Coming from the mind that brought us Leon and The Fifth Element, Luc Besson, Lucy is yet another piece of fiction that grabs onto the myth t...
Coming from the mind that brought us Leon and The Fifth Element, Luc Besson, Lucy is yet another piece of fiction that grabs onto the myth that humans only use ten percent of their brain capacity, and tells a story of a mere human gaining extraordinary powers by accessing those unused parts of their brain. We've seen it in the likes of Limitless and Phenomenon, and the myth even forms part of the origin of the DC Comics character Deathstroke. It is pure bull cocky of the highest order, but presents unlimited narrative possibilities, so it's understandable that it still pops up in fiction from time to time. In the case of Lucy, it veers closer to trying to pass it off as science fact as opposed to science fiction, but that misstep aside, this is an exciting and visually stunning action flick, with Besson firing on all cylinders for what feels like the first time in a long while.
Cosying up to the wrong type of guy at a club, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) finds herself an unwilling drug mule, ferrying the synthetic human growth hormone CPH4 for the imposing Mr. Jang (Choi Min-sik). When the contents of the package forcibly placed inside her body begin to leak, she finds her mind expanding as she develops super human powers, such as telekinesis and the ability to see electrical signals (she becomes a one woman X-Men team, essentially). For all the big and crazy ideas at the core of Lucy, which truthfully nicks beats from the likes of the aforementioned Limitless and even Anime classic Akira, the narrative is surprising simple. It's a race against time as Lucy makes her way from Taipei to Paris to meet Morgan Freeman's expert on the human brain before her own hits one hundred percent. It's Freeman's character, Professor Samuel Norman, that forms the major problem with Lucy. It puts far to much effort in passing the myth off as a plausible, respected theory, and having the first act dominated by a lecture given by Norman where he is not laughed off the stage for dedicating his life to the subject is overkill. It's a fun little science fiction plot device, nothing more, and trying to convince us it is more than that robs some fun from the experience.
Thankfully, with the first act out of the way, Lucy really hits it stride, with Besson delivering the style, with a tiny smidgen of substance thrown in for good measure. Lucy is slightly one note as a character, evolving into a emotionless automaton by the end of the movie, but there are flashes of emotion early on from her, especially in a deeply affecting scene where she talks to her mother about memories, previously lost to her, flooding her brain all at once. Jang and his cronies, looking to get their drugs back, do feel shoehorned in (as does Amr Waked's police officer sidekick to Lucy), but the inclusion of a bad guy was needed to tick the action boxes of the plot. Besson's efforts of late, his English language ones at least, have been poor to say the least, but Lucy sees the man back on form again, delivering some amazing visuals and set pieces, and just constructing a beautiful looking movie. There are some stylistic touches, such as using stock footage to punctuate plot points, that are jarring at first, but considering you are sitting down to watch a movie where woman gets godlike powers from a drug, you should be ready to accept anything.
The action scenes come quick, fast, and dominated with CGI, but they do include some edge of your seat stuff, including a fantastic car chase that is not really a chase. It'll make sense when you see it. The second act and much of the third moves along at a great pace, and for a movie with a 89 minute run time, there is quite a lot gong on. But once it has the finale in it's sights, it tips over the line of almost acceptable crazy sci-fi logic it was teetering over, into the realm of undiluted ridiculousness. The movie doesn't exactly fall at the final hurdle, but it is definitely a serious stumble that costs it a ranking.
While it may have helped it to ease up on the throttle of its bonkers plot, Lucy is still a thoroughly entertaining Summer movie, and it is great to have the Besson who entertained us so much in the 90's back.
Cosying up to the wrong type of guy at a club, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) finds herself an unwilling drug mule, ferrying the synthetic human growth hormone CPH4 for the imposing Mr. Jang (Choi Min-sik). When the contents of the package forcibly placed inside her body begin to leak, she finds her mind expanding as she develops super human powers, such as telekinesis and the ability to see electrical signals (she becomes a one woman X-Men team, essentially). For all the big and crazy ideas at the core of Lucy, which truthfully nicks beats from the likes of the aforementioned Limitless and even Anime classic Akira, the narrative is surprising simple. It's a race against time as Lucy makes her way from Taipei to Paris to meet Morgan Freeman's expert on the human brain before her own hits one hundred percent. It's Freeman's character, Professor Samuel Norman, that forms the major problem with Lucy. It puts far to much effort in passing the myth off as a plausible, respected theory, and having the first act dominated by a lecture given by Norman where he is not laughed off the stage for dedicating his life to the subject is overkill. It's a fun little science fiction plot device, nothing more, and trying to convince us it is more than that robs some fun from the experience.
Thankfully, with the first act out of the way, Lucy really hits it stride, with Besson delivering the style, with a tiny smidgen of substance thrown in for good measure. Lucy is slightly one note as a character, evolving into a emotionless automaton by the end of the movie, but there are flashes of emotion early on from her, especially in a deeply affecting scene where she talks to her mother about memories, previously lost to her, flooding her brain all at once. Jang and his cronies, looking to get their drugs back, do feel shoehorned in (as does Amr Waked's police officer sidekick to Lucy), but the inclusion of a bad guy was needed to tick the action boxes of the plot. Besson's efforts of late, his English language ones at least, have been poor to say the least, but Lucy sees the man back on form again, delivering some amazing visuals and set pieces, and just constructing a beautiful looking movie. There are some stylistic touches, such as using stock footage to punctuate plot points, that are jarring at first, but considering you are sitting down to watch a movie where woman gets godlike powers from a drug, you should be ready to accept anything.
The action scenes come quick, fast, and dominated with CGI, but they do include some edge of your seat stuff, including a fantastic car chase that is not really a chase. It'll make sense when you see it. The second act and much of the third moves along at a great pace, and for a movie with a 89 minute run time, there is quite a lot gong on. But once it has the finale in it's sights, it tips over the line of almost acceptable crazy sci-fi logic it was teetering over, into the realm of undiluted ridiculousness. The movie doesn't exactly fall at the final hurdle, but it is definitely a serious stumble that costs it a ranking.
While it may have helped it to ease up on the throttle of its bonkers plot, Lucy is still a thoroughly entertaining Summer movie, and it is great to have the Besson who entertained us so much in the 90's back.
