Some people are different

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2015)

Scarlett Johansson does a brilliant job of being different. Well, she is. She is one of those people one can't stop watching without knowing why. And then of course there is the talent, in which she appears to have been soaked like a herring in a brine barrel. Having taken a special drug, Johansson's character Lucy keeps getting her intelligence raised, as it keeps going up by 10% every so often (we are advised of this by a notice on screen) she becomes increasingly dangerous. You see, we mere mortals are said only to use a very small percentage (10%) of our brains. I would point out that the world is also full of people who use none at all, but then that is a sarcastic remark, and doubtless these days would be considered a 'hate crime', as it is no longer permissible to say anything critical of anyone, especially anything critical of brainless oafs such as many of the world's leading politicians. But Lucy is not interested in politics. She has become far too intelligent for that. The genius French director Luc Besson here has been given a whopper Hollywood budget to go over the top, and he does so in superb style. We have all known how original Besson is since his unusual film SUBWAY came out in 1985. ANGEL-A (2005) was one of his most impressive supernatural films. In this cinematic rampage of super-intelligence by the out of control Lucy, we see her taking vengeance on some vicious criminals. So we get the quota of violence which seems to be required to give bloodthirsty audiences their kicks. I wonder if some day someone will make a film about a super-intelligent person who does something constructive. Or would that be too boring for a jaded public of 2015? Would not the world be a bit less violent if films watched by the masses were a bit less violent? And do superheroes always have to show off their prowess primarily by how efficient they are at killing people? Also, is it possible to have a sci fi film made in America which does not contain guns and explosions? Is the subtext of American cinema always going to be one of violent conflict, and must all Hollywood film language be reduced ultimately to the phonemes and morphemes of machine gun bursts? In other words, is it possible for a Hollywood superhero to speak English today, or can he or she only communicate by spitting bullets?