"I think we only use ten percent of our hearts"

Rating: 5/10 (9 October 2016)

Remember that bit in 'Wedding Crashers' where Owen Wilson chats up a bridesmaid by talking about the theory that humans only use ten percent of their brain power? Well that same idea is the basis for 'Lucy,' a sci fi action movie from veteran French director Luc Besson. Sadly the results are a bit more mixed than Wilson's pulling technique but it's entertaining enough to lose an evening with. Scarlett Johansson stars as the titular character, a young woman who gets tricked by a sleazy boyfriend into carrying out a one-off job for a Thailand crime syndicate that quickly goes wrong. Forced into becoming a drug mule, she soon gets a packet of an experimental new drug stitched into her stomach and forced to smuggle it into Paris. But then it starts leaking.
With the drugs zapping around her bloodstream, Lucy discovers her powers expanding and sets off on a globe trotting mission of revenge and discovery. And for the first two thirds, it's a blast. Starting off like 'Taken' in the Far East, Lucy destroys every scumbag and low life in her way, casually gunning them down and pulling a bullet out of her shoulder without even blinking. She forces a terrified surgical team to operate on her at gunpoint, tortures a gang boss and as her mind expands, becomes a high powered super genius. Imagine if Black Widow were crossed with Liam Neeson and was powerful enough to wipe out the entire Marvel Universe with a wave of her hand and you'll get the idea.
As the film reaches its final sprint though, 'Lucy' loses traction. Hooking up with Morgan Freeman's University Professor and trying to use her full potential to its best effect, the film turns into a weird mish--mash of overblown science fiction and Terrence Mallick overtones. Lucy gains the power to travel through time and across the cosmos while at the same time constructing a futuristic super computer with her mind, all without leaving a swivel chair in Freeman's lab. You'll spend ages waiting for the trippy images to stop and for Johansson to stand up and start punching gangsters through walls again, but it never happens. Instead, the climactic action scenes are left to the French Police Force, led by Amr Waked's "in-over-his-head" Captain.
It's a frustrating finish to a movie that starts off so well but credit where it's due, 'Lucy' at least attempts to be something more than a stereotypical action movie. Plus, Johansson is terrific and manages to make the character's transformation from petrified backpacker to unstoppable force of nature compulsively watchable. The 2001 aping finale, the Dinosaurs and the hint that Lucy might actually be God are too much, but at least it's not another 'Taken' rip off.