Lucy

I don’t love Lucy

Apparently if humans could use 100% of their brain’s capacity, they would be able to shoot lasers from their mouths, make super computers grow out of nothing, travel through time, and do almost anything else physically imaginable. This doesn’t seem very likely to actually happen, but in the parameters of Luc Besson’s Lucy, it’s the entire payoff.

The action film is built around logistics as likely misconstrued as this, which would have been fine if these concepts had at all been backed up or even explained in the first place. Instead, the audience is bombarded with more questions than special effects as Scarlett Johansson’s Lucy displays an endless arsenal of power and knowledge, with no context on which to place it. This dehumanizes her as a character, which is a problem when the entire film depends on the audience liking her. Johansson luckily pulls through, redeeming the hole-strewn script with a strong performance.