Lucy: Movie Review

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Analeigh Tipton, Min-Sik Choi (Rated MA – 90 min).

All intellectual stimulation, science and magic become one with an unrestrained Scarlett Johansson as Lucy. Extraordinary, ingenious high concept action thriller involving lashings of finely-tuned inserts to explain plot details that although are never quite tangible, are still incredibly exciting. It’s a no holds barred, science-fiction laced French production by renowned Director Luc Besson.

Without giving away her exact predicament, the story of Lucy takes a turn after being forced by shady henchmen to deliver a briefcase, this relatively simple assignment goes haywire when she is kidnapped and illegally operated on to insert a mysterious package inside her abdomen to become a virtual courier.

Upon awakening, the mysterious package begins to leak, exasperating her human capabilities fast tracking them 100% of cerebral activity. Her super intelligence builds but so does the risk of spontaneous combustion.

Lucy is transformed into a merciless warrior turning the tables on her captors demanding answers with aggressive negotiations usually involving evasive mind control. She feels no pain, no fear, no desires, is telepathic, sees the future and can plug herself into the internet. Thankfully much more acceptable than Johnny Depp in the awful Transcendence. No stranger to explosive action sequences having appeared as Black Widow within the ongoing Marvel universe, Johansson is a superior heroine, robotic in manner but flexible in attack.

Morgan Freeman as Professor Norman intersperses his voice of reason while lecturing on the inadequate tapping of the human brain to his class, in the meantime the Professor discovers Lucy defying his logic.

Shades of Inception and 2001 A Space Odyssey come to light during unreasonable obscure plot declarations, while animal references are edited into scenes as irony to Lucy and nature. The only real downer is that Lucy has no conclusion, like The Terminator, it’s an infinity mission and the situations run out of steam by the finale.

Other than an amazing streets of Paris car chase, straightforward shoot-em-up action this is not. Expendables 3, is coming soon with a higher kill ratio and much more accessible.

Shane A. Bassett

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