I am not a huge fan of French filmmakers or French films in general. I find them pretentious, pompous, and overly stylized. However; while I am not a great fan of Director Luc Besson, he has produced some of my greatest guilty pleasures, most notably La Femme Nikita and Colombiana. I’ve always felt he was a French Director who was trying to make American style films. Besson has an affinity for heroines who kick-ass stylishly and ‘Lucy’ is no different. Like most of Besson’s film’s, it is high on style and low on substance. I will say that he did attempt to add some depth and interesting exploration of human potential, but ultimately ‘Lucy’ relies on it’s fashion show action sequences and falls flat as it tries to explore the outer rims of the human mind.
The story revolves around a young American exchange student in Taiwan (played by the stunning Scarlett Johanssen) who, due to a bad choice in boyfriends, is kidnapped to become a pack mule for a new type of street drug being developed, which they hide inconveniently inside her abdomen. When the package begins to leak and the substance enters her system, the true nature of the drug is revealed. As humans, we use 10% of our brain’s ability. Through questionable science, this drug begins to expand our ability to tap the unused portions of our brain. Of course, we have seen this type of plot many times before, most recently in Bradley Cooper’s ‘Limitless’. This time the vision of what we are able to do while utilizing greater brain power takes us into the realm of meta-physics and into a pseudo Matrix like reality. Lucy uses her enhanced brain power to escape and the race is on to find a way to reverse the effects before the substance kills her through overload. Lucy seeks out Professor Norman (played by elder statesman Morgan Freeman) as he is the foremost authority on the subject of human potential.
Another consistent item in Luc Besson films are generic bad guys and Min-sik Joi’s Mr Jang is no exception. He is the evil crime boss who looks for ways to be even more evil with his generically evil henchman. He pursues Lucy to retrieve the remaining substance, showing no fear of Lucy’s rising God like powers. The chase leads to Paris France where Lucy teams up with Professor Norman and enlists the aid of local French detective, Pierre del Rio (Amr Waked). Lucy’s abilities begin to grow exponentially until the very nature of linear reality comes into question.
I am not short changing Besson’s ability to create a stylish and visually stunning film. I particularly liked his ‘time-clock’ method of tracking Lucy’s evolving brain capacity. He also made some interesting flash screen choices using behaviors in the animal kingdom to reinforce points about human actions. The film is just pleasing to the eyes and the action zips you along just quick enough to keep your mind from finding all the holes in the meta physical plot line.
This film is almost a super-hero film and almost a sci-fi Matrix style film, but ultimately it is all a Luc Besson film and he does what Besson does best: stylish, eye candy, action (led by hot chicks). Despite the glaring holes in the meta-physics of the film, it does get you thinking and that has to be respected in an action film I suppose.
I give this film ** 1/2 stars out of 4
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