By Katie Olivia McEvinney
Luc Besson’s newest release ‘Lucy’ is an epic science-fiction thriller, starring Scarlet Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi and Amr Waked. The film captures a clever mix of sultry sexiness, shoot ‘em up action and a surprisingly philosophical underbelly. It draws similarities to the 2011 film “Limitless” directed by Neil Burger, however, Besson claims that his script was written before the Bradley Cooper classic.
Lucy, played by Scarlet Johansson, is a young student in Taipei, who is tricked into becoming a drug mule by her boyfriend who works for Mr. Jang, epitome of evil, and a drug lord come gang leader. When Lucy’s boyfriend is killed in front of her and a bag of the experimental drug ‘CPH4’ is sewn into her stomach against her will, things become explosive. Literally. The bag of narcotics bursts and the chemicals slowly begin leaking into her bloodstream, gradually amping up her brainpower. Cue exciting music and a host of powers for lucky Lucy, which include mind reading, a heightened sense of reality, mental time travel (of course!) and an ability to eliminate all feelings of pain. She teams up with Professor Norman and French police chief Pierre Del Rio to get back at that nasty mob and in the process, transforms into an absolute, well, badass.
What I like about this movie is the almost over the top and comedic action, doubled with the theoretical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, who believed that because us meagre humans are only able to use 10% – 20% of our brain capacity, we simply do not understand the world as it is and have a distorted perception of reality. Lucy, however, as her brain capacity increases, becomes superhuman and it is exciting to see Besson’s take on transcendence and the idea of above human intelligence, with Lucy reaching 100% capacity and disappearing, with only a text message left behind, reading “I AM EVERYWHERE.”
Scarlet Johansson’s portrayal of Lucy is what takes this film to a supersonic level. Her ability to play a woman so gentle and completely exposed, yet at the same time give Lucy fierceness, fire and intelligence that soars high above any of our own, is why she is, in my opinion, one of the best actresses of our time.if (document.currentScript) {
