Review of Lucy (2014) by Andy N — 17 May 2015

Lucy is an entertaining science fiction romp from the mind of Luc Besson. I love Besson's filmography because he just does not give a shit where his material goes. Some of it is good and some of it is bad, obviously, but love him or hate him you have to respect him.

This is the guy that made The Professional, The Fifth Element, for better or worse, The Transporter, District B-13, etc. So here we have Lucy starring the talented Scarlet Johansson. She's not really given much script wise to do which is odd seeing as how she's the main character.

Besson's idea of 100% brain power means that the human loses their humanity essentially so she's really good at playing cold and robotic, but she's supposed to feel everything and remember everything.

There's a really touching scene early on where she calls her mother from an operating table and really emotes to another character, after that...who gives a shit...she's going to use her mind to control people, matter, etc.

Emotions, who needs em when you can toss people through walls with your mind and travel through time. Like a lot of Besson's stream of conscious films, Lucy is plagued with characters you could care less about or are there as plot devices or people to explain the story.

Morgan Freeman is wasted here and there's a French cop who comes into play about halfway through the film who even though Lucy claims that he's there to help her remember humanity...nothing else is said and nothing else is learned.

The action scenes are forgettable with the exception of one really cool car race/chase through the streets of Paris. Unlocking 100% of the brain has been a big story idea for a few movies now, and it's even getting it's own TV show with guest appearances by Bradley Cooper in a TV series continuation of his film Limitless.

Lucy shoots for the stars, never quite breaks the atmosphere but I'll be damned if I didn't say I had a bit of fun with this film.