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ysabetwordsmithWe watched the movie Lucy today. It was awesome; I heartily recommend it. I had been keeping my expectations down, because the trailers looked promising but I could see some obvious opportunities for things to go wrong (most of which did not happen) and the reviews were mixed. I now suspect that most of the people panning the movie missed 3/4 of the content and got hung up on the obvious cheese factor. I plan to buy this at full price when it comes out on DVD. I want to give these people my folding vote.
For those of you who do not mind explicit spoilers or have already seen it, I will discuss the awesome in more detail.
As we were walking into the theater, I remarked, "You know, every time I see that title, I want to slash this movie with the original Lucy."
Bang at the beginning of the movie is the original Lucy! I squealed and nearly jumped off my seat bouncing. Clearly this movie had at least one classic Lucy fan behind it. I did not expect a movie to include anything that sophisticated. Furthermore, Lucy-prime isn't a one-shot, but appears in several glimpses. That, along with other fascinating clips of wildlife and cultural content, creates a sense of layers in time and reality which is central to the movie's theme. This strongly brings up parallels with 2001. But remember, Lucy (both of them) are women, which is also crucial to the theme.
I had been primarily comparing Lucy, based on trailers, to The Matrix. There was an obvious parallel with a messiah figure gaining tremendous powers, plus the rain of visually represented data. The special effects in Lucy are elegantly and beautifully done, by the way. It was the addition of Lucy-prime, and the explicit uplift discussions, that highlighted the parallels with 2001.
The core piece that a lot of people are dissing is the "humans only use 10% of the brain" line. Now, the material aspect of that is hogwash; the brain cells are alive and chatting to each other all the time. But a majority of the mind is not something most people can access, and we are not using more than a fraction of the brain's potential. Consciousness is a thin veneer over everything else going on inside. This is demonstrated by the exceptions -- the way the brain has areas of more and less intense use, the way activity peaks and flows in different areas, how it can sometimes rewire itself if damaged, how some people can learn to do things that other scientific rules imply are downright impossible. It's a matter of function and efficiency. Set aside the treknobabble; most of the underlying concepts actually are valid. I give them a pass on this, because there is no way to put the real explanation into a movie. So call the 10% line an allegory, a metaphor, a symbol, a placeholder, a summary -- whatever works for you. It's something that will fit into a movie, make sense to the audience, and convey basically the same message as a bookcase full of biology, philosophy, metaphysics, and other hardcore books, which is that humanity has a lot of growing room we haven't used yet. Just break out the good bondage gear and make sure your suspension of disbelief is properly secured ahead of time.
I was particularly charmed by how the professor remarked that humans are concerned with "having rather than being." That's very true, and the choice of dolphin to illustrate a creature using more of its potential was very astute. Cetateans aren't acquisitive. But they are expert communicators and they can do timebinding. The concepts of time and the transmission of information also rank among the movie's key concepts.
The setup is very traditional, patriarchal stuff with men doing unwanted things to a woman's body. Which turns out to be the worst idea in the history of ever. Turned me off the trailer, initially, but when I saw Lucy-hera beating the crap out of them later I decided the movie might be worth watching after all, and woah mama is it ever. The whole middle of the movie is a massive amount of ass-kicking as she chains the plot to her car and drives away dragging it kicking and screaming behind her.
Strong female character qualification: check. Lucy-protagonist starts out as a heroine (love-interest of male character) and transforms dramatically into a hera (female plot-driver). She goes from having absolutely no agency, to taking all of hers back and then all of the men's as well. She leaves them with zilch, zero, nada, nothing, zip. The entire rest of the plot is all her acting and everyone else reacting. The moment someone sticks his hand inside her belly is the moment every Y-chromosome on the screen bends over and kisses his agency goodbye. I love the takehome message of: do not fuck with a woman's body, you will regret it and she will destroy you. The men are literally left standing around asking "Why am I even here?" She answers her take-along guy with, "You're a reminder." That's a beautiful nod to a classic Roman custom of putting a slave in the chariot of a successful general during the victory parade to repeat, "Remember, you are only mortal."
