Lucy

Luc Besson's latest sci-fi offering Lucy is one of the most ridiculous films I've seen in the past few years, but somehow it kind of actually works!

Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is studying in Taiwan, when she is tricked by her boyfriend, Richard (Pilou Asbæk) into delivering a package of drugs to his employer. The super-drug CPH4, which she is forced to smuggle overseas in her abdomen, can increase the brains working capacity and provide superhuman abilities. After being attacked whilst in captivity, the package splits and leaks into Lucy's system.

At the same time, Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman), who has been researching the theoretical abilities of  higher-functioning human brains for the past twenty years, is contacted by Lucy and the two meet up to assess the nature of her higher state of being.

 

First up, Scarlett Johansson is really what makes this film. Her character is relatively normal but is thrown into unbelievable circumstances, so to be able to watch her transformation as she is affected by the drug, is fantastic. Morgan Freeman is just Morgan Freeman again, to which I mean, slightly typecast, but still a great performance. As for the other actors, I really can't work out how to judge them because, whilst they seem to just constantly over act, they are playing such ridiculous roles that it kind of works...kind of.

The plot of this film is absolutely ludicrous, but not surprising coming from the mind that brought us The Fifth Element. It's pure science-fiction, of course, but it's so unbelievable that it's difficult to take it seriously. It seemed like Besson was trying to be a lot more serious here than with The Fifth Element, but I couldn't help but laugh with half of the scenes because they were just so over-the-top and out there. This sort of weird dramatic-comedy, which may or may not have been intentional, makes this genuinely quite an enjoyable film.

It's beautifully shot and edited, with what seems to be quite a lot of influence from David Fincher's work, with sped-up footage, fast cuts and a similar use of effects used to illustrate the brain at work, as he used in the opening to Fight Club. Comparisons can easily be made to many other science fiction films, even a bit of 2001: Space Odyessy at the end, which certainly pleased this Kubrick fan (not in a sexual way, geez), and generally, it's just great cinematography from Thierry Arbogast, who often works with Besson. 

I'm not really sure what its intended message was, if there was one. You could make the argument that it channels our desire for knowledge, or even our fragility as a species, but at the end of the day, plot issues or not, its really just good fun, with plenty of eye candy (Obviously I'm talking about the Special FX...ok, and Scarlett Johansson is nice too).