By: Robert Murphy
It is hardly a revolutionary plot to a movie when you look at the outline for the new movie Lucy, where we look into the what if notion of unlocking the unlimited potential hidden away in the human brain which science has not mapped or unlocked yet. In fact a few years prior to this we saw Hangover star Bradley Cooper take part in the movie Limitless where one pill a day unlocked limitless potential for his brain. However, Lucy takes things in a more science fiction direction than a magical tablet improving your mental capabilities and tells the story of Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) who after a series of unfortunate events gets turned into a human computer in a very literal sense. Lucy can do things no other human being can and unlocked the abilities that we believe come from opening more than 10% of our brains capabilities such as manipulating people, electromagnetic waves and so much more. What happens when she reaches a 100% is only a mystery and one I was ready to find out.
When we first meet Lucy she is your average run of the mill party girl who is spends more time out at the clubs of Taiwan rather than spending her time buried in her studies for school like she should. Not entirely sure what she was going to school for but I guess it doesn't matter because as soon as the movie starts she gets trapped into carrying a package containing a new experimental drug. The intended recipient of this package then takes the situation one step further and turns Lucy into a human camel and places the drugs inside of her to traffic back home to America. Things go a bit wrong though and the drugs end up leaking into her system and activating within her all the nerve connection throughout her body, she gains control over all her hidden mental activity and sets out with a plan to do something with it before her time is up.
I did think this whole first part to the movie was a bit too dry in it's setting up of the premise for the story and I was a little dreary about whether it was what I could expect from the whole movie but then Lucy's powers kick in and that's where things pick right up. Her powers are frankly amazing, many of which were the same as the ones Bradley Cooper had in Limitless such as learning new languages instantly but as I said things are more science fiction here and Lucy gains powers on a somewhat Godly scale.
From here Lucy initially feels like kicking some royal but against the people that did this to her and takes a little bit of revenge but the drugs prove to change her attitude in other ways. She begins to feel less and less human as more of her potential is unlocked and she wants to know what to do with it all as she comes to realize that she cannot live at this level of mental activity without dying. Enter Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman) who we do meet earlier in the movie but doesn't interact with Lucy till later on. He bestows onto her what he thinks she should with her abilities after she asks his opinion on what's going on, Norman is an awe of everything that she is and her abilities because she proves many of his years of theories to be true. But going back to the less and less human nature of Lucy, I know that it was a choice that was made for the film but I just didn't like it, a robot type character who actually acts like a stale robot is not something that works. The whole thing made the acting done by Scarlett Johansson feel poor to me, nobody wants to talk or listen to a robot, it's why people hate automated message systems.
The action also is just as robotic and flat as Lucy becomes later on in the movie and as usual most of the best action moments were apart of the commercials for the Lucy that I already saw. It is incredible to watch Lucy explain the powers she has obtained to Norman and the other scientist he recruits later on to see her powers too, she explains the principles of the universe like Yoda to Luke Skywalker and it's simply gold. Taking this to the action though it becomes a lack luster affair because like a jedi a normal human doesn't have much of a chance at fighting someone with the power to control matter or the human body. Lucy simply tilts her head and stops every attempt to get in her way or kill her and it brings down the whole revenge attempts on her life.
In conclusion,
Lucy does a good job of making you think about the potential of the human mind and how far we have yet to come as a species. Lucy herself makes an adquite philosopher and one that I would follow more than most although that might be because of Scarlett Johansson more than anything. As an action movie though things faltered for me simply because Lucy just cannot be stopped, it is pointless to even try and while you could make this work, this movie didn't. And so when it comes to movies about super human mental capacity I think I will stick with Bradley Cooper's adaption.
Good:
- The jedi like powers and abilites of Lucy were fantastic
- Morgan Freeman as awe struck Doctor Norman was spot on (as aspected)
Bad:
- The robot like performance for Lucy was not a good choice
- The feeble attempts by people to stop Lucy were very dry and poor
- The best action was already in the commercials
- Lack luster bad guys
Scully Rating: 5.0 out of 10
