Silly but entertaining sci-fantasy. 70+%

Rating: 7/10 (7 August 2014)

Some of the movies that "Lucy" recalled for me included "The matrix", "Videodrome" (or other Cronenberg titles), "2001: a space odyssey" as well as, oddly, Aesop's fables (not a movie, but thematically). It's definitely a movie worth viewing but I don't think it really captures the imagination like the first "The matrix", for example, nor does it get as trippy as the end of "2001".
The plot of the movie revolves around an American tourist - the titular character, played by Scarlett Johansson - who is duped into becoming a drug mule for a nasty Asian drug syndicate. Due to her being assaulted by one of the syndicate's goons, the drug is released into her body, giving her extraordinary powers. Lucy now has her chance to get revenge on the syndicate. On the level of a revenge movie, the movie also fails to deliver (as it did with its "trippy" aspect).
The high concept of the movie is the premise of: what would happen if humans could use more than 10% of their brain? Lucy creeps closer to a figure of 100%, as the screen constantly reminds you. Now, I'm not sure where the figure of "10%" is pulled from, but I'll be so bold as to predict that someone attaining 100% brain capacity will...not in any way resemble Lucy's personification of this feat! In other words, her abilities are somewhat implausible and the movie comes across as more science fantasy than sci-fi. However, I do get the impression that the movie mixes actual science facts (or provisional facts, if you will), with just pure, escapist fantasy.
Performance wise, I found Scarlett's representation early on (pre-drug effects) to be a bit "Laverne & Shirley" like...although I haven't actually seen that TV show...just brief clips. I.e. she seems sort of working class...Brooklyn (?). Like the movie, I didn't find that she created a sense of excitement for the concept. Morgan Freeman also plays a scientific expert. Again, his performance didn't really grab me. So, from my point of view, whilst Scarlett and Morgan being int he film helped to get it sold, I personally wouldn't have minded had the cast been complete unknowns. Morgan pretty much does what he's been doing for years in these kinds of roles...quietly oh so Morgan. I did enjoy the amusing performance of...- this site bills him as "The limey"! - Julian Rhind-Tutt.
The movie itself is jokey at times (as with "The limey"), amusing, dark, violent and fantastic (as in hard to believe). At the start of my review, I mentioned "Aesop's fables". By that I mean that the frequent juxtaposition of shots of animals in the movie serve to provide a moral lesson for the bind that Lucy is about to find herself in. Some may be put off by this random juxtaposition of film.
If I had any other issues with the logic of the movie, one might be the scene where Lucy meets her namesake. It made me think that perhaps the world that our Lucy lives in might have been changed by that meeting.
Some interesting titbits from the end-credits:
* Oddly, there is a "Special thanks" to Monsieur Hulot! Guessing that the director doesn't take these things all to seriously!
* I enjoyed the music at the end of the movie...was unsure if it was one song or me. I particularly like the song that plays last in the end credits. I thought that that might have been by Blur's Damian Alburn ("Sister Rust"), but it turns out to have been by Roary, with a song called "God's whisper", which I'm not sure is even mentioned in the end credits. He's a new artist...not even on Wikipedia yet!
As I say, it's an odd but interesting movie that is well worth seeing, but doesn't have a big pay off if you are after a 'straight' sci-fi movie, 'trip' movie or revenge movie. If you like screen violence/fighting/car chases etc., that's all there too. In fact, on reflection, the anti-climactic 'fight' scene with Lucy up against a bunch of syndicate goons is amusing for the way that it deflates boyish fantasies of revenge.