Another thing some people have complained about is the assumed male gaze. The cameras pay a lot of loving attention to hot female flesh. Since I like looking at hot women, I'm okay with that, but I understand some people find it annoying. Since Lucy-hera spends most of the movie hauling the action around by the nuts, though, I don't think this can reasonably be construed as sexist. Power is about making things happen; she does that regardless of how she is dressed. Though I was amused that she used the Oldest Mind Control Power On Earth -- spreading her legs -- to lure the first thug close enough to grab him, before going on to more advanced superpowers.
This movie even passes the Bechdel test, because Lucy talks with a roommate about health, and has a rather heartbreaking phone conversation with her mother about their past. Brief scenes, but substantive woman-to-woman content about things other than a man ... in between kicking the living hell out of all the guys running around. In fact it's a wonderful demonstration that a strong rather than technical Bechdel pass doesn't require two female leads or even a lead and supporting actress. The scenes are small but they touch on quintessentially feminine relationships and concerns. They're small because Lucy-hera needs swingin' room and lots of Johnny Pells to smack around. But it's the women, really, not the men, who anchor her humanity by dealing in matters of emotion, compassion, and connection. That take-along guy? She says she wants him as a reminder, but what she uses him for is a meat shield.
As if that's not funny enough, the last section of the movie Involves Lucy-hera and a handful of male scientists. The guys need her to break through the informational glass ceiling. They can barely understand what she's doing. They're as much props as the lab assistants with big boobs who appear in most SF movies. Forget using 100% of the brain, this is what happens when a woman uses 100% of the agency.
Of course, there are drawbacks. One is that everyone in the vicinity tends to go apeshit. That doesn't stop Lucy-hera from achieving her goals but it does make an ordinary life less feasible. The other is burnthrough. It's why if you're making a magical artifact it needs an exceptional base material, why lenses and laser crystals have to be perfect. The more energy you handle, the higher the chance it will burn through its equipment unless the stuff is very high quality. Human wetware is not designed to take that much extra energy flow all at once. It's been creeping up slowly for well over a million years, or a billion if you want to count from life square one.
I suspected from the trailers that one of two endings would be the most likely by far: Lucy would end up dead or disempowered, and I'd get to write a comparison/contrast of Lucy and The Matrix. The overwhelming tendency is to strip power from strong female characters. To be fair, very few male characters are allowed to keep truly extraordinary power; they usually get cut down too, but at least there are a few exceptions. I figured there was a slim but discernible chance that this movie would choose to subvert the trope and leave Lucy-protagonist alive and empowered somehow.
Then too, there is the messiah connection. Lucy, like The Matrix, runs a lot of spiritual as well as scientific imagery. Looking back on the big hint-pair, I can see it -- God touching Adam's finger early on, and the two Lucys touching near the end -- but I missed the precise interpretation on the spot and only figured it out later. Lucy-protagonist is clearly established as a messianic figure. Just not the kind people usually think of.
The last scene is straightforward uplift with a deadline countdown as the villain tries to blast his way through to her. (Death by testosterone poisoning is never pretty.) But there's where the similarity ends. Instead of dying, losing her powers, or surviving ... Lucy-hera disappears. *poof* Having already taken over the computer banks with almost the only female tentacle monster outside of Claymore, she simply abandons her human form. The tentacle-computer-thingie hands over a USB drive and then collapses into a pile of dust. Her take-along guy wonders where she went, and his phone says, "I am everywhere." And the movie ends.
Well, that was odd. There's no downbeat, no resolution. There isn't supposed to be, because she went "up" rather than down: to a higher level of awareness. Okay, that was straightforward enough to see.
Then I started working through my set of possible endings -- no, she didn't die; no, she wasn't depowered; but she also wasn't really living life on her own either. So I tacked on a bunch of bonus points for a third-road ending rather than an common one, and a bunch more for having managed to surprise me. Seriously, I can't remember the last time a movie had an ending that wasn't even on my plot map. That made me think, okay, why didn't I see this? Well, because of the messiah parallels. Messiahs are supposed to die.
Then the penny dropped. MALE messiahs are sacrificial figures. FEMALE messiah figures either flip off man and God before flying away into the desert (frex, Lilith) or ascend bodily into heaven (frex, Mary). So there it is: female messiah figure hands humanity a precious package and then ascends bodily. It's a different story arc than what happens to male messiahs. None of the characters understood this script, so most of them spent the movie running around like chickens with their heads cut off, which I found hilarious. I am so looking forward to watching this again, now that I know, so I can look for more clues. I'm sure there must be ones I missed; the movie is crammed with little fleeting references to science, religion, philosophy, classic film and literature, etc.
