Lucy - One Badd Bish!

Ever watch a movie, and when it was finished, you were confused by your feelings toward the movie, but you'd watch it again?  That's how we felt about Lucy starring ScarJo (that's Scarlett Johansson to you).  I went to see the movie with my movie buddy, E, and one of my closets friends who happens to be his girlfriend, K.  E and I kinda dragged her along.  E and I both agreed that we would watch it again, but couldn't decided if we liked it or not, and K, well, she made it through it.

Lucy is a French-American sci-fi action film with very little action, a lot of asians, and a whole lot of science-fiction.  Lucy has ingested a powerful drug that is allowing her to use more of her brain capacity because humans only use 7% of their brain power.  Because of this drug, she continues to use more and more of her brain power as the day continues which causes her to evolve in a way that allows her to have complete control over just about everything and everyone.  Morgan Freeman's character, Professor Norman, has studied the human mind his whole career and is eager to learn from Lucy how her newfound brain capacity effects her.  Throughout all of this, some asian drug dealers are after her to get their drugs back.

The movie is intriguing.  I was very eager to see what was going to happen next.  There wasn't nearly as much action as we would have liked, and the end got to be EXTREMELY science-fiction.  I don't know what we were supposed to learn at the end of the movie, but I was entertained and questioned if more brain capacity is a good thing.  For sci-fi junkies, it's a must see and I feel like it will be a cult classic.  I, also, feel like I need to see it again.  Lucy is one of those movies that every time you watch it, you'll catch something else.  Is it great?  I'm undecided, but I'll give it another chance, and so should you because regardless of how I feel about it, Lucy is one badd bish!

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Animal instinct or human nature?

Have you ever seen a monkey riding a horse waving two semi-automatic weapons in the air?  No, it's not the circus, it's part of the plot in the newest instillation to the Planet of the Apes series, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  I know that a horse riding monkey seems quite comical, but honestly there was nothing funny about a massive amount of apes coming at you by trees, by feet, or by horse.  Caesar was one intimidating talking monkey on horse or not.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes picks up ten years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  Caesar (a monkey from the previous movie who learned a lot of human traits by living with a human) and his monkey crew have gone into the woods and developed a life together while the human population has dwindled away due to the simeon flu.  We find that because of Caesar's intelligence, he's taught his pack to live a lot like humans in make-shift and somewhat elaborate homes, how to read, write, and speak.  A small group of humans looking for a dam that will help them survive, accidentally find the apes and war between humans and apes is on the verge of starting because of the actions and emotions of both humans and apes.

Watching this movie, a feel like a question has been posed, "are our emotions animalistic or human nature?"  Apes show many emotions in the movie: anger, compassion, love, hate, etc.  Hate and anger lead to war, while compassion and love try to stop the war.  Does that mean that we are more animal-like than we would like to admit?  I know a lot of humans believe what sets us apart from animals is our ability to control our emotions and make decisions, but what if how we feel is apart of our natural animal-instincts? Caesar and his group of apes live by the motto, Ape shall not kill Ape, and humans have been trying to live by a similar value since the beginning of time and failing miserably.  What does that say about our human-nature?

I'm not so sure if the writers of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes were trying to make the movie so thought provoking, but I found it to be.  With all the heart-pounding action, ape-tastical violence, ferocious fight scenes (ape vs human, ape vs ape, human vs human), and gut-wrenching emotion, I'm sure we were just supposed to be entertained by what is on the screen, and I was, but I couldn't helping thinking were the apes using their animal instincts or what they learned from humans to fuel their emotions?  Either way, I enjoyed the movie and can't wait to see where the next movie takes us because I'm sure there will be another Planet of the Apes movie after this.