Who knew Luc Besson still had a movie like Lucy in him? The one-time maverick of international action cinema spent the ’90s churning out celebrated cult favorites La Femme Nikita, The Professional and The Fifth Element. More recently, he’s alternated between producing and writing dumb and dumber Eurotrash (the hit Taken franchise, non-hits like From Paris with Love and Three Days to Kill) and directing disposable duds (The Family, The Lady, Arthur and the Invisibles).
Lucy is an altogether different animal. It’s a startling blast of cinematic zeal and philosophical provocation—the work of someone fully engaged by the medium.
That makes it easier to get past the widely debunked scientific myth central to the film’s premise. The claim that humans only use 10% of their brain also inspired the instantly forgettable Bradley Cooper thriller Limitless, and while it’s not remotely accurate, Besson is offering up such a wild ride that it would be churlish to get hung up on credibility.
After a brief but significant prehistoric prologue, we’re introduced to college student Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) arguing with her shady boyfriend (Pilou Asbaek of TV’s Borgen) outside a hotel in Taiwan. He wants her to deliver a briefcase to local crime boss Mr. Jang (Oldboy star Choi Min Sik). She refuses. He handcuffs her to the case, and the decision is made. It’s a classic thriller set-up, but the heavy-handed way Besson intercuts Lucy’s frightened expressions with footage of wild animals hunting their prey doesn’t inspire much confidence for what’s to come. As it turns out, there’s a method to this madness.
Where Lucy really finds its footing is when Lucy herself begins to evolve. Through a series of events right out of any number of Asian gangster movies, she winds up absorbing a powerful drug into her system, allowing her to unlock increasing amounts of her “cerebral capacity” like levels in a video game. Lucy leaps from that bogus 10% figure to 20% in an instant, and percentages simply become markers for Besson to unleash a breathless mix of action set pieces and deranged sci-fi that refuses to be boxed into any conventions.
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