Something else that took a little while for me to realize was why it was okay to give that kind of information to humans, who frankly aren't responsible with what they already have; it's like handing matches to toddlers. That's the purpose of the last cellphone message, "I am everywhere." Mommy has eyes in the back of her head. She can let the babies play with potentially dangerous knowledge, because she can see potential problems and block those before they manifest.
As a couple of sidenotes, the movie uses a synthesized drug to activate the uplift. A significant portion of the imagery draws from psychedelic drugs, which people have used for ages to expand consciousness. Another connection is that meditation, hypnosis, and other mental disciplines can unlock abilities not accessible by ordinary means. So, you don't need SF unobtanium to access more of your potential, or even entheogens. You just need a lot of time and diligent work; meditation is one good place to start. You probably won't be able to nail thugs to the ceiling, but then again, you probably don't want to dissolve your body into a pile of dust.
Lucy is fundamentally a movie about womanpower. Lucy-heroine is sensible if a bit shallow, but has no influence on what happens to her. She transforms into Lucy-hera who determines what happens to everyone. This is about a woman who survives everything men throw at her, who shatters the glass ceiling for the whole of humanity and brings down new information for others to access, and basically becomes a Goddess.
MOAR, PLZ.
For those of you who do not mind explicit spoilers or have already seen it, I will discuss the awesome in more detail.
As we were walking into the theater, I remarked, "You know, every time I see that title, I want to slash this movie with the original Lucy."
Bang at the beginning of the movie is the original Lucy! I squealed and nearly jumped off my seat bouncing. Clearly this movie had at least one classic Lucy fan behind it. I did not expect a movie to include anything that sophisticated. Furthermore, Lucy-prime isn't a one-shot, but appears in several glimpses. That, along with other fascinating clips of wildlife and cultural content, creates a sense of layers in time and reality which is central to the movie's theme. This strongly brings up parallels with 2001. But remember, Lucy (both of them) are women, which is also crucial to the theme.
I had been primarily comparing Lucy, based on trailers, to The Matrix. There was an obvious parallel with a messiah figure gaining tremendous powers, plus the rain of visually represented data. The special effects in Lucy are elegantly and beautifully done, by the way. It was the addition of Lucy-prime, and the explicit uplift discussions, that highlighted the parallels with 2001.
The core piece that a lot of people are dissing is the "humans only use 10% of the brain" line. Now, the material aspect of that is hogwash; the brain cells are alive and chatting to each other all the time. But a majority of the mind is not something most people can access, and we are not using more than a fraction of the brain's potential. Consciousness is a thin veneer over everything else going on inside. This is demonstrated by the exceptions -- the way the brain has areas of more and less intense use, the way activity peaks and flows in different areas, how it can sometimes rewire itself if damaged, how some people can learn to do things that other scientific rules imply are downright impossible. It's a matter of function and efficiency. Set aside the treknobabble; most of the underlying concepts actually are valid. I give them a pass on this, because there is no way to put the real explanation into a movie. So call the 10% line an allegory, a metaphor, a symbol, a placeholder, a summary -- whatever works for you. It's something that will fit into a movie, make sense to the audience, and convey basically the same message as a bookcase full of biology, philosophy, metaphysics, and other hardcore books, which is that humanity has a lot of growing room we haven't used yet. Just break out the good bondage gear and make sure your suspension of disbelief is properly secured ahead of time.
I was particularly charmed by how the professor remarked that humans are concerned with "having rather than being." That's very true, and the choice of dolphin to illustrate a creature using more of its potential was very astute. Cetateans aren't acquisitive. But they are expert communicators and they can do timebinding. The concepts of time and the transmission of information also rank among the movie's key concepts.
The setup is very traditional, patriarchal stuff with men doing unwanted things to a woman's body. Which turns out to be the worst idea in the history of ever. Turned me off the trailer, initially, but when I saw Lucy-hera beating the crap out of them later I decided the movie might be worth watching after all, and woah mama is it ever. The whole middle of the movie is a massive amount of ass-kicking as she chains the plot to her car and drives away dragging it kicking and screaming behind her.
