Loved Lucy More the Second Time

The first time through this movie, I found myself enjoying the special effects and having fun watching the cool action scenes. I liked the cerebral stuff (I'm not saying the 10% thing is accurate, I mean the philosophical musings) just fine, but they were more like bonus material.

The second time through, though, I found myself much more deeply invested in the film's ideas about humanity. It talks about where we've come from, where we are, and where we're going. It suggests that it might be difficult to hold on to our humanity as we advance ourselves. We can almost see this on a microcosmic level with the prevalence of mental health problems amongst the highly intelligent, or the way outstanding individuals often become narcissistic and disregard other human beings. What happens when we have AI-augmented brains or interstellar colonising capability?

But there is hope in the film, too, as Lucy holds on to humanity and steps up to a responsibility she finds from Morgan Freeman's professor character (he tells her to pass along her knowledge - to connect) and later, she takes time to remind herself of human connection by kissing the French cop.

It's odd, in some ways, that Lucy seeks these connections. Why ask the professor's advice about what she needs to do when her mind is capable of assimilating languages and radio signals? Why ask the police officer for help when it seems like Lucy should be able to just freeze everyone she encounters and accomplish her goals at the speed of thought? But Besson *does* justify it by suggesting that connection is perhaps the defining trait of humanity. This is never more apparent than when Lucy meets Lucy, transcendent uber-human zapping the proto-human with a Michaelangelo-inspired finger touch. It isn't just brains that makes Lucy (the early hominid) advance to the next stage of evolution: it's *connection*.

I think this is a cool theme, well-explored in a very short runtime.

My only real objection to the film - or quibble, maybe - is that we get flung so rapidly into Lucy's life that we don't really know her before her transcendence. I think the film would have been even better with a few scenes of Lucy before she unlocked her brain. We could see someone seeking superficial connections, if any (we get some of this with the partying thing), and maybe even somebody a little ditsy or shallow. More of a character arc would have made this film maybe feel less cerebral and more personal, and might have helped audiences remember Lucy a little better.