This movie may or may not speak to a lot of people. But if you a fan of action films mashed together with a little science fiction. Then this is your kind of movie cause from the beginning to end it holds onto you and doesn't let go. I'll admit I was skeptic at first cause let's face it when I heard Scarlett Johansson's name tied to this film I was like great its Black Widow with super-powers. But when it does come to finally seeing the movie I tend to bunker down and just go with the flow and watch the movie. I was wrong on this movie at first feeling that this movie may let me down and I will chalk it up as a movie that you can easily pass on or wait till it hits cable channels like HBO or Starz. I'll admit I like Luc Besson's films like The Fifth Element and Leon: The Professional. Cause those films rank high amongst my favorite films but let's remember Besson has only done over 20 films and this being his most recent one you can easily see that he hasn't lost his touch on blending two genre's together to make this film.
Now Johansson in this film plays the titled character, an innocent woman whose forced into doing a mysterious job by her supposed boyfriend after he handcuffs a briefcase to her wrist. After witnessing a murder in progress she's wisked away to meet the person whose suppose to take the briefcase off her. She discovers that the briefcase contains a new drug that the person whose taking it from her wants to distribute it where she's from. After being threatened and forced to become a mule for this person with violence against her entire family she awakens in a room and slowly discovers that she's been operated on and told that the drug's were placed inside her stomach so she could get them past security. But before she can do her supposed job she's attacked by one of the thugs in a holding cell and this cause's the package in her stomach to rupture and release's the drug into her system. But instead of killing her it opens her brain capacity from the normal use of 10% to much more. She starts to realize that she has powers such as telekinesis, mind-reading and abilities to manipulate time and space. She makes it her mission to retrieve the other 3 drug pack's from ending up in the wrong hands and use them to give a group of scientist the answers they need when a human being can access over 100% of their brain capacity.
Now like I said this is a Luc Besson film and though its not his best film it surely pack's enough punch for a decent sci-fi/action film. Though parts of the film come off as a drama but it needs those scene's to help further move the story along. You can't have her going along in this film and not show any ounce of her humanity. Though she's changing before our eyes in the film she slowly comes to terms that whatever memories she has are starting to fade from existence and she has to emote her feelings to those she loves such as her best friend and her mother. Though some of the feeling for these scenes come off creepy such as Lucy explaining to her mother that she can taste her mother's milk while she breast-fed. This film can be easily picked apart by science fact based fans who will probably have a field day with how Besson use's scientific and philosophical theories to make this film. Let's face it if your out to do this to the movie then your just killing and not watching it for what it's really worth and that's a good action-packed punch to the face.
Choi Min-sik plays the main antagonist in this film named simply Mr. Jang. Now Choi is famously known for the film Oldboy, not the remake which starred Josh Brolin. The original starred Choi and introduced most of us to this man. Now his credits also include Lady Vengeance and I Saw The Devil. But in this film though he appears briefly in the beginning and then shows back up half way through the film to the ending. He goes from a cold-blooded Korean mob boss to a man desperate to get his revenge on Lucy for what she's done to him and has caused his operation to suffer during this whole time. Many will say his role is weak in the film but to me he played the character beautifully despite having most of his muscle do his dirty work. My only problem with a certain part of the film was the near end when the police show up at the same time that the Korean mob does and as they are pulling guns and an anti-tank weapon from their cars, the police just run into the building paying no mind to the group of people carrying weapons right in front of them. Though this leads to a huge gun fight between the two and an explosive scene. It just blew my mind that Besson made it seem that local PD are just mindless grunts who run into a place with no clue as to what could be around the corner or actually right behind them.
Now with this year having a slew of sci-fi films dropping at different times I came close after watching this film as how does it compare to films like Edge of Tomorrow, Automata, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and a various plate of other well known and not seen films. This film falls into the middle of the best for this year which contains some heavy hitters and a few who flew under the radar. But if I had to compare this to any of her other movies then I would say this would be a better step than her first sci-fi film The Island. Though I will say that she had little to no impact in the second Captain America movie you have to understand that, that film is one of Marvel's best films. The fact that Morgan Freeman is in the film only makes me wonder if he took the job for a paycheck cause though he holds some form of a major role he delivers it with little to no impact. I found myself more drawn to Johansson's character after she starts her transformations and the use of a second tier character who supposedly aids her but comes off like a side-kick who gets pushed around by at times makes you wonder as to why was this character even written into the film.
So at the end of the day and you need an answer as to whether or not you should rent this film then take it from me and go ahead. If your in the mood for a good action film that has science fiction elements that border on the line of a practical thriller then this is your film for tonight or whenever you decide to watch it. Now Johansson is done filming the sequel to the 2012 smash hit Marvel's The Avengers as she reprised her role as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow we can expect HUGE things from that film and she's currently filming a live-action/cgi version of The Jungle Book where she tackle the role of Kaa. So if you want to watch Johansson in a bad ass role then this film is that film but if your looking to find her half naked or wearing skimpy dresses then this is not that film and I recommend a completely different film but we have yet to review or if I am right it doesn't fall into our selected genres. So have fun and remember this film deals with scientific facts and theories so if you get lost then it clearly means you never paid attention in science class.
reviewed by Bucky
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