this is your brain on drugs

Rating: 4/10 (20 February 2019)

Far from being just a ridiculous, terrible movie, this movie is an exciting view into the vast world of stupid that humanity can dream of. Putting aside that 10% of your brain myth underpinning the entire plot that has long since been debunked, there's just so many logical inconsistencies in this film that it's a little baffling that someone didn't catch at least some of them during the process of making a major blockbuster like this. But the real tragedy here is that I think there was a better film hiding underneath it all that could have been in more capable hands.
Consider the start of the film, for example, wherein Scarlett Johansson's character Lucy unwittingly becomes entangled with a criminal syndicate. This is my favorite part of the movie because Ms. Johansson plays the role with with such visceral emotion. Her terror at finding herself suddenly and unexpectedly in the midst of a life or death situation is compelling. But already here there are some problems, like the absurdly public and unnecessary violence of the criminals. Of course, criminals can be violent, but even the most violent crime lords do their dirty work in the shadows or in guerrilla-style hit and run attacks, not brazenly on their front doorstep. Working that way would inevitably bring conflict with authorities (at least in first-world, developed nations) and spur public outrage, forcing even a corrupt government to confront the issue. But more than that, it isn't needed. Lucy is already oozing palpable tension and fear; the violence, if anything, relieves the tension by giving a face to her fear instead of letting the nameless dread wash over the viewer.
The movie goes downhill really quickly after that. Basically, Lucy gains godlike abilities before we're 30 minutes into the film. This completely blows any tension or concern for her out of the water. She's become unstoppable, so why should we be concerned? Instead of gradually building her self-confidence and powers with us along for the ride, we watch her seize to be human in the first act. How can we relate anymore? The director seems to think that watching her plow through endless armies of bad guys will be entertainment enough, and maybe for some people it was. But I suspect most people would have liked to go on that journey of self-discovery with her, even if we had to worry about her well being a little along the way.
Another major problem with the movie is that in a very real way, after Lucy is exposed to the magic smart drug--well, actually it isn't described as a smart drug at all but rather as a concentrated energy drug produced in limited quantities by pregnant mothers to give babies energy to grow; no explanation is given for why a super-powered Monster energy drink would make you smarter, but whatever. Anyway, after she is exposed to the drug, in a very real way we watch Lucy die and something else that only looks like her inhabit her body. Her personality is completely different. Before her exposure she's shown to be expressive and empathetic. After her exposure she is emotionless and cold, coolly executing many, many people including an innocent bystander who, she explains while dumping his body on the floor, had a terminal condition anyway.
The audience is encouraged to believe Lucy is still the movies heroine, since most of her victims were bad guys. And I'm not saying that a hero can only have a batman-esque philosophy of no killing ever, but such a bloodless attitude towards what our society would describe as murder is far more indicative of an antagonist than a hero. Frankly, the movie would have been far more interesting if the focus had switched to destroying this man-made monster with unfathomable motives instead of worshiping a super powered sociopath. But it was the simple acceptance by the other characters of her actions that gave me the willies. Particularly since it is implied that Lucy is us evolved into some future, ideal state. What kind of messed up future do these writers dream of for humanity?
Another problem I have with the film is this idea that the laws of physics and space and time really only exist, in some sense, because we believe they do. There is no level of intelligence that disables gravity or lets us push our fingers into someones skull and extract their memories. Yes, it's their universe and all that, but it just feels like such a lazy tool. They're not trying to create a world with magic, they just needed a way to show how her increased mental capacity allowed her to overcome all of these obstacles. And since they couldn't think of a series of actions that would accomplish that, they invented some magic mind powers to create a shortcut to their goal. It's lazy and stupid.
Speaking of, I also have to take exception with their depiction of academia and science. In between Lucy's adventures, the movie also cuts to Morgan Freeman's character giving a presentation at some academic conference about the brain. He starts with that 10% myth, moves on to a complete non sequitur about cells and their environments that seems to be there only so the movie can make a callback to it later in reference to Lucy, and finally starts talking about what happens to humans accessing 20% and 40% of their brain (while also accidentally debunking his own speculation about what happens by referencing how dolphins already access 20% of their brains; where exactly are their crazy powers?).
Now, I've been to a few academic conferences in my time and they can indeed be a forum for the free exchange of ideas and even some educated speculation about future possibilities. But here, when he just pulls these very specific notions out of his backside about what happens at each level of attainment (that sound more like a description of what happens when you level up in a video game than scientific research), the crowd just gazes at him adoringly and accepts his confession that he just made it all up without any follow-up comments. I guarantee you that would not be the response. Academics are a competitive, hard nosed bunch who almost relish the opportunity to pick the unprepared apart. Make a claim like that and then admit you just made it up and you would be in for a deeply unpleasant inquiry from your audience.
Ok, I need to bring this crazy person rant to a close. Believe it or not, this is actually the much shortened list of my complaints, but I need to save something for my friends and family to really make them regret answering the phone, so I'll stop it here. Obviously, I didn't care much for the film, but I'll say this much: if you like Scarlett Johansson and enjoy special effects laden action films and don't care too much that it all make sense, then I suppose you could enjoy this film. Ms. Johansson does as much with the script as she can, I think, and the cinematography is quite good, as are the special effects and fight scenes. Also, I think I could see how some people would enjoy it as a kind of revenge film, particularly since one thing they do depict pretty well is the misogyny of the villains. But if it's the idea of a smart drug that interests you, I'd recommend Limitless with Bradley Cooper as a much better alternative.