Rarely do I find myself totally captivated and so engrossed in a movie, that time passes so expeditiously. This was my experience when watching Luc Besson’s (Leon, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element, Taken 2) latest masterpiece, Lucy. So stylish; so thought provoking, and starring two of my favourite actors, Scarlett Johansson (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Under the Skin, Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and Morgan Freeman (Oblivion, Seven, The Shawshank Redemption), this was my kind of movie!

Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), a 25-year-old student living in Taipei, Taiwan, is tricked into delivering a briefcase to her new boyfriend’s boss, Jang, a crazy Korean drug lord gangster. The delivery quickly goes pear-shaped and Lucy finds herself pleading for her life in Jang’s royal suite surrounded by armed thugs and blood soaked dead bodies. The contents of the briefcase are revealed: Four bags of a synthetic version of CPH4 (naturally occurring molecules produced by women six weeks into a pregnancy), a drug that is intended to allow the user increased use of their brain functions. Fade to black as Lucy is king-hit by Jang’s number two.

Lucy awakens to discover she is one of four drug mules who each have a bag of the drugs sewn into their abdomen. Hooded, she is whisked away to eventually discover she is surrounded by more armed thugs who have her chained to a wall in a concrete room. Fending off their insinuations of rape, she is consequently beaten causing the hidden drugs to leak. Her body immediately goes into a series of convulsions and inexplicable phenomenon which eventually subsides to render Lucy in complete control of her mind and body, and fully aware of her surroundings. This is the first stage of what will be an escalation of the possibility of human capability when given the opportunity to use more than the supposed 10% of our brain’s functions.

While giving a lecture on the brain’s potential at Paris University, Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman) is asked “What would happen if a person could use 100% of their brain’s capacity?”, to which he answers, “I have no idea”. Little did he know that he was about to find out exactly that.

And so starts a crazy, sometimes absurd, mind bending helter-skelter ride into the unknown, with Lucy at the helm. Every 10 minutes or so she gains another power and can do something even more amazing. I was expecting she would develop the ability to fly, or turn invisible, or burst into flames like so many super heroes and ‘mutants’ can in my beloved Marvel and DC Comics’ movies. The possibilities seemed endless. Fending off her pursuers with telekinesis and the ability to manipulate technology, Lucy seemed unstoppable in her supercharged quest for omniscience and the meaning of life. And of course, it wouldn’t be a real Luc Besson movie without a decent gun battle; Lucy does not disappoint. Wait till you see the car chase scene! Superb! I love a good action/sci-fi movie; especially one with Scarlett Johansson as the leading lady.

I would have liked to have seen the movie go for a little longer however. 89 minutes left me feeling like there could have been more awesomeness!

The Movie Lad rates this: An almond magnum and a person sitting next to me reminding me to blink!