SPLATTERdrome

Release Date: July 25th, 2014

Director: Luc Besson

Screenwriter: Luc Besson

Genre: Science fiction/Action

Scarlett Johansson's Lucy is essentially a sexier (but equally flat) version of Keanu Reeve's Neo character from The Matrix. After unintended exposure to a powerful street drug she gradually finds herself able to defy all laws of time, space, and physics. As an all-powerful hero she's fun to watch but her skills are used for no larger purpose than defying a rag-tag group of Chinese drug traffickers. It's hardly a fair fight.

Even casual fans of superhero or science fiction movies will recognize this kind of character as wholly unoriginal but the real issue with Lucy is how aimless and poorly conceived the whole project is.

Director Luc Besson continually bombards the audience with cheesy, rapid cuts to everything from character flashbacks to National Geographic specials to dramatic anatomical CGI effects. I like to call it "rock & roll editing", an attempt to show how very clever the director is by spoon-feeding us obvious symbolism at every opportunity. It's a pretty insulting, lowest common denominator narrative device. Besson obviously doesn't think much of his audience.

The story here is also weak. Lucy comprehends her new abilities almost immediately and goes to work recovering the remaining quantities of the super drug, but then what? She has no goal other than to share her knowledge with a group of scientists before she evolves out of her physical body. A noble pursuit I will admit but also a very boring journey to watch unfold in a film. A series of over the top car chases and shootouts are therefore inserted throughout the script to serve as plot movement.

Lucy's travels through time and space near the conclusion are impressively executed and the only part of the film I found interesting. Overall I consider Lucy to be largely unwatchable and would advise you to avoid it if you have a functioning brain.