wanted is a great comparison because it has a similar ratio of action to drama, and is similarly led by a mediocre primary lead actor (James McAvoy) and a stunning secondary lead actor (Angelina Jolie) just like this movie was with Shailene and Theo.
Sequels
The first sequel to Divergent (2014) is Insurgent (2015). It’s a lot more one dimensional, with more drama and less creative action than the original, but still has a basic level of quality and plenty of good bits throughout, plus it has a great ending. This sequel focuses, from the outset, on tracking down Divergents for the purpose of using them to unlock a message from society’s founders. The same protagonist pair from the original, work to avoid capture, and join forces with the Factionless underworld, but eventually give themselves up to the antagonist – again played by Kate Winslet like in the original. You could easily join these two movies together, and watch them both on the same day, or on subsequent days, and treat them as one very long movie, with a less entertaining second half but a great ending. I would rate the sequel as a couple of levels below the original due to the lack of plot & script compared to the original, but it’s still an OK movie – it’s not bad – it’s more than watchable.
The second sequel – the threequel – the third movie in the trilogy – is called Allegiant (2016) which has even more soap opera style drama than Insurgent, and sees the main crew escape to the civilisation outside the wall and learn what’s really going on. With all its drama, Allegiant still has a fair amount of action, and follows on from the story so far established, so it’s not a bad movie to watch straight after the last two. I would rate Allegiant about equal to Insurgent. It’s just about an OK movie in its own right but isn’t really meant to be watched in isolation – it really ought to be watched straight after the last two for adequate familiarity with the backstory.
All three movies were released from 2014-2016. All based on books by Veronica Roth, and all contain the same pair of lead as actors as well as many of the same supporting actors. Plus each sequel roughly continues from the script of the movie that came before it, so it’s easy to treat this series of movies as one long movie, or a Netflix series, and watch them all sequentially for a solid 6+ hours of mild sci-fi action-drama entertainment.
The movie Lucy starts off as an aggravated drama edging somewhat into the Horror genre. But once it gets going, it becomes a very entertaining sci-fi fantasy action thriller with a very simple plot and a very minimal core cast but executed very nicely.
The star of this movie is Scarlett Johansson who plays the role of Lucy herself and does a pretty good job of it. But we’re also treated to a decent performance by Morgan Freeman as a ground-breaking professor, and a great performance by Amr Waked as a French police captain.
This movie has shades of The Matrix, as well as the movie Venom, but is unequivocally its own thing. It’s all about a random bimbo who unwilfully takes a revolutionary drug that gradually unlocks the hidden capacity of her brain. Soon she reaches a tipping point – repairing, defending & modifying herself with ease. Then she seeks increasingly more knowledge and energy until she can eventually make herself immortal. The ideals pushed by this movie, of incessantly seeking knowledge and power, like some kind of drug, are drawn from Luciferianism – hence the name Lucy. Here’s a rough translation of a quote from Laozi to counter that narrative: when you seek knowledge, you gain every day; when you seek peace, you lose every day – lose, lose and lose again, until you have nothing left to lose and nothing left to do, then there’s nothing more to do.
Even though it’s such a short & simple movie, over in less than 90 minutes, because it’s such a great concept and so well executed, I rate Lucy (2014) about equal to Divergent from the same year, and about equal to Scarlett’s other nice sci-fi movie Ghost In The Shell (2017).
ps. Did you notice the glass bottle of Evian water, used by Choi Min-Sik playing Mr Jang, the main baddie in this movie, to rinse the blood off his hands in one of the earlier scenes? That’s my main drink right there (the water, not the blood) unless I’m near a good natural source, which can be even better. Glass bottled Evian is available from Amazon and many other retailers online.
Scarlett Johansson does a convincing job in this movie, as Major Mira Killian aka Motoko Kusanagi – an elite government agent with a human brain and a synthetic body. The proverbial ghost in her shell, is her pervading spirit and her returning memories that the agency attempted to wipe clean.
It’s an exciting concept with a mediocre level of substance to the script so it runs a bit dry of what it could be with more budget & creativity. Bearing in mind it’s not even an original story for this movie, it’s based on a Japanese seinen manga comic from 1989 which has had many TV shows, movies and computer games named after it long before this movie came out.
Supporting actors generally do a decent job, especially Pilou Asbæk who plays a tough guy with big guns called Batou who is Major’s main accomplice; and Takeshi Kitano who plays Aramaki who is one of the leaders of the agency, who puts his loyalty to Major and to ethics ahead of his loyalty to his murderous co-leader Cutter played by Peter Ferdinando.
It’s not easy for a woman to pull off an action hero lead role like this, but Scarlett does alright.
