Film Review: “Lucy”

Despite its persistence, the theory that human beings use only 10
percent of their brain’s capacity has long since been proven false — the
scientific community’s equivalent of an urban legend — but that hasn’t stopped
storytellers from exploiting the way the myth has seeped into the public
consciousness. The widespread fallacy is an easy storytelling device to make
their tales appear to be weighted more heavily on the side of science than
fiction. The latest artist to utilize this idea is French director Luc Besson
(“La Femme Nikita,” “The Fifth Element”) in his stylish, gleefully silly sci-fi
action thriller, “Lucy.”

Scarlett Johansson stars as the titular Lucy, an American
grad student living in Taipei. As the movie opens, she’s being coerced by her
shady new boyfriend to deliver a locked suitcase to a hotel where a
cold-blooded Korean gangster named Mr. Jang (Choi Min-sik, of Park Chan-wook’s
“Oldboy”) awaits its arrival. Before you can say “poor life choices,” the
boyfriend has been shot dead and poor Lucy is strong-armed by thugs and brought
up to Jang’s suite. She’s to be used as a mule to transport the contents of the
suitcase, a experimental new designer drug called CPH4, which promises to
unlock those previously untapped portions of our mind and ostensibly give the
user one hell of a high along the way. But almost immediately the bag
containing the CPH4 inside her bursts, giving her an extreme overdose of the
drug. And that’s when “Lucy” really starts to get nuts.

As the chemical floods her body, it gives Lucy progressively
more control of her brain (title cards appear throughout the film letting us
know exactly what percentage Lucy has gained access to), resulting in the
development of superhuman powers. The rationale Besson uses comes from the
pseudoscience spouted by Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman), the neuroscientist
whom Lucy contacts to learn about what fate might await her. Dolphins utilize
20 percent of their brain, he explains, and that extra oomph gives them sonar
capabilities. He hypothesizes that with increased cerebral activity, humans
might obtain similar skills. This soon proves true, as Lucy gradually gains the
ability to control every cell in her body, then other people, electronics, and
eventually all of time and space itself. Her powers are so vaguely defined,
with new abilities developing so rapidly it’s impossible to keep up as she
transitions from party girl to invincible force of nature.

Johansson’s performance as Lucy is an interesting synthesis
of the characters she’s portrayed in “Her” and “Under the Skin,” with a bit of
Black Widow thrown in for good measure. Lucy demonstrates a Samantha-like
eagerness to expand her mind beyond its established limits, but like the alien
being in “Under the Skin,” her journey away from humanity renders her
increasingly detached and emotionless. At a certain point she realizes that the
drug’s effects will eventually kill her, but as Lucy whizzes her way toward
full transcendence, that becomes less of a pressing concern to her. Jang and
his lackeys do chase after her, but it’s difficult to get too worried about the
well-being of godlike superhero. Without any sort of stakes, it becomes difficult
to empathize with such a cold protagonist. “Skin” director Jonathan Glazer
managed it in his film, but Besson doesn’t have the same skill with character.

What he does have is a brilliant mind for action. Besson is
more interested in telling his pulpy tale through kinetically staged action,
colorful cinematography (from frequent DP, Thierry Arbogast) and trippy
imagery.

To put it bluntly, the plot of “Lucy” is completely stupid.
It doesn’t make a lick of sense if you take even a moment to think about anything
that’s happening, but Besson is a smart enough filmmaker to keep things moving
fast enough that you never have the chance. As with Bong Joon-ho’s
“Snowpiercer,” there’s a point where you realize that the plot isn’t going to
hold up to scrutiny, so just accept it, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

While the action is great, the director is somewhat less
successful when he tries to marry those images with philosophical mumbo jumbo
about the meaning of time, evolution, and whether we as a species have truly
lived up to our potential. These stabs at profundity are intended to give the
film an appearance of depth, but more often resemble what might have happened
if Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” suffered a severe head injury while
overdosing on psychotropic drugs. But as long as it’s bombarding us with bright
colors, violent shootouts, elaborate car chases and effects, “Lucy” is quite a
rush.

This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2014.