Lucy: beauty AND brains!

Rating: 5/10 (18 August 2016)

The average human purportedly only uses 10% of their brain; watching Luc Besson's Lucy will only require 1% (if that), despite the director steering his film into pretentious metaphysical territory during his 2001: A Space Oddity-inspired finalé.
Scarlett Johansson is Besson's eponymous protagonist, who taps into the full power of her mind after accidentally overdosing on a new narcotic. As the drug courses through her body, the young woman becomes more and more powerful, absorbing vast amounts of knowledge and cerebrally controlling her surroundings, before eventually becoming an omnipresent super-being. Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman), an expert in the human mind, can only look on in wonder.
While the film pretends to say something profound about the existence of man, what it is really about is packing in as many flashy special effects as possible, crashing a load of cars, emptying loads of guns, and briefly showing Johansson in her bra (which is almost worth the price of entry on its own). It's all very flashy, and, despite its pseudo-loftiness, very trashy—a film to watch when you want to give your brain the night off.