Lucy: Scarlett's Oscar show

Lucy
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Amr Waked, Choi Min-sik
Rated: 6/10
It’s an extra-ordinary thriller, anchored extraordinarily by Scarlett Johansson, a sureshot aspirant for an Oscar this year.
Lucy is in Taiwan as a student and what happens to her is sudden, shocking and stunning. The film does not take too many shots to get the thrill rolling and that fast pace is kept alive all through, thanks not just to the editors. The soul of the pace and the film is Johansson whose mastery of and changeover of expressions make for gripping viewing.
Of course, it is not everyday that you get to be thrown into the devil’s cage by your boyfriend, taken over by the Chinese drug mafia, inserted with a pack of deadly brain-spurring drug pouch and then let loose to a highly intelligent — and explosive — phase of life.
To Johansson’s credit, she lives up to and exceeds all expectations, maybe because her brain functions 100 per cent due to the pouch explosion in her belly. At least so it appears, especially with ‘evolution scientist’ Morgan Freeman telling you that maximum usage of brain cannot and should not be more than 20 per cent!
Again, to her credit, Johansson doesn’t disappoint despite taking centrestage over the much more feted Freeman who is happy to be master of narration.
A word on the special effects too. They are good, much in the right position — which was not over and above the central character of Lucy. Also, the film thrives on a well encased imagination box which, in the first, could dare to make a film on such a, well, brainy subject, if could say so!
Writer director Luc Besson is master of edgy creativity and does everything he can to keep the audience on the edge — for most part of the film, or should we say, till Lucy discovers the difference of going from 10 per cent brain usage to 100 per cent. Somewhere down the line of this stunning journey, there is a lot of science, a lot of brain talk, a lot of time travel and a lot of sci-fi. But, in the end, the only thing that gives competition to Johansson’s towering performance is the scientific treatise that Besson pivots the film around. As Lucy discovers her superpowers, you also discover Johansson’s equally stellar screen powers. A must watch. 
Source: Sunday Pioneer, 3 August, 2014

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