By Brett Blake LUCY is the sort of movie that attempts to straddle a lot of genres: it’s an action film, it’s a drug-smuggling crime flick, and it’s an out-there, wild-and-crazy science fiction tale. On paper, tying those ideas into one story sounds like an ambitious and exciting task, but the problem here is that none of the elements really get much room to breathe, and the film as a whole - though certainly entertaining - never feels like it really becomes one cohesive package. The plot centers around Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), who - very much against her will - is roped into a seedy, dangerous drug smuggling operation; being used as a drug mule of sorts, Lucy’s luck gets even worse when - through plot shenanigans - she begins to absorb the drugs she’s smuggling. The side effect of this is that she begins to be able to access more and more of her brain capacity, which brings about some startling transformations within her. Morgan Freeman pops up along the way as Professor Norman, an expert in the field of genetics and brain research, to counsel Lucy as she finds herself gaining more and more unusual powers. Revenge-fueled antics then ensue. That basic premise is a compelling one, and there are definitely things that the movie has on its mind; there are some big science fiction ideas in here about the loss of one’s humanity as one’s intellect increases, and also about the responsibilities that come with extraordinary gifts, but for the most part, these notions kind of get lost in the B-movie sensibilities that writer/director Luc Besson brings to the table, sensibilities that frequently make the movie feel incredibly weird and silly. It’s the writing that really is the key problem, here. For a movie that is about a person whose brain capacity increases, LUCY is a shockingly ill-thought-out story. It’s the kind of narrative that escalates in the most incredulity-straining ways, but never reaches any kind of satisfactory climax. It builds and builds and builds and then simply stops without much of a resolution. I imagine the kind of conversations that went on between Besson and those around him during the writing phase might have sounded a bit like this: “Okay, so Lucy gets these crazy drugs inside of her.” And then? “Well, then she can suddenly kick people’s asses and is proficient with weapons!” And then? “She’s able to type on two computers at the same time, and control electronics!” And then? “Um, well, what if she can start to read people’s minds?” And then? “Uh… she gets telekinetic powers!” And then? “Oh, let’s see. Oh! I’ve got it! She…” I’ll go no further (to preserve just how totally strange the final act of the movie becomes), but you get the picture. Nothing about the story feels adequately set up or planned, it’s just a series of increasingly-outlandish moments that don’t seem like they have much (if any) organic connection to one another. Also, the fact that the plot is built around the (incredibly untrue) myth that humans “use only 10% of their brains” (a fallacy stated by Morgan Freeman’s supposedly-brilliant - and walking storytelling cliche - Doctor Exposition character) makes the whole thing feel unbelievably silly, because the outlandishness has absolutely no basis in any kind of realistic, plausible scientific theory or research. And that’s fine, I guess, up to a point; this is a science fiction film, after all, so artistic license comes with the territory, but you’d be hard pressed to come out of this film not thinking the whole thing was pretty ridiculous. Now, of course, ridiculous can be fun, and there is fun to be had in LUCY. The way it gleefully plunges forward into the increasing insanity with a straight face is actually kind of charming, and the action (though surprisingly sparse) has a violent and nasty edge to it that sets it apart from some of the more bland actioners director Besson has been associated with over the years. Additionally, the movie looks quite slick, and it makes decent use of the globe-trotting locales to which the story heads. This review no doubt reads as more negative than positive up to this point, but the biggest positive has yet to be discussed: Scarlett Johansson’s performance, which is legitimately great. She’s got a convincing physical presence in all of the action stuff, but where she really shines is in charting the emotional transformation that Lucy undergoes along with the intellectual and physical ones. Lucy begins the story as a fairly normal gal, one who quickly becomes scared for her life as she gets involved with the shady villains in the drug business, but once she begins to “access more of her brain” (a real line from the film; I told you it was silly…), her entire personality changes, and Johansson starts to bring a semi-chilling sort of detachment to the proceedings. The detachment increases as Lucy gains more and more brain capacity, until she’s rendered something approaching a sentient robot: frighteningly intelligent and articulate, but with few emotional connections. Johansson is great at selling this transformation, and she gets one wonderful scene in particular (a phone call from Lucy to her mother as she starts to become aware that things are changing inside of her) that is so good, so genuine and affecting, that it almost feels like it belongs in a better movie. Though LUCY is constructed in a wobbly - and perhaps unsatisfying - fashion, it grapples with some intriguing concepts; yes, these concepts are kind of fumbled by the silly execution, but the movie deserves credit for trying to be about something, just as Scarlett Johansson deserves credit for nearly saving the entire film single-handedly. LUCY could be called a misfire, but it’s an interesting one, certainly, and Johansson’s work alone is worth seeing.
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