SciFi v Action

Rating: 6/10 (15 February 2019)

The concept underpinning Limitless has universal appeal. What if we could make maximum use of those unused portions of the brain we rarely call upon? Unsurprisingly the idea has attracted movie-makers periodically, for decades. In 1996 for instance Jon Turteltaub, made the pretty successful Phenomenon with John Travolta, which, whilst utilising the same basic premise as Limitless, eschewed the thriller aspects almost completely, concentrating on creating a romantic drama. In Luc Besson's Lucy, the sci fi prospects of the intelligence gain are amped up to what I reckon, were ridiculous levels. It becomes unsurprisingly very much an excessive, special effects driven extravaganza.
Limitless treads more middle ground. In my opinion it succeeds better in the first half, where Bradley Cooper's Eddie acquires the NZT and we see him on a number of occasions literally metamorphose before our eyes. I like the way director Neil Burger achieves this effect without a deluge of special effects; instead relying on Cooper's acting skills and smarts, upping the tempo and content of spoken dialogue and the use of filters to alter the lighting, along with changes in music and sound effects. Cooper needs special praise here. His performance does much to convince us of the drug's possible benefits to humanity.
Somewhere along the production planning though, it was decided by the studio, to turn the movie into an action thriller. As such, it's not a bad one, although it embraces plenty of familiar tropes ( violent Russian hoods, greedy corporations etc.) and relies on some pretty banal plot contrivances to change the movie's tone and direction. Seriously, nothing could convince me, that the new Renaissance Eddie would deliberately seek out a Russian loan shark to obtain more seed money and later forget to pay him back on time. Stuff like this and the arriving police not searching Eddie after he calls in a homicide, make us realise how an up till then smart movie, is suddenly being dumbed down, perhaps in an effort to win over the multi-plex crowds.
The conclusion is simply pure Hollywood and I have to say that while I overall liked both movies and found them entertaining, Phenomenon had a much more, sober, realistic finish than Limitless.