‘Lucy’ Movie Review: Scarlett Johansson can’t save Luc Besson’s sci-fi mess
A science fiction fantasy about unlocking 100 percent of the brain’s potential only succeeds with people who don’t want to use their own cerebral cortex. Lucy star Scarlett Johansson who is transformed into a Matrix-inspired superhero as Morgan Freeman attempts to brainwash the audience into believing Luc Besson’s film is scientifically possible.
Lucy is plain American student kidnapped by a Taiwanese gangster and forced into being a drug mule. During the events fully ruined in the trailer, the drugs (CPH4 in powder form) begins to transform Lucy into a human who will ultimately be able to use 100% of her brain. The simplicity of this plot is enhanced by one chase scene and a decent villain in Mr. Jang (Choi Min-sik).
Besson uses Nat Geo footage to create a distracting metaphor and 2001 inspired footage to pave the way to the horrible scientific ramblings from Freeman’s character. Lucy is one of the most entertaining bad films in years, never being a thriller, offering little action and assumes the audience is too dumb to know the science is bogus.
“It’s not true,” Besson said in a July 23 Wired interview. “The good thing with movies is that you mix up everything and then in the end it looks real.”
No, not it doesn’t.
Johansson is truly awesome in the first few scenes and then just becomes a useful idiot in Besson’s attempt to make Lucy increasingly Godlike. “All that matters is time” and not numbers, except we measure time with numbers because “we never really die” and end up “everywhere.”
There’s no believable reason that increased brain use would enable us to toss other humans around like an angry Anakin Skywalker. Moreoever, there constant errors, people driving in Europe on the wrong side of the vehicle and when the police officer Pierre (Amr Waked) wonders why he’s still along for the ride with Lucy, we are asking the same question.
Johansson and the opening twenty minutes or so are enough to draw the audience in, but never deliver as an action film, thriller or a decent Sci-Fi film. Sadly this was by design as Besson didn’t want it to be thriller, hence the cheetah and cells dividing (go back to that Wired interview).
Overall Lucy gets a generous 2 stars out of 5 stars.
Some critics are going to like this film and it can be a decent guilty pleasure for an escape from the mundane of regular life – just not at theater prices. Expect Lucy to live long and prosper through FX and SyFy Channel airings.
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