Luc Besson

It's pretty obvious that Luc Besson is most definitely one of us. The girls in his movies are very often supernatural beings with supernatural powers, although he knows how to play things out differently.

In The Fifth Element, Jovovic plays a woman who is the center of everything and the key to save the world, but the main character is actually a (obviously) tough Bruce Willis. It's probably Besson's "easiest" film.

In Nikita, the main character is a girl who becomes a killing machine.

In Angel-A, which I've just finished watching and prompted me to open this topic, a troubled, weak male is saved by a powerful, tall, imposing, gorgeus, supernatural blonde. This movie spoke to me on so many levels I almost cried watching it.

And then there's the upcoming movie with Scarlett Johansson in the role of a woman whose mental capabilities are boundless.

I still have to watch the others. Any favourite one you'd like to suggest? What are your opinions about his films?

I liked Lucy, I liked Lucy a lot.
The Fifth Element was really cool. They had me with the trailer.
A simple black screen with the narrator stating: "The Fifth Element must be Found"
Did not care for Nikita and I have not seen Angel A

I love Fifth Element but have not seen / do not want to see Lucy. Lee-loo was a great character and you saw her innocence / dealing with being super-badass where as Lucy looks more like a sociopathic robot who kills innocent people. That’s not sexy.

Give Lucy a chance. She is not the character you think she is.

I just watched Angel-A after reading these posts... excellent movie. Well written, well acted and it overlaps this genre enough to be fun. Subtitled for those of us who don't understand French. And even if your French is passable, every word of dialog is important, so that worked for me.

It manages to simultaneously be naive, innocent and very mature and worldly. Something only a French movie can pull off.

Actually one of the points about the original Nikita(which i may say: maybe my favorite film of his) is that she starts out as a killing machine-and if anything she becomes progressivly more human. The Remake and the TV show to a certain extent tone that element down a lot.

Also you forget Messenger about Joan of Arc His one film that is Oscar Bait-its not a great film but there is something fun to his depicition of a historical Woman Warrior as a kind of crazy that works for it. The Orleans scene is something to see.

Luc Besson and Josh Whedon both have trouble making films that don't feature an unnaturally powerful female. The difference is that Josh's super girls are teenagers, and Luc's are twentyish.

Lucky for us that they have this "problem".

Lucy shot a taxi driver because he didnt speak English. The movie did not interest me, but then again I am interested in girls with superpowers who use them to beat up people ... more about girls with superpowers who use them to help out their daily lives.

Yes, I am NOT interested in girls who use their powers for violent means. Sure my characters do sometimes, but they commonly would rather not.

Apart from the monotone, sosiopathic, egotistical attitude of Lucy (again, as seen in the trailer), the whole concept just did not make sense to me. Luc Besson was trying to make everything believable (what with the brain % and what not, which we all know is horrible inaccurate), but I think he ruined it (for me) by trying to keep it grounded in reality. As odd as it may seem, the story would have been more believable if it was something more unbelievable (like she was hit by magic lightning and her brain went hay-wire). Then we can just go “Oh, magic lighting. Weird, but I’ll bite.” (Much like Dr. Manhattan / Watchmen, we don’t need the science / explanation to believe it.) I know the “drugs” are very central to the plot, but being a very logical person, having her powers and their origins explained was also something that turned me off.

I think the main reason Lucy turned me off is that my character Hannah is strikingly similar. Both have short blonde hair. Both are 20ish. Both love to party and are super hot (well, Hannah becomes hot later). Both were suddenly given incredible power (Hannah randomly become completely omnipotent overnight where Lucy has super-drugs). I saw Lucy as an Evil Hannah (and yes, I understand Lucy isn’t supposed to be evil). Lucy is girl who decided to use her great power to fight bad guys and get revenge as she continued to evolve further and further towards omnipotence. She also seems to lose her emotions, which also makes no sense to me. Hannah decided to NOT use her great power much at all, but instead created a supermodel alter ego because she was tired of being ignored and wanted to be “mega-hot”. Hannah is an omnipotent being with great morals and a desire to experience the new joys her powers can bring her, where as I see Lucy as “Fuck you, I have powers. I’m better than you.”. Hannah is extremely angelic, and in fact sometimes turns into an angel because she thinks having wings is cool. Lucy likes guns and has a blank stare. Hannah smiles.

