‘Lucy’ Review It’s always good news to know about a movie in which the talented and multifaceted Scarlett Johansson plays the main character, especially if it’s an action role. Her captivating charm, mix of beauty and badassery will likely entice women as well as men audiences to go and see “Lucy” at their nearby theater. In fact, she has gain the reputation of a strong female lead, amid a profitable one, as her performances in blockbusters such as “The Avengers” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” solidly attest. I’d bet Johansson probably never thought of herself as an action heroine, but she certainly has become one and a powerful icon equally entitled to the admiration and recognition of fans across the globe. It’s clear that she enjoys those roles where she can portray at the same time the vulnerability and the strength of the female gender and the action-packed “Lucy” is no exception. She delivers a consistently very good performance in terms of what one would expect the director, Luc Besson, asked of her. We should probably note here that Morgan Freeman is also in the movie although his role is very small in comparison. But hey, a little bit of Freeman never hurts, even if it’s just to function as the guy who provides some explanation of the plot or someone we can briefly identify with in our bedazzlement at times, as well as our complete ignorance at what’s going on in the story. It’s not as much as the “what” really – which up to a point and in general lines we can understand- but the “how” things develop that I find problematic. The premise is an original one, the whole concept looks like plausible but to put it in simple terms, because the plot gets very complicated once you get past the first quarter, the more you watch the less you understand and therefore, the less invested you are in what’s going on. Sure some scientific minds out there could disagree with me but they would also be more prepared to find its flaws. The action supplements in part the complicated and abstract underlying statements that try to support the plot, but at the same time, it plays against it because the explanations are fed to us so fast that we don’t have too much time to get engaged with the story and its characters. At the end of the day, any film has to feel somewhat cathartic. You want to be entertained not lectured by it, and it’s in that sense that it fails to deliver the goods, not just by being incomprehensible, but by feeling extremely pretentious. If you don’t mind not seeing Johansson but listening to her voice instead, also in a technological setting/ambiance, I dare you to watch -the much better- “Her” and jot down some comparison notes afterwards. From La Femme Nikita and The Professional to The Fifth Element, writer/director Luc Besson directs Scarlett Johansson in LUCY, an action-thriller that tracks a woman accidentally caught in a dark deal who turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic.
