I think Marvel has done something to Scarlett Johansson. Since getting a little taste of kicking butt, the femme fatale has since searched out transcending above humanity, either in Her or Under the Skin. Now, she teams up with action savant Luc Besson as Lucy, a woman who is given a drug to reach 100% brain function. I think we’ve lost romcom ScarJo forever, and are now left with this robotic omniscient.
At the start of the movie, Lucy (Johansson) is kind of a dimwit. She gets easily tricked into giving a briefcase with unknown package to Mr. Jang (Min-sik Choi), a local gangster. The package contains an experimental superdrug that increases human brain capacity from 10% up to 100% that Lucy has to smuggle inside of her. The package breaks unfortunately, and Lucy’s brain function skyrockets. Unaware of what to do with her newfound information, Lucy consults Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman), a researcher who theorized what Lucy is going through in the present.
Good lord, Lucy is wonderfully bonkers. Luc Besson (of La Femme Nikita and Taken fame) is one of the greats at using a straight character as a punch line in a ridiculous situation. As Lucy rolls on, her emotionlessness around more ridiculous actions draws shock wider mouth gaping from normal people; lines as simple as, “Well I didn’t expect to see that today” or “Do you always drive like this?” “I’ve never driven before.” are told with complete lack of irony. In addition, Besson has this great visual style that amps up the energy of a story even in the tinier moments. When watching Lucy fall prey to the gangsters, Besson intercuts the scene with parallels between gazelles and cheetahs. This style, like Lucy ramps up to 100% as she does. Sure, it makes little to no sense and is in no way justifiable, but at that point, I was having too much fun at all the weird imagery and testing being done on Lucy to care much about logic.
If Besson doesn’t win you over though, Lucy is actually extremely hollow and filled with plot holes. Once Lucy receives the ability to move matter, why would Korean gangster ever become an issue again? Why did the French cops never question their partner retaining 3 random people? Why can’t Lucy find a way to leave herself behind in a non-human way? All fair questions, all quickly ignored for a fight scene or sci-fi extravaganza. The most frustrating part of this is some of the intriguing questions Lucy leaves on the table? What does time actually mean to someone like Lucy? How would the body truly react to a drug like this? Is humanity a roadblock? The ideas are brought up, but never discussed in favor of cool powers and fun action sets.
Not much in the way of acting here. Johansson ups the emotion in the first act to 11 and then drops all of it off as Lucy becomes a god. I understand why she makes this choice, but the script isn’t penned for nuance and Johansson, other than a glimpse or two, is mostly in badass mode. Morgan Freeman is the only human on the planet who could sound as knowledgeable as someone with unlimited brain capacity; his presence is necessary, but he’s more a plot device than a character. Min-sik Choi is snarly as the gang leader, and Amr Waked is ok as the police chief Watson to Johansson’s Holmes.
If you like Luc Besson’s films, Lucy should be an enjoyable experience for you. I recommend going in expecting little, and just watching how crazy the ride can get. Especially when the ride is chased by several cop cars crashing in hilarious ways.