Strong female character qualification: check. Lucy-protagonist starts out as a heroine (love-interest of male character) and transforms dramatically into a hera (female plot-driver). She goes from having absolutely no agency, to taking all of hers back and then all of the men's as well. She leaves them with zilch, zero, nada, nothing, zip. The entire rest of the plot is all her acting and everyone else reacting. The moment someone sticks his hand inside her belly is the moment every Y-chromosome on the screen bends over and kisses his agency goodbye. I love the takehome message of: do not fuck with a woman's body, you will regret it and she will destroy you. The men are literally left standing around asking "Why am I even here?" She answers her take-along guy with, "You're a reminder." That's a beautiful nod to a classic Roman custom of putting a slave in the chariot of a successful general during the victory parade to repeat, "Remember, you are only mortal."
Another thing some people have complained about is the assumed male gaze. The cameras pay a lot of loving attention to hot female flesh. Since I like looking at hot women, I'm okay with that, but I understand some people find it annoying. Since Lucy-hera spends most of the movie hauling the action around by the nuts, though, I don't think this can reasonably be construed as sexist. Power is about making things happen; she does that regardless of how she is dressed. Though I was amused that she used the Oldest Mind Control Power On Earth -- spreading her legs -- to lure the first thug close enough to grab him, before going on to more advanced superpowers.
This movie even passes the Bechdel test, because Lucy talks with a roommate about health, and has a rather heartbreaking phone conversation with her mother about their past. Brief scenes, but substantive woman-to-woman content about things other than a man ... in between kicking the living hell out of all the guys running around. In fact it's a wonderful demonstration that a strong rather than technical Bechdel pass doesn't require two female leads or even a lead and supporting actress. The scenes are small but they touch on quintessentially feminine relationships and concerns. They're small because Lucy-hera needs swingin' room and lots of Johnny Pells to smack around. But it's the women, really, not the men, who anchor her humanity by dealing in matters of emotion, compassion, and connection. That take-along guy? She says she wants him as a reminder, but what she uses him for is a meat shield.
As if that's not funny enough, the last section of the movie Involves Lucy-hera and a handful of male scientists. The guys need her to break through the informational glass ceiling. They can barely understand what she's doing. They're as much props as the lab assistants with big boobs who appear in most SF movies. Forget using 100% of the brain, this is what happens when a woman uses 100% of the agency.
Of course, there are drawbacks. One is that everyone in the vicinity tends to go apeshit. That doesn't stop Lucy-hera from achieving her goals but it does make an ordinary life less feasible. The other is burnthrough. It's why if you're making a magical artifact it needs an exceptional base material, why lenses and laser crystals have to be perfect. The more energy you handle, the higher the chance it will burn through its equipment unless the stuff is very high quality. Human wetware is not designed to take that much extra energy flow all at once. It's been creeping up slowly for well over a million years, or a billion if you want to count from life square one.
I suspected from the trailers that one of two endings would be the most likely by far: Lucy would end up dead or disempowered, and I'd get to write a comparison/contrast of Lucy and The Matrix. The overwhelming tendency is to strip power from strong female characters. To be fair, very few male characters are allowed to keep truly extraordinary power; they usually get cut down too, but at least there are a few exceptions. I figured there was a slim but discernible chance that this movie would choose to subvert the trope and leave Lucy-protagonist alive and empowered somehow.
Then too, there is the messiah connection. Lucy, like The Matrix, runs a lot of spiritual as well as scientific imagery. Looking back on the big hint-pair, I can see it -- God touching Adam's finger early on, and the two Lucys touching near the end -- but I missed the precise interpretation on the spot and only figured it out later. Lucy-protagonist is clearly established as a messianic figure. Just not the kind people usually think of.
The last scene is straightforward uplift with a deadline countdown as the villain tries to blast his way through to her. (Death by testosterone poisoning is never pretty.) But there's where the similarity ends. Instead of dying, losing her powers, or surviving ... Lucy-hera disappears. *poof* Having already taken over the computer banks with almost the only female tentacle monster outside of Claymore, she simply abandons her human form. The tentacle-computer-thingie hands over a USB drive and then collapses into a pile of dust. Her take-along guy wonders where she went, and his phone says, "I am everywhere." And the movie ends.
