viewers brains are still used at 10% ... or less

Rating: 5/10 (4 January 2015)

Lucy was supposed to be a film I should highly enjoy. I love Scarlett Johansson not only for the way she looks but also for daring to undertake complex and different roles that put at work her acting talent. Science fiction is one of the genres I like most. I liked everything that Luc Besson does  actually everything he did until this film. In my opinion 'Lucy' is a low for both Scarlett and Luc as well. It's not terribly bad, as they are too good artists and professionals to fall too low, but it's highly unsatisfying, well below expectations.
Readers of popular science magazines, or watchers of the similar TV shows should be already familiar with the scientific pretext of the film. The complex and sophisticated computing machine which is our brain is barely used, maybe at 10% of its capacity. If somehow (maybe using a blue powder drug!) the brain efficiency was used at a higher percentage the respective individual would get capabilities that are well beyond average to the point that they may seem superhuman to the other mortals. This is what happens to the hero in 'Lucy' but the problem is that the combination of sexy techno-thriller does not work well with the pseudo-science in the film. Talking about the meaning of life and universality of time in-between car chases and the destruction of the French Academy by bullets and mortars is some kind of fun, but not much more.
When talking about many other films made in Hollywood I have often complained about their length. It's seldom today to find a feature film that does not reach 120 minutes of projection, and in many cases American (and not only American) productions exceed the 150 threshold, without any consistent gains in complexity or quality, but adding time resistance to the qualities required from viewers and justifying to some extent the additional ticket prices. 'Lucy' is only 85 minutes long credits included and this may be one of the reasons it feels like hurried and superficial, with the main ideas exposed like in a crash sciences lesson and all the characters with the exception of the main hero reduced to uni-dimensional sketches, without any character development. It's just a pity to see the talent of such fine actors like Morgan Freeman or Amr Waked wasted in such a way. The becoming of a genius and superhuman is described in a manner that is neither too original, nor too spectacular, and the smart dialogs between the beauty who became a genius and the scientist whose role seems mostly to be amazed without being able to help are just deprived of any emotion. There is one sentence about losing the capability to feel which if developed could have added a very different dimension to the film, but it was lost in the rush. When time becomes a dimension to be transgressed the journey looks more like an adult version of the 'Night at the Museum' which may run in the neighboring cinema hall. And that cinematographic metaphor reminding a famous ceiling painting? is it parody? 'Lucy' has many good premises and wastes most of them.