Lucy

In “Lucy”, Scarlett Johansson’s mental capacity is expanded far beyond human limits. This plot line is nothing new to Sci Fi movies. Usually the person with the jacked up brain can levitate, stop bullets in midair, suspend time and look through people’s clothing (whoops, that’s my wish). In Lucy, Luc Besson, the director and writer, brought a fresh interpretation to this genre. Besson has directed some excellent Sci Fi and action movies such as the “Fifth Element”, “District 13”and “Nikita”. Lucy is fast paced and has a multiple plot points. There is much going on in the movie: time travel, drugs, Chinese triads, dinosaurs, scientists, the French and a sprinkling of Italians. However, this mish mash work together.

Johansson is an unwilling drug mule who after a beating is contaminated by the drugs she is carrying. This triggers her transformation to a super human. Johansson is an established dramatic actress, but of late she is also a sexy action star (The Black Widow in the Avengers). She is credible handling a gun and shows no compulsion committing mass killings. As super Lucy she walks around in a semi daze and is mechanical in delivering her lines. This is all part of her transformation. The film actually shows percentage clips indicating her mental growth (2%, 10%, 20% etc…).These sign posts are meant to heighten our expectations, but are more funny than effective.

The other leading actor is Morgan Freeman as the distinguished university professor specializing in the human brain. For the most part Freeman is the narrator explaining the power of the brain and the possibilities of expanding those limits (humans use 1% and dolphins use 2%, yeah but we have legs). When he interacts with Lucy it is with amazement as to what she can do. By the time they meet she is beyond his neurological knowledge.

The rest of the cast is multinational. The Chinese triades own the drugs and to get them back they unleash a torrent of violence. The drug lord did not speak English so he always needed an interpreter, even by phone. Seeing new international actors in familiar roles makes the movie interesting. The French cops were the good guys, but they spoke English with a Pepe Le Pew accent.  The Italians cops did not speak English but they looked really cool in their Bottega leather jackets.

Some parts of the movie were prone to excess. To give a sense of what hyper Lucy was experiencing there was a flood of images from dinosaurs to cells splitting rapidly. The terrestrial scenes looked like National Geographic on speed. As Lucy reaches higher levels of brain capacity her human form becomes unrecognizable.

I may go see it again, but where did I leave my wallet?