Lucy - Review

Lucy – Review

“Lucy” starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman is an action thriller film with a definitive international flair of a story of a rather honest and affable but somewhat naïve young woman who is coax in to delivering a package (contents unknown) to a ruthless southeast Asian crime boss. What happens next is a whirl wind of being in the “wrong place at the wrong time” with Lucy finding herself surrounded by harden cold blooded murderers who eventually kidnap her in order to force her into carrying drugs by surgically implanting them inside her abdomen for transport to another international destination where they will eventually be removed. Unfortunately, for Lucy though while during her transport phase some of the drugs leak out into her blood stream where she immediately evolves (if you will) from being a student studying abroad into a virtual new life form that can only be best described as Albert Einstein with a Bruce Lee – Neo bad ass attitude with a gun. More specifically, Lucy’s cerebral intellect has not only grown from this synthetic drug entering her system in such a large quantity, its continuing to grow at an even rapid pace, even to the point she can comprehend knowledge and information faster than any known computer, as well as being able to manipulate the physical environment around her with a flick of her hand and thoughts.

“Lucy” conceptually as a story, especially in the first hour, was entertaining, with some thrilling visuals and even some provocative and intriguing screenplay in regards to the discussion involving the science of the human mind. It also infused initially very cleverly the meld of issues of human logic through the backdrop of violent action and car chases to the films overall story with some appropriate well-placed humor as well. However, what ultimately was this film’s downfall was a second half story that went from being a character driven story around “Lucy” into nothing more than a special effects food fest aka “The Matrix Redux”, thusly leaving Scarlett “Lucy’s character initially more compelling story line well behind in a ball of confusion with scenes that can only be described as silly.

Make no mistake about it, Lucy is very impressive to look at, as it’s very clear from Director Luc Besson’s previous works including “Nikita”, “The Professional”, and “The Fifth Element” he has a definite gift for offering up stylish sexy mayhem and violence if that’s not too oxymoronic.  You also clearly see huge influences from Quentin Tarantino’s films such “Reservoir Dogs” and “Kill Bill Volume 1” and his “Crazy 88’s”. But Director Besson’ second half story was such a departure from the way it started, it reminded me as if a Father was writing and completing the great American novel about his son and upon its completion got up from the computer to make himself some dinner, only to have his 10 year old son sneak down to wipe out the last two chapters and instead replace it with his favorite story “My Pet Goat” in its place, only later having the Father to return without any concern at all to his computer to simply hit send to his publisher for printing. It would have left most readers of the novel (any viewers in this case) enjoying the first half rather well, only later in the novel’s second half scratching their heads saying and mumbling to oneself “wait, what and huh?”

“Lucy” has its good moments, and you get to look at sexy Scarlett for 90 minutes, but it’s “good” and her sexy looks are only worth your time if you are flipping through your basic cable channels menu to watch her…………for free.

2 -3/4 Stars