Lucy - Hardly highbrow, but enjoyable enough

‘Silly, silly, silly.’ So said ‘Graham Chapman’ in Monty Python.  And that’s about the best summing up I can give ‘Lucy.’ It’s completely daft and hardly intellectually stimulating, but – what the hell – sometimes you don’t want films that make you think.  You just want mindless entertaining fun.  And 'Lucy' does the job.

Scarlett Johansson plays the titular ‘Lucy’ – an average sort of girl who ends up accidentally being given a powerful new drug which allows her to use powers no human has ever had before.  There's not an awful lot of backstory for our protagonist and it does feel at some times like we're just watching Black Widow from the Marvel films, only with blonde hair this time.

And, like I say, it’s a fun film to watch.  It’s not perfect though.  It starts off a bit ‘arty.’ There are clips of various ‘unrelated’ events (like a cheetah catching its prey) interspersed with the main narrative.  But these traits sort of get dropped about half way through the film, leaving you to wonder why they were included to begin with.

While Lucy is busy killing those responsible for her new powers, we also have Morgan Freeman – the scientist who just so happens to be an expert on ‘expanded brainpower.’ His story sort of runs in parallel with hers, although he’s basically there to explain what’s going on (in the final scene he almost completely ‘narrates’ the action – it’s quite funny!).  He tells us that the average human uses about 10% of his/her brain.  Lucy is on her way to use all 100%.  I remember 'South Park' making gentle fun regarding how Morgan Freeman gets an 'extra freckle' every time he explains something.  If this was true, his face should be completely covered due to all the explaining he does in 'Lucy.'

