Lucy (2014)
4/10
Ironic that a film about making complete use of one’s brain should turn out to be so dumb. The premise of Lucy, written and directed by Luc Besson, is nonsense. It revolves around the myth that humans only use 10% of our brains, for which there is no scientific evidence. That in itself is not a fatal flaw; Limitless (2011)had a similar premise and was fairly entertaining. The problem with Lucy is that its story is both totally implausible and a confused mess, which loses all impact once we realize its heroine for all intents and purposes can do anything.
Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is an American student in Taipei whose scummy new boyfriend tricks her into becoming an unwilling drug mule. Korean drug lord Jang (Choi Min-sik) has his goons sew a package of a synthetic drug, CPH4, into her abdomen. When she is kicked in the stomach and the bag breaks, Lucy’s exposure to the drug allows her to unleash that “unused” 90% of her brain, her abilities increasing as the story progresses. She contacts Paris cop Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked) to locate three remaining drug packets and seeks out Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman), a scientist whose research might help her understand her growing power.
While Lucy’s abilities start out convincing enough for a sci-fi/action flick, they quickly spiral into unbelievable nonsense. Lucy develops telepathy and telekinesis. She can physically transform her body. She can mentally time travel. Before anyone accuses me, a Superman fan, of hypocrisy , I would respond that even Superman has better defined explanations for and limits to his powers than Lucy does. Kryptonite provides a signature weakness that can weaken and even kill him. Lucy appears to have no such weakness. Even if you accept telepathy and telekinesis, it’s one thing to hear others’ thoughts and move people and objects with your mind; it’s another to instantly change your hair colour and length or grow an extra hand. Suspension of disbelief can only go so far, and this movie stretched mine past its breaking point.
Plot and character motivations are muddled and illogical. A big climactic shootout is much sound and fury signifying nothing, not least because the lead protagonist isn’t even involved. Lucy’s goals in the finale are unclear. There are lots of moments where characters say and do stupid things.
Johansson is the reason I watched Lucy in the first place—the death of the movie star may be greatly exaggerated—and while her performance is very watchable and the best part of the film, there isn’t that much to the character. It’s interesting seeing the contrast between Lucy feeling scared and in over her head when she first falls into the clutches of Jang, versus her cold, ruthless demeanour as an unstoppable badass once exposed to the CPH4. The fact that she loses emotions after developing her abilities means that Johansson is in Terminator mode for much of the running time. On one hand that’s cool, but on the other we don’t get much of a feel for who the “normal” Lucy was.
The action scenes are fun and deliver more or less what’s promised. But Lucy herself is so overpowered, the “science” so absurd, and the script so muddled that the movie is mediocre at best. If you just want to see Scarlett Johansson looking cool and being a ruthless killing machine, you’ll get what you came for. If you’re looking for a movie with any semblance of plausibility or coherence, look elsewhere.