Director: Luc Besson

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi, Amr Waked, Pilou Asbaek, Analeigh Tipton, Julian Rhind-Tutt

Rating: C-

Lucy is a film that works hard at giving us an explanation of evolution while it explains that humans only use 10% of their brain power. The question is asked “What would happen if mankind achieved 100% brain capacity?” To answer the question the storyline of the film follows Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) as she goes through a metamorphosis into a superwoman that can kick some serious butt.

Lucy is a force to be reckoned with as she fulfills her quest for vengeance while on a mission to leave mankind’s answers to the mysteries of the universe. Will Director Luc Besson’s (The Fifth Element) action packed sci-fi thriller be the new blockbuster moviegoers will seek this summer?

Lucy is hoodwinked into delivering a package to some unsavory Korean businessmen by her boyfriend, Richard (Pilou Asbaek). Scared out of her wits, Lucy tries to talk her way out of the situation just after she witnesses her boyfriend getting shot to death outside a fancy hotel lobby. Her powers of persuasion fail and the next thing Lucy knows is that she’s waking up after surgery. The gangsters that grabbed her surgically implanted a bag of CH4, a new moneymaking wonder drug, inside her stomach so that she can go undetected as they send her on a mission to deliver the goods to counterparts across the world. Things take a turn when some of the hoodlums beat up Lucy.

The bag breaks in her stomach causing the crystal blue substance to leak into her body. As her body absorbs CH4, Lucy is transformed into a super human with all kinds of abilities.

Meanwhile, at a college lecture hall in France, Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman) is teaching his students all sorts of theories on evolution and that we have untapped brain power. He compares the 10% abilities of humans vs. dolphins whose brains actually developed an internal sonar system. The Professor speculates on what will happen if mankind manages to achieve brain power greater than 10%.

Professor Norman’s concepts come to life as Lucy continues to transform. While her body is absorbing the drug, her smarts graduate from 10% to 20% to 30% and we know she is well on her way to harnessing a 100% of brain power. Lucy knows she will not survive her transformation and manages to reach out to Professor Norman. She explains her situation to him by miraculously tapping into his TV. She tells the lecturer that she is on her way to meet him so that she can impart whatever knowledge she has acquired to him before she dies. This pretty much sums up the first third of the movie which is engaging, intriguing, and action packed. Then the film starts spinning out of control as the storyline goes completely bonkers!

When Lucy first gets captured, a scene flashes across the screen of a Cheetah capturing its helpless prey. I guess that was thrown just in case we did not know Lucy, who was in the hands of several creepy mobsters, was completely helpless at that point. We get other unneeded glimpses of wild life throughout the film to help us along in the event we didn’t understand what was really going on the movie. But flashing back and forth between the wildlife scenes only succeeds to break the continuity and flow of the movie.

Lucy is developing superpowers faster than the speed of light. So it never really makes sense why she has to manipulate car chases, fight bad guys, and dodge bullets. Why not just have Lucy fly, stop time, or wave the traffic away? If Lucy is so powerful she could potentially control everything around her, eliminate bloodshed, and make her life easy breezy as she sets out to complete her life’s journey. Instead there is a ton of violence and a completely worthless fight scene at the end of the film that makes no sense at all. It seems completely ridiculous when the bad guys unload guns in the middle of a busy Paris street and no one questions what they are doing. They are able to freely walk into a research facility and start shooting. No one ever notices that Lucy is walking around with blood all over her face in the first part of the movie, which only adds to the silliness of the plot. This is especially true when Lucy goes back to her apartment and Caroline (Analeigh Tipton), a chatterbox roommate, never notices the blood or the disheveled look Lucy is sporting.

Lucy figures out that she only has hours to live and to reach 100% capacity she needs more of the drug. While some may wonder how Lucy figures all this out along with answers to other questions, there are plenty of reminders in the film that she does not need to acquire knowledge – after all – she is using a greater percentage of her brain and just knows things! With Lucy being invincible she is never in any real danger, which in turn provides no real suspense or climax in the movie. The ending winds up flat leaving nothing for thrill seeking audiences to grab onto.

Johansson plays scared extremely well and does nicely as a bad ass lady not to be crossed. She delivers her lines with that famous raspy voice but can never really rise to her character’s potential because of the way the script is written. Playing a father figure role in Lucy, something he has done well many times before, Morgan Freeman does not really have much else to do in the movie. The bad guys are all very one dimensional and we never really know who they are and how they got involved with the CH4 drug in the first place.

In the famous and now classic film The Matrix the lead character, Neo, taps into his potential and learns self-awareness to conquer all. This is the same premise in Lucy. Unfortunately, this film completely misses the mark and winds up like a total train wreck by the end. It seems there was a complete lack of brain cells used to formulate the screenplay. Perhaps if the filmmakers had tapped into 10% of the 10% brain intellect we are all supposed to possess, then this mess of a movie could have been saved.

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