Lucy
       
Director: Luc Besson
Year: 2014
Rating: 7.5
I know. This is about as stupid and ridiculous as a film can be and yet still be pretentious. Luc Besson at his most fevered. At his pulpiest. He smears this with enough philosophical goobly-gook to sink a ship. But I kind of love it.  I saw this in the theater when it was released with my girlfriend and her niece and for the next few weeks I had to hear. "I am Lucy. I am everywhere" from both of them. And with my girlfriend that was actually true. Who else but Besson would make a sci-fi action evolution film filled with tripe and make it seem ponderously important. Morgan Freeman who plays a scientist tells his class that we humans are only using 10% of our brain capacity. Though he admits that those who wear red hats only use 4% and that is the part of the brain that is full of hate and paranoia. He continues to say that with evolution human will slowly increase the amount of the brain we use and with it, we will gain powers over our body and over others. As long as I can remember what I went into the kitchen for, I will be happy. But it is only theory, he says.


 

Until Lucy. It is just another day for Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), a student in Taipei. She is meeting her friend who asks her to please deliver a package into a building behind them. I had a falling out. She is forced to when he handcuffs a briefcase to her arm. Should this ever happen to you, think about taking it to a locksmith.  Instead, she goes in and soon comes face to face with a Korean gangster played by Choi Min-sik, who looks like he just stepped off the set of Old Boy – after he used his hammer. His hands covered in blood and a few dead bodies that she can see through the door. Fuck. The day gets worse. They plant some newly created synthetic drug in her stomach with a ticket to Paris. But first her guards try and get fresh and when she refuses, they kick her in the stomach a few times.

 

Her package leaks and the world starts spinning and suddenly she can climb walls, break out of her restraints and kill five thugs.  She is at 20%. 80% more to go. As the percentage increases, her humanity decreases. Emotion, feelings, mercy fade away. What makes her human. She can soon control TV. Phones and computers. Kind of cool really except like most good things it has to end. In her death she tells Freeman. But first let me kill some more Korean gangsters and stick two blades through the hands of Choi. Special effects take over the film at this point which is a shame, I would have liked her killing a bunch more. She calls her mom and tells her she can remember everything – the taste of her mother’s milk, the cat she petted at one-year old. It is all in there folks. There are actually people who can literally remember everything. Even the pain they felt, they say. I can’t remember what I had for dinner, so maybe take me to 13%. This was one of those good payday checks for Freeman who doesn’t have to do much other than react to her. Scarlett is fine and no one can play evil like Choi Man-sik.