Lucy accesses her full potential

Rating: 8/10 (24 September 2015)

Lucy is a twenty something American living in the city of Taipei whose life is suddenly changed when her ex-boyfriend forces her to deliver a package for him. She gives the package to the sinister Mr. Jang, a Korean gangster, and it immediately becomes obvious that she is in a very dangerous situation. The package contains four packages of new drug CPH4 which Mr. Jang has sown into the bodies of four people, including Lucy, and tells them that if they fail to deliver it to their home countries their families will be targeted. Shortly afterwards Lucy is attacked and her bag burst releasing a huge dose of the drug into her body. These scenes are intercut with scenes of lecturer Professor Norman as he tells students in Paris that human beings only use ten percent of their mental capacity before hypothesising about what would happen if one could access more as the drug starts to take effect Lucy starts to find out first hand. Using her rapidly increasing abilities she escapes her captors and forces a taxi driver to take her to a hospital where she forces doctors to remove what is left of the package. She then researches the brain's capabilities and learns of Prof. Norman's work; she contacts him and tells him that she will see him in twelve hours; she also alerts the French police and tells them about the other three couriers. By the time she arrives in Paris the other couriers are all in police custody but whatever she plans to do won't be easy as Mr. Jang and his heavily armed goons are also there and they want their product back.
Whether or not you can enjoy this science fiction thriller is largely dependent on whether you can ignore the fiction of the science. If you can this is rather bonkers fun. Scarlett Johansson does a great job as she portrays Lucy's transformation from a fairly average young woman into a god-like being and Min-sik Choi, best known as the octopus-eating protagonist in 'OldBoy' is suitably menacing as Mr. Jang. As one might expect Morgan Freeman does a fine job as Prof Norman; the sort of role he has virtually made his own. The premise is very similar to the 2011 film 'Limitless' but the execution is quite different; Lucy doesn't just become far more intelligent; she also gains telepathic then telekinetic powers before ultimately gaining power of time and matter. Much of the action is fairly gritty but there was also the stylish action one would expect from a film by director Luc Besson. Overall I suspect this will be a polarising film; I really liked it but can see why others would hate it.