Talk about a surprise. When the first image from Luc Besson‘s LUCY was revealed, I was expecting the movie to be about Scarlett Johannson taking on a role along the lines of Zoe Saldana’s lead in COLOMBIANA or Keira Knightely in DOMINO: an ass-kicking babe with an axe to grind. Instead, LUCY looks like a cross between a superhero movie and the Bradley Cooper flick LIMITLESS.
Scarlett opens the trailer as a timid call girl who becomes an unwilling drug mule. But, then something happens and the drugs turn her into a superhuman killing machine. I can honestly say that I did not see this trailer coming and it looks like one hell of a fun ride.
Set in a futuristic world that is run by the mob, street gangs, drug addicts and corrupted cops, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), a woman living in Taipei, Taiwan, 2069 AD, works as a drug mule for the mob. The drug she inadvertently takes goes into her system, changing her into a metahuman. She can absorb knowledge instantaneously, is able to move objects with her mind and can’t feel pain and other discomforts.
Now, Luc Besson has produced countless action movies in the last twenty years like THE TRANSPORTER and TAKEN series as well as schlocky fare LOCKOUT and TAXI, but LUCY looks to be a return to the time of science fiction filmmaking he hasn’t done since THE FIFTH ELEMENT. I am now very excited to see LUCY, especially with the great supporting roles from OLDBOY’s Choi Min-sik and the always top notch Morgan Freeman.
LUCY hits theaters on August 8, 2014.