Lucy

Lucy is a film that you go into with the mindset of a superhero movie, if you go into it thinking it's going to be be based totally on facts then you'll hate it.  Lucy is a sci-fi action film, not a commentary on morality or the human condition.  Yes Lucy is over the top, yes it's totally unrealistic, yes it's a script written around gun battles and car chases, but as a pure entertainment film it works.

Story

Well the story was kind of thin, there certainly was a script but I think it came second to the gun battles and car chases.  The whole idea of a drug that increases your brain power has been done, Limitless for example, the only difference is Lucy isn't a smart film, it's a dumb action film with fake science to try and make it look smart.  My biggest issue with this film is that it just felt rushed, it seem like they were trying to fit a 2 hour film into a 89 minute slot, if the director had just made the film a little longer and given the audience a little more time to breath this might have been a better film.

Music

The music fit the film very well, fast paced music to drive the scene, drawn out music for the tense moments.  Nothing else really to say, the music fit the film.

Acting

Scarlett Johansson goes from party girl to super cold in one scene, it was kind of like watching her become an even colder Black Widow.  Morgan Freeman was as always great, he could have played every character in Batman & Robin and I still would have to say the acting was great, even if he had bat-nipples!  The rest of the cast was fine, nothing to really go on about so I'll just leave it there.

Conclusion

Lucy is a pure sci-fi action film that is meant as entertainment only, if you can go into this film with that mind set then you'll enjoy it.  I'd say give it a shot, it's not long, and it's just dumb fun.

Citizenfour

Citizenfour is an interesting film, it's a documentary about Edward Snowden as he was preparing to release the NSA spying documents.  Most of the film takes place in Snowden's hotel room in Hong Kong, and while that can sound boring, it was interesting because you see the measures he went to just to make sure that the facts got out and that that the story was about the facts and not him.  The film touches on how the United States is becoming more and more a surveillance state, and the dangers that brings, and what is privacy nowadays in our world.  Also it shows how much Edward Showden had to give up and risk to release this information to the public, it couldn't have been easy and I don't know if I could have done what he did.

Music

From Wikipedia:

The soundtrack consists of portions of the Nine Inch Nails album Ghosts I–IV, which was released under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC-SA) in 2008.

I thought the music fit the film very well, it gave it that edge that you felt while watching it.

Conclusion

Regardless of what you think about Edward Snowden and what he did you should see this film, just to see his side of the story and maybe you'll see just how far the NSA and government is really going to bring an Orwellian 1984 police state to reality.

Justice League: Gods and Monsters

Justice League: Gods and Monsters takes an interesting twist on the origin stories of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, it take place in an alternate universe where the characters are very different and so is the world they live in.  Batman is a half man half bat that drinks blood, Superman is the son of General Zod, and Wonder Woman was married to Darkseid's son.  The Justice League rules with an iron fist, and is willing to kill, leading to the world turning against them.  It's a totally different take on the Justice League but I have to say I liked it.

Story

Overall I liked they way this story was done, it never really lost me and flowed at a good pace.  I liked the fact that there were flash backs for all three of the Justice Leaguers at different times of the film to tell how they came to be the person they became.

Acting

Well it was voice acting, and as much as I love Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly I don't think their voices would have worked as well for these characters.  Also there is the fact that the charterers are much different people than they are in the Justice League we all know and love.  Benjamin Bratt as Superman was a good choice, not to far off from the voice we all know but just different enough to let you know it's not our Superman, same for Wonder Woman with Tamara Taylor voicing her, it was close enough to to the Wonder Woman we all know that it played well.  As for Batman I like that it sounded nothing like the Batman we know, he's the only one in the group who was completely different in every way, casting Michael C. Hall with his monotone voice was perfect for the Batman of this universe.

Music

Well it was a DC film so music wasn't really an issue here, yes it has some music but it never really did anything for me so I can't really say anything other than yes it was there, not that it was bad just that it never really grabbed me.

Conclusion

Justice League: Gods and Monsters is another great film from DC, it sits up there with Under The Red Hood and The Flashpoint Paradox, both excellent films from DC.  One thing I must note though, this is rated PG-13 for a reason, there is murder, blood, and a little language, so if your going to let you children watch this one make sure they can handle that before hand.

If your like me and a fan of the DC Universe then you should definitely see this film.