Lucy film review

Went to see this today with my husband and son at the Leeds/Bradford Odeon.

IMDB says: A woman, accidentally caught in a dark deal, turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic.

In this Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Taken 2) written and directed film, Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, We Bought A Zoo) stars as Lucy, who goes from being an innocent to a gun-toting super-human.  When her dodgy new boyfriend Richard (Pilou Asbaek, A Hijacking, Sex, Drugs & Taxation) sets her up as a courier for the drugs he is supposed to deliver, she enters into a deadly underworld.  Forced to act as a drug mule for a new synthetic drug by sinister king-pin Mr Jang (Min-sik Choi, I Saw The Devil, Lady Vengence) and The Limey (Julian Rhind-Tutt, Rush, Notting Hill) along with three others, including The German Mule (Jan Oliver Schroeder, Head in the Clouds, Belle and Sebastian) and The Italian Mule (Luca Angeletti, Escort in Love, Holy Money), she is assaulted by one of her captors, causing the drugs to enter her system and then her troubles really begin.

Using her new found knowledge, she enlists the help of French police captain Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked, Syriana, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) to track down her fellow mules but by now her mind potential has grown so much that she can alter her own body and can control others.

Morgan Freeman (Now You See Me, The Shawshank Redemption) stars as Professor Norman, a leading light in the field of the untapped potential of the human mind, which leads Lucy to believe that he can help her and so she travels to Paris to meet with him, but  Mr Jang and his minions are hot on her trail intent on recovering their drugs and silencing her.

This film is effects driven, but delves deep into the philosophical questions of what it means to be human but unfortunately loses its way and rushes the ending, leaving you with a let down feeling.  It does give you many questions to ponder and I understand that it could not possibly answer them and it could be that this is exactly what Besson was aiming for, but there is so much happening when Lucy arrives in Paris, that it spoils what could have been a much better film.  Another 30 minutes would have enhanced the film no end and even though it is a sci-fi, a little bit of reality in that an influx of armed policemen arriving at a building having been warned that an armed drug cartel is coming, would notice the massive black vans with armed bad guys outside said building, would have helped too.





Tagline: The average person uses 10% of their brain capacity. Imagine what she could do with 100%.

For me, the film tried too hard to be two things, philosophical and action, and though it succeeded with the action in the most part, it was let down by a rushed ending that ruined the philosophical aspect.

7/10

#Lucy   #ScarlettJohansson   #MorganFreeman   #LucBesson