Lucy (2014) - Film Review

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min Sik & Amr Waked

Screenplay: Luc Besson

Directed By: Luc Besson
Certificate: 15

 

Lucy is a film that I got hooked into from the moment I saw the trailers. The great tagline “The average person uses 10% of their brain capacity. Today, she will reach 100%” leaves room for a number of great sci-fi ideas. While I can appreciate that setting a film around this idea is in no way scientifically accurate, if handled in the right way, this shouldn't be something that affects the film too badly. So is Lucy capable of saving itself from its poor scientific basis?
 

Lucy follows the titular 25-year-old American student, studying in Taiwan, as she gets tricked into becoming a drug mule by her new boyfriend. She ends up in the hands of Korean mob boss and drug lord, Mr Jang. Mr Jang and his men use her as an international drug mule by inserting bags of drugs into her stomach. However, one of the bags bursts, it releases drug CPH4 into her system, allowing Lucy to access more of her brain capacity. This leads to her acquiring powers such as telepathy and telekinesis. Whilst trying to save her own life, Lucy travels across the globe to find the other drug mules with CPH4 and safely remove it. Meanwhile, she is pursued by Mr. Jang and his mob, as they also try to recover the drugs.

 

While this is a fairly straightforward plot, the film relies on a lot of complex scientific thought throughout its runtime, and this makes Lucy much more complex than it sounds. This helps to change Lucy from a scientifically flawed film to a surprisingly clever one. In fact, it gives us some of the most interesting, watchable, and unique sci-fi seen in film for a while.

 

Although Lucy has received some mixed reviews, opinion of Scarlett Johansson’s performance seems universally positive, and quite rightly. Scarlett Johansson is easily the best actor of the film, thanks to the huge developments her character goes through. In near regular intervals, the film regularly cuts to a static shot of a percentage to show Lucy’s brain development, and while this does show's Lucy's brain development, Scarlett Johansson’s performance gives us much more engaging character development. Lucy starts off as a somewhat ditsy character but by the end of the film, she becomes a superhuman that can literally turn back time around her, with only the swipe of her hand. Johansson is able to seamlessly transition from someone who is terrified and in floods of tears around a mob boss, to the point where she literally puts daggers through his hands without a single moment of hesitation.

 

Along with brilliant performances, Lucy also has stellar production values, in terms of both CGI and  direction. Luc Besson’s direction frequently feels fluid and sleek, to the point where the camera is only static when it needs to be. The smooth and polished feel of the camera movement is also a really nice juxtaposition of the shots towards the start of the film, when Lucy is being held in the grotty metal container. The fantastic direction is also complimented with some masterful special effects. The stand-out moment of simply awe-inspiring CGI arrived when Lucy started to physically dissolve on board the plane. The way the CGI in the scene began with Lucy’s skin slowly starting to peel off, and bits of remaining skin began to sizzle away; then carried on to see Lucy’s face falling apart, was eerily done, and I genuinely had a shiver down my spine as I was watching.

 

As solid as Lucy is, it is fatally flawed in two areas. The first of these is the supporting cast. So far, the only character of noteworthy mention, has been Lucy, and this is simply because there is no-one else in this film that is of any huge interest. This is a huge shame when great actors such as Morgan Freeman are present. As it stands, Morgan Freeman's character is only really present to inform us of the science we need to know, and constantly watch in awe at Lucy's ever-growing powers. Amr Waked as Pierre Del Rio suffers much more than Morgan Freeman does. The only thing his character serves to do is generate some action sequences and buy Lucy some time near the end of the film.

 

The second significant problem that Lucy faces, is its villains. The main threat of the film is Mr. Jang and the rest of the Korean gang mob. While Mr. Jang is played really well by Choi Min Sik, the character only serves as an effective villain for the first twenty minutes. The second that Lucy starts to unlock her brain’s capacity, he and the rest of the gang mob are no longer any sort of threat. While Lucy essentially becomes a superhuman who can turn back time, throw people up to the ceiling, transfix them etc., the Korean mob just remain men in suits waving guns around. There’s no competition is there? The way that Lucy deals with this gang mob is just embarrassing for the supposed villains, as they look unintentionally funny being transfixed to the ceiling. As a result, the big fight at the end of the film, only provides some one-sided action alongside a lot of science-heavy dialogue. However, with a heavy re-write of the script, I personally think that Lucy could have had an effective villain. While the Korean mob can serve as the villains for the first twenty minutes, it might have been interesting to see someone else unlock 100% of their brain capacity, but to use it for the wrong reasons. To see Lucy try and stop someone who has the same superhuman powers as her, would arguably provide a much bigger and more interesting threat.

 

In summary, Lucy is a solid, enjoyable sci-fi action film. With some of the most interesting sci-fi ideas supporting it, consistently superb and polished direction from Luc Besson, award-worthy special effects and a spectacular performance from Scarlett Johansson, the strengths of Lucy certainly outweigh the weaknesses. However, Lucy is held back as a result of some fairly big problems like the poor supporting cast, and some really weak villains.

 

Lucy

 

7/10