Lucy

Directed by:

Luc Besson

Starring:

Scarlett Johansson

Morgan Freeman

Min Sik-Choi

Amr Waked

Lucy is a movie of two halves. Starring Scarlett Johansson as Lucy, it is a thrill ride for the first 50 to 60 minutes, after which it completely deteriorates. Let's start at the beginning...

Lucy is an unwilling runner for her scumbag boyfriend in Korea. Quiet, gentle and on a bit of an adventure, she somehow ends up with a new synthetic super-drug running through her veins. The drug opens up her mind to more of its potential, far above the 10% it is estimated that humans currently use, at which point she develops talents that are, for want of a better phrase, really cool! The point is that Lucy is super-human. Her abilities are fantastic and she copes splendidly with the knowledge, strength and responsibility she is given. Not only is she super-human, one of her unique abilities is that she knows just how powerful she is. Hark back to superhero movies, remember Superman struggling to understand what he could actually do here on earth, the hilarious moments when he picks up the car for the first time, not knowing whether or not he could actually do it? Remember the start of The Flash, when he runs to catch a bus and accidentally arrives miles down the road, seemingly completely unaware of his speed? This is where Lucy is different. Her power is her mind and while she has unbelievable physical abilities that belie her timid and frail appearance, she is fully aware of everything she can do. 

The first half of the movie is entertaining. Lucy out-muscles her aggressors and she effectively saves her friend's life by diagnosing her with a hug. Yes that seems silly but if you can believe that Scarlett Johansson can make her hair change colour and length at will, you will believe anything! It is around the halfway point, however, that you begin to ask questions? Why is she so mature? Increased capacity doesn't guarantee increased maturity. This is the timid little lady who couldn't speak to a hotel receptionist less than an hour ago and now here she is, stiff as a board, cool, calm and collected, facing down the barrel of a gun.

Another point on maturity - why is she completely void of bravado? In that pub conversation that is frequently had, intoxicated men often venture through the mental exercise of what they would do if they could become invisible. Often the answers range from "rob a bank" to "perv in the girls' locker room" - both equally childish yes but both very human and honest. Lucy knows what she can do - why isn't she doing anything fun?! What made Bruce Almighty so much fun was that he had god's powers for a week and went around the place having fun, fixing things in his own life just generally doing things that every person watching the film would love to do. Not Lucy - Lucy is transformed into this non-human entity, oblivious to everything she was, her hopes and fantasies seemingly non-existent. Another question - why does she shoot everyone? She has got the power to take bullets out of guns with her mind and to control other humans at will yet she resorts to shooting people...this made little sense.

There is one more pertinent question about the movie. Why did they cast Morgan Freeman as the scientist type guy, Professor Norman? He is completely wasted in the white coat. He's not even the B character in the film. He isn't allowed the screen time nor the lines to put his stamp on the part. They could have put anyone in that role and it would have made no difference. This isn't a knock on Freeman, this is a knock on the writers - if you're paying for Morgan Freeman, USE HIM! Have you never heard the man's voice? He could have used his gravely tones to bring down the heart-rate of the movie, before hitting us with more unlikely magic. Every valley accentuates every peak.

The relationship between Norman and Lucy could have developed over the course of the movie but that, like every other relationship in Lucy and every single character, remains as it was at the beginning. They could have been made closer; Lucy could have confided in him that she's afraid of what she has become and he could have become a father figure to her. She could even have turned on the professor after he criticised her murderous ways and abused her abilities, if they needed a twist. Alas - it wasn't to be. This is a movie for the type of audience that enjoy The Expendables franchise.

There is also a bad guy but he is so inconsequential that I have completely forgotten his name.

The first half of the movie played like the fantastic Hanna on LSD mixed with elements of Limitless, for obvious reasons. The second half was so unwatchable that you could have fast-forwarded to the ending and missed nothing in between. The ending itself is such a cop out that you'll appreciate the credits, just to terminate the experience, so you can move on and do something else with your evening. 

As an experiment, the idea is fun but in practice, it is poorly executed. Two fine actors, a great idea and fabulous special effects fail to save this movie from the WOMO file - Watch Once and Move On.

Rating: ★★★

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVt32qoyhi0



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