I do prefer characters with a full range of emotions, characters who don’t just put on spandex and fight crime but deal with more every day things like “How do I tell my friends I can fly? Do I?” or “What if Mom and Dad find I can read their minds?” or “How can I fall in love with someone when I can just MAKE them be in love with me (as seen in an episode of Star Trek TNG).” I never understood why the mutants in X-Men all suited up and fought each other. Wouldn’t a housewife who can teleport still just be a housewife ... and occasionally teleport? I make it a point in my stories to NOT explain where their powers come from so clearly.

I’m not saying Lucy is a bad movie by any means ... but personally I am greatly turned off by it. I honestly did not write for many months after seeing the trailer as I could not get the idea of Evil Hannah out of my head.

I started writing about Tiffany instead. That’s something else.

enchantederotica wrote:
I do prefer characters with a full range of emotions, characters who don’t just put on spandex and fight crime but deal with more every day things like “How do I tell my friends I can fly? Do I?” or “What if Mom and Dad find I can read their minds?” or “How can I fall in love with someone when I can just MAKE them be in love with me (as seen in an episode of Star Trek TNG).” I never understood why the mutants in X-Men all suited up and fought each other. Wouldn’t a housewife who can teleport still just be a housewife ... and occasionally teleport? I make it a point in my stories to NOT explain where their powers come from so clearly.

I agree-my characters tend to go more for the mask and cape route more then you do- but agian emotion. Humanity. "What profits a man who gains the whole world but looses his soul?" Starhawk is about a character who in the last chapter Still she gives it up just to be with the person she loves. Its less intresting then going apple picking. Even when mostly there less powerful, i just like to show pyschology-and story-and most people are fundementally decent-and the more powerful you are the less reasion to a degree not to.

In my longest story tales of an Mazing girl-Sarah is Superman level strong-but well shes a semi successful prop master in Hollywood. andt a kinda sucesful superhero-and to me the fun of it is all about the "kinda"- she could easily destory the city or something-nothing could stop her.Not the police not the army- and shes a woman who voluntarily watched first season and a half of jersey shore. The moral responsibility placed in her is tremendous-but she is fundamentally decent who is willing to fight for what she believes in and values human life.

Which is why Lucy doesn't do it for me-they obviously tone it down a bit from the trailer, but yeah she has no compaction about valuing anyones life as an indivudal(other then in probabbly the best scene in the movie her mother) I get what we he is going for, and its a flashy movie which you can respect but yeah.

That said i agree with Dru-its great that the movie sucseeded at the box office- I do think if nothing else maybe it will clue hollywood or someone like it- but yeah.

Castor

PS. Enchanted Erotica: X men plays a fair amount of lipservice to the times of "Well we can just be normal lives"-in practice..... well its a comic book. This is kind of why i don't like X men much.

Your comment about Lucy was my biggest problem: lack of empathy. We all have different directions we would go if granted omnipotence/superpowers, and I like to explore the avenues less traveled. Lucy and Chronicle are more “I’d mess with people / kill people.” Carrie is more “I just want to be normal ... but don’t push me.” My Character Hannah is “I want to live my dream ... but not let anyone know it.” My other character Celeste is more like Q ... “I’d totally mess with people ... but in the end be nice to them (or at least to the crew of Star Trek TNG)”.

However, I am curious about this “scene with her mother” as I wrote a chapter about my Omnipotent Hannah visiting her parents. Her parents are completely average and well aware that their daughter is somehow all-powerful. It was my attempt to do the opposite of what Twilight Zone did with their “creepy Cornfield” kid: a kid who seems to have omnipotent powers and doesn’t mind sending his parents friend to “the cornfield” aka “kill them” if they think bad thoughts. I guess I saw a lot of that kid in Lucy as well ... and that kid creeped me out!

watched Colombiana as well, written and produced by Besson (and directed by a guy called Megaton).
It's basically your average Hollywood action movie with revenge as a main theme and some Spanish thrown in the middle. A watered down version of Nikita, just a Catwoman-like girl kicking asses in the old fashioned way. Still, it's a movie about a beautiful woman beating the shit out of everyone. Recommended for a lazy night.