Lucy

Rating: 6/10 (4 September 2014)

From writer/director (Léon, The Fifth Element, Taken), aiming perhaps at the same audience as those for the superhero franchises, this film was certainly marketed well, I know from the trailer I saw that I was definitely going to see it. Basically Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is a twenty five year old American woman living and studying in Taipei, Taiwan, she is tricked by her new boyfriend Richard (Pilou Asbæk) into working as a drug mule, he gets her to deliver a suitcase to Korean mob boss and drug lord Mr. Jang (Oldboy's Min-sik Choi), but she is captured by him. Mr. Jang forces her at gun point to open the briefcase, thought to be dangerous, it contains a highly valuable blue coloured synthetic drug called CPH4, and after killing Richard in front of her she is captured and has a bag of the drug forcibly sewn into her abdomen, along with three other drug mules, all will travel around Europe, but while in captivity Lucy is kicked in the stomach by one of the captors, breaking the bag inside her, releasing the drug into her system. As a result she becomes increasingly powerful and enhanced, mentally and physically, gaining the abilities of telepathy, telekinesis, mental time travel, feeling no pain or discomfort and more besides, she is able to escape, and at gun point she forces an operating doctor at the general hospital to remove the bag from inside her abdomen, the doctor explains the side- effects of the drug. As her brain power and abilities increase she returns to Mr. Jang, killing his bodyguards, and with him pinned down telepathically extracts the locations of the other three drug mules from his brain, following this Lucy uses her newfound high speed to research her condition, and she reads all the work of scientist and doctor Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman), who is researching the potential, possibilities and effects of increasing the common human brain capacity of 10%. Following her conversation with the Professor, and proving the abilities she has gained to him, Lucy next flies to Paris, on the journey she almost disintegrates due to her consumption of champagne, it caused cellular reproduction to fail, she saves herself by consuming more CPH4, and her powers continue to grow. Once there she contacts local police captain Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked), she again proves her abilities and gains his help to find the remaining three men and the packets of drugs inside them, and with the drug recovered she meets with Professor Norman to share everything she knows, he tells her that the main point of life is to pass on knowledge, and what she knows is highly valuable, but Mr. Jang returns and wants the drug too, so a gunfight between the Korean drug gang and the French police ensues. At the professor's lab Lucy discusses the nature of time and life, and consuming the remaining CPH4 she metamorphoses into a black substance that spreads into all computers and objects of the lab, she creates a next generation supercomputer with enhanced knowledge of the universe, and in her own mind she goes on a high speed space time journey back into the past, reaching and touching the fingers of the oldest discovered ancestor of mankind, and she continues further on to the beginning of the universe, until she has truly reached the brain capacity of 100%. At that moment Mr. Jang enters and points a gun at Lucy, but the instant before the bullet strikes Lucy disappears into the space time continuum, leaving nothing but her clothes, she explains that everything is connected and existence is only proved through time, Del Rio comes in and kills Mr. Jang, Professor Norman takes a monolithic flash drive offered by the advanced supercomputer, before it disintegrates to dust, Del Rio asks the Professor where Lucy is, and immediately a text message is received saying: "I AM EVERYWHERE." Also starring Julian Rhind-Tutt as The Limey, Analeigh Tipton as Caroline and Nicolas Phongpheth as Jii. Johansson may not quite be the action heroine but she excels as the skilled brainbox, and Freeman adds his usual gravitas being enlightening and incredulous, I can definitely see what critics mean about the combination of Limitless and 2001: A Space Odyssey, I agree it is barmy but equally enthralling, the car chase and fight sequences are gripping enough, and the CGI special visual effects are fantastic, the ending may get you asking a few questions, but overall it is a cool science- fiction action film. Good!