Well, that was odd. There's no downbeat, no resolution. There isn't supposed to be, because she went "up" rather than down: to a higher level of awareness. Okay, that was straightforward enough to see.
Then I started working through my set of possible endings -- no, she didn't die; no, she wasn't depowered; but she also wasn't really living life on her own either. So I tacked on a bunch of bonus points for a third-road ending rather than an common one, and a bunch more for having managed to surprise me. Seriously, I can't remember the last time a movie had an ending that wasn't even on my plot map. That made me think, okay, why didn't I see this? Well, because of the messiah parallels. Messiahs are supposed to die.
Then the penny dropped. MALE messiahs are sacrificial figures. FEMALE messiah figures either flip off man and God before flying away into the desert (frex, Lilith) or ascend bodily into heaven (frex, Mary). So there it is: female messiah figure hands humanity a precious package and then ascends bodily. It's a different story arc than what happens to male messiahs. None of the characters understood this script, so most of them spent the movie running around like chickens with their heads cut off, which I found hilarious. I am so looking forward to watching this again, now that I know, so I can look for more clues. I'm sure there must be ones I missed; the movie is crammed with little fleeting references to science, religion, philosophy, classic film and literature, etc.
Something else that took a little while for me to realize was why it was okay to give that kind of information to humans, who frankly aren't responsible with what they already have; it's like handing matches to toddlers. That's the purpose of the last cellphone message, "I am everywhere." Mommy has eyes in the back of her head. She can let the babies play with potentially dangerous knowledge, because she can see potential problems and block those before they manifest.
As a couple of sidenotes, the movie uses a synthesized drug to activate the uplift. A significant portion of the imagery draws from psychedelic drugs, which people have used for ages to expand consciousness. Another connection is that meditation, hypnosis, and other mental disciplines can unlock abilities not accessible by ordinary means. So, you don't need SF unobtanium to access more of your potential, or even entheogens. You just need a lot of time and diligent work; meditation is one good place to start. You probably won't be able to nail thugs to the ceiling, but then again, you probably don't want to dissolve your body into a pile of dust.
Lucy is fundamentally a movie about womanpower. Lucy-heroine is sensible if a bit shallow, but has no influence on what happens to her. She transforms into Lucy-hera who determines what happens to everyone. This is about a woman who survives everything men throw at her, who shatters the glass ceiling for the whole of humanity and brings down new information for others to access, and basically becomes a Goddess.
MOAR, PLZ.
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(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-01 04:55 am (UTC)**I've seen claims that ALL of the bad guys are Asian, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-01 05:17 am (UTC)I do find the things you've outlined here about female messianic figures really interesting, and I want to like the movie, but most of the critique I've heard has been centered on how it handles race and that makes it hard for me to think I'd be able to ignore that to appreciate the Badass Action Lead Who Is A Woman.
Thoughts
Date: 2014-08-01 06:52 am (UTC)If you find the race dynamics in the trailer worrisome, this may not be to your taste, and that's okay.
>> Is it true that her roommate asks, as a person living in Taiwan, "who speaks Chinese?" <<
Yes. Sadly, I find this valid. It is exactly the attitude many Americans have, even abroad. I have seen worse examples than this in real life. The linguistic dynamics of the story were delightful.
>> I do find the things you've outlined here about female messianic figures really interesting, and I want to like the movie, <<
Cool.
>> but most of the critique I've heard has been centered on how it handles race and that makes it hard for me to think I'd be able to ignore that to appreciate the Badass Action Lead Who Is A Woman. <<
Hmm ... I did not get the impression that people were being presented as evil because they were Asian, but rather because they were drug lords. Bear in mind I wasn't watching for race, I was watching for gender.
In fact, there are some subtle and extremely elegant points of characterization. The boss was evidently hiring the smartest thugs he could -- still thugs, but a cut above average -- because one scene where Lucy is blowing them to hell, there are mah jongg tiles all over the table. That is not a fool's game, it's mark of culture and intellect equivalent to chess.
Thoughts
Date: 2014-08-01 06:43 am (UTC)An Asian drug gang developed and distributed the drugs. Their boss is the main antagonist.
>> while the lead, who spends a lot of time fighting, attacking and killing them, is blonde and white. <<
Correct.
