Patchy mix of the sublime and the ridiculous

Rating: 7/10 (21 February 2016)

Donkey's years ago, "Star Trek" began to deal with the issues and significance and consequences of omnipotent beings, and also with normal human beings who became all-powerful. The theme was then returned to repeatedly, given the endless interest displayed by the various reincarnations of ST in what it means to be human, and what the limits and defining characteristics of humanity are. And maybe the effects were creaky at times, but this was Star Trek, so the subject was always handled with sensitivity, seriousness, integrity and as much intelligence as the 1960s (and then later decades) could muster.
So can Luc Besson's 2014 offering "Lucy" do better in any way?
Those watching the first 20 minutes or so of this film - and very possibly giving up on it - might well offer a resounding "no". For a long time we are not going anywhere much, and are also getting repeated (distracting and annoying) cut-aways to documentary scenes apparently designed to indicate to us what mood is being conveyed by the main current of the film. Thanks a lot for the help with that! Any shreds of plot there might otherwise be are formulaic and unappealing in the extreme, all the more so given an absurd and very out-of-place inclination to imply that there might be something vaguely funny or light-hearted somewhere in the midst of all the violence...
However, those sticking with the piece to the bitter end might be a little more hesitant to write off or condemn, for there is a moment when the titular lead character (played with cool sexiness by Scarlett Johnansson) begins to get a handle on the powers she is acquiring (in the most bizarre of ways) and does what any frightened and overwhelmed girl would do, and calls mum. In that moment, the film finally offers some first more-cerebral and meaningful antidote to the routine gangster offering of astronomical body count that has gone before.
In fact, the bodies keep piling up to the very end of the film, but after the above scene we have (somewhat) more interesting topics to deal with anyway, and the remainder of the plot (such as it is) - beyond what is happening inside our charismatic heroine - takes a very firm second place.
Morgan Freeman as a scientific expert (or rather hypothesiser) regarding the unused capacity of the human brain helps us cope with the enormity of the developing sci-fi concept, but sadly only a little. Unlike the makers of Star Trek and their characters, the writers on "Lucy" do their great co-starring actor no favours at all by foisting many a line of highly unscientific mumbo-jumbo into his mouth, and it will not take more than a high-school pupil to realise that he is not making any kind of sense, try as he might to impart the necessary mix of humanity and gravitas into the role. And that is a pity - given that this is something rather easy to get right - I could readily have done the job myself for a few quid. Not bad compared with the film's (estimated) $40m budget.
Given this accumulation of faults and failings, I am forced to interrogate myself as to why I watched on - all the more so given that the mainline setting of the film is mostly supremely predictable and lacklustre. For this sci-fi fan of very long standing, the only plausible explanation can be empathy with the nicely-rendered Lucy, and the metamorphosis she is going through.
If one really did begin to develop supreme powers, before becoming irrevocably jaded with everything one would of course want to go back in time to see the Flatiron building go up in early New York, would of course want to encounter a tyrannosaurus, and meet (touch fingers a la Sistine Chapel with) Australopithecus afarensis, of which the most famous specimen is of course that other "Lucy". And naturally, you would want to see the native Americans living in their pristine lands, and then go back and see the Earth created and the first life emerge. And you would of course try to relive all the dearest and most meaningful memories that you know are locked up in their somewhere, but are still beyond the reach of your puny capacity to bring them kicking and screaming back to the surface.
And these are the spellbinding glimpses of increasingly godlike powers that Luc Besson "gets right", and is imaginative and courageous enough to offer us movingly and realistically towards the end of his extremely flawed film. For this viewer at least, it's somehow enough to rescue the work from the trash where it would otherwise most assuredly belong...