Lucy ** (R) I’m a big fan of both writer/director Luc Besson (The Transporter and Taken series, among the lengthy action credentials he’s racked up since La Femme Nikita) and his star, Scarlett Johansson. Alas, the two have collaborated on a movie that’s truly cool and exciting until it descends into stupidity. Besson’s directing significantly outpaces his writing in this one.
The premise is familiar axiomatic science. Humans only use about 10% of our brain capacity, leaving zillions of neural pathways, with all their unknown potential capabilities, in storage. What if we could use more, or even all of it? What information and collective memories might we access? What physical and mental powers might emerge - perhaps ranging somewhere between superhero and deity? Those prospects are particularly relevant, since Johansson has played the former, and co-star Morgan Freeman the latter in better movies.
Johansson’s character is a college student dating the wrong guy in Taipei. Gangsters force her into serving as a mule for a new designer drug they’ll sell in Europe. When the package they plant in her belly bursts, it expands her mind to the max. Payback and other deployments of these enhancements before the drug overwhelms her drive the plot and its hectic pace. Several sequences show Besson at his best, including one in which Johansson drives through Paris like another Jason Statham.
Find out what's happening in Clayton-Richmond Heightsfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
As to the rest, there are two possibilities. Either Besson didn’t know how to get his cast out of the situation he created, settling for a jumble of splashy, acid-trip array of computer effects that fail to sync with his title character. Or the upper limit of my 10% is so far below his that I’ve missed the point and should have given this a higher rating. If you go, the call is yours. (7/25/14)