>> I don't know how accurate this is, but it sounds problematic. What's your take on it? <<
I think it was well done.
1) First consider possible options. You need a drug gang for your plot. To get an American drug gang, you'd need to be in America, which makes it much harder to justify this specific method of body-mule transport. Overseas location works better and the most powerful drug gangs are Asian, Hispanic, or at a stretch Russian. They all hate us, it's just a choice of which enemy you pick. But there's a reason for going Asian because they're the historic root of the opium trade. The drug in question has profound psychotropic, entheogenic effects. It's a dandy match.
2) Now consider the protagonist. She's meant to look helpless and not too bright in the beginning. Blonde is classic and symbolic for that. Symbolism matters because this is an archetype-heavy movie.
3) But everything is subverted. The evil Asian druglords just accidentally unlocked the uplift for humanity: doing a tremendously great deed for horrifically wrong reasons and in dire ways. The blonde waif turns into a goddess.
4) Plus which, the only other fully sympathetic major character in the story is the professor, and he's black. I loved seeing them pair a white girl and a black man, even though it's not romantic. You still almost never see that combination anywhere in film. The only complaint to be laid there is Magical Negro, but since her mojo massively outstrips the whole of humanity, that doesn't stand up. I really liked the interplay. He's also the only other character who manages to make anything meaningful happen after she powers up -- he gave her the idea of transmitting information.
4) There was one Asian hero who really stuck out in my mind. Quiet, you'll miss it if you don't know supervillain de-escalation tactics, but daaaaaaamn if a supervillain shoots up your hospital you want that guy on the spot. There's a scene where Lucy-hera breaks into an operating room, shoots the patient on the table, dumps him on the floor, and demands emergency services. The surgeon actually manages to stop panicking, calm her down, and get the job done in a professional and effective manner. I'm entirely sure if he hadn't, she would've shot everyone in the room and moved on to another room. And he isn't a superhero or a cop or anything like that, just a guy whose dayjob happens to include a lot of oh-shit moments, so he was willing and able to step up when the occasion called for it.
5) Really everyone else in the movie besides Lucy is set dressing. Everything revolves around her. She treats the white men like doorstops too. I found the gender dynamics massively more salient than the racial ones, but then I went into it looking for gender, not for race. I'll try and remember to reread for race when I watch it on DVD.
>> **I've seen claims that ALL of the bad guys are Asian, but I'm not sure if that's true or not. <<
Disproven. Lucy's boyfriend is white, and he is an asshole who gets her involved in the whole mess. I enjoyed seeing him splattered all over a window.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-01 09:56 am (UTC)There were other criticisms, too, but I can't recall them offhand.
And that "10% of the brain" thing may be bupkis, but it would be interesting to see what would happen if the corpus colossum got denser with more connections, and even if the two halves of the brain could be like, totally merged into each other into one lobe. Plus it is kind of true that some humans can do things with their minds that most humans can't manage, through training and meditation and stuff, like ignoring pain and cold or hot weather, and stuff.
Also, something that could be done is a story where nanites are introduced into the brain, and they make extra connections, and store a bunch of information in their own storage; then you could do stuff like download a new language and instantly be able to speak it. Add nanite-enhanced muscle memory and you could download skills like kung fu, just like in The Matrix. It would make you the perfect thief or spy; need to get away and all you have for an escape vehicle is a helicopter, but you don't know how to fly one? Just download the right program and BAM! Instant flight school. Need to translate the Egyptian hieroglyphs to save yourself from a deadly trap? Download a translation matrix for hieroglyphs and save the day! Of course, it could also make you vulnerable to viruses and hackers.
Thoughts
Date: 2014-08-02 04:30 am (UTC)To me it's a valid representation of A) how Americans tend to view everyone else, and B) how quickly power corrupts. Lucy-hera just stops seeing others as people and treats them as props. It's less about race than them being in her way. The ones who don't get in her way mostly live.
And the black guy lives to the end of the movie, a strong argument against racism because that almost never happens. Seriously, I will darn near buy a movie on the strength of that alone, if the storyline is at all the kind of thing I like watching.
>> Plus it is kind of true that some humans can do things with their minds that most humans can't manage, through training and meditation and stuff, like ignoring pain and cold or hot weather, and stuff. <<
There are strong overlaps with that.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-01 12:08 pm (UTC)Apparently not the case then... adding this one to the pile of films to watch.
