A cinematic Neanderthal

Rating: 1/10 (28 November 2015)

'Lucy' tries to be both an action-thriller and intellectually provocative, but succeeds in neither of these ambitions. The film's tired plot relates how some blood-thirsty Chinese drug traffickers attempt to corner the market with a new designer drug. After sewing packages of the substance into the stomachs of some reluctant mules, they blackmail them to fly to Europe with the contraband. Apparently these incompetent mobsters haven't properly tested their product, and are ignorant that an overdose can endow its consumer with extraordinary physical powers and intelligence. When one of the packages leaks, a ditsy blonde mule metamorphoses into Superwoman.
The plot-holes are gigantic, so writer/director Luc Besson attempts to distract the audience with his standard menu of theatrical fights, car chases, shoot-outs and gratuitous violence. These stale leftovers are served up with some pretentious babbling about the drug's mutations projecting humanity up the evolutionary ladder. Unfortunately 'Lucy' only signifies another dead-end in film-making.