Well...
Date: 2014-08-01 05:41 pm (UTC)So did I, but once she started kicking ass I wanted to see that part.
>> because it looked like a sci-fi action flick with dubious pseudo-science and gratuitous hot female tacked on to boost audience numbers. <<
It does have a layer of cheese on top, but there's good meat underneath. Just take the psuedoscience as a symbol for a bunch of sophisticated concepts that wouldn't fit into a movie unmodified. Given your shamanic interests, I suspect you'll enjoy all the meta.
>> Apparently not the case then... adding this one to the pile of films to watch. <<
Yay!
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-01 08:31 pm (UTC)Yes...
Date: 2014-08-01 08:35 pm (UTC)Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-01 08:39 pm (UTC)Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-01 08:59 pm (UTC)Some folks are complaining about the racism. I don't think it's racism. I think it's indifference to people in general. She's been fucked over, suddenly has power out the wazoo, and uses it liberally and ruthlessly to attain her goals. If a hero did this, it would be business as usual. If a hera does it, "suddenly everybody loses their minds."
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-01 10:04 pm (UTC)Every complaint I saw sounded like this. Because make that character a man, and *exactly* it's business as usual. Gods forbid women should be allowed the same agency/power.
Yeah, super looking forward to it. :D
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-02 02:22 pm (UTC)Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-02 03:06 pm (UTC)I have seen it!!!
Date: 2014-08-31 09:12 pm (UTC)10/10 would ascend again. :D
I will say I'm totally surprised that no one commented on all the nods to 2001.
In the meantime, I think I'm building an altar to Lucy. Let's hear it for ascended beings...
Re: I have seen it!!!
Date: 2014-08-31 09:25 pm (UTC)10/10 would ascend again. :D <<
Yaaaaay!
I'm planning to buy the DVD at full price, to say "MOAR, PLZ."
>> I will say I'm totally surprised that no one commented on all the nods to 2001. <<
I'm not a huge fan of 2001, but I caught some of those. Lucy-progenitor was the most obvious. The whole concept of ascension was another.
>> In the meantime, I think I'm building an altar to Lucy. Let's hear it for ascended beings... <<
Go for it.
If you haven't seen Claymore that's another extremely rare example I've seen of powerful female tentacle monsters.
Re: I have seen it!!!
Date: 2014-08-31 09:50 pm (UTC)The flash drive at the end was a total nod to the Monolith and I'd bet you it's 1 x 6 x 9 in scale, considering it was full of stars. *g*
I will check out Claymore!
Re: I have seen it!!!
Date: 2014-08-31 11:14 pm (UTC)Kinda wish I could afford a black opal that size, for a pendant of it.
>> I will check out Claymore! <<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claymore_(manga)
It's a lot more complicated in terms of blending pro-woman and anti-woman content, but the artwork is gorgeous and the relationships complex. Well worth watching. There have been some awesome feminist critiques of it, but they keep disappearing from the web so I can't link back to them. :(
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-02 06:32 pm (UTC)I can just imagine the Joker-egregore watching Lucy, snarfing Skittles, and saying, "This is more fun than the SmileX. I gotta get me some of that shit."
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-31 09:13 pm (UTC)Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-31 09:30 pm (UTC)The closest to a legitimate complaint I've seen is that it's a myth for humans to be using only 10% of their brain. All the tissue is active. But most people use nowhere near its potential. Thing is, it takes a bookcase full of complex material to explain that, which would not fit into a movie. So I view the 10% riff as a metaphor, which in context, works just fine. Much of the examples were things people can actually do -- speed learning, body mastery, mental influence, even levitation are all associated with mind/body gurus. So that was cool.
The claim of racism just makes me shake my head. I mean, sheesh, the bad guys were playing mah jongg, the Asian surgeon was freaking awesome, and the black guy was still alive at the end. Go home, argument, you're drunk.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-31 09:48 pm (UTC)I could not figure out the racism thing at all and frankly, I found no problem with the brain trope, because the argument was really about conscious versus unconscious control of the brain, and yes, everything you said. That's a whole book and another mini series to explain.
Yeah. Go home, argument.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-04-20 01:43 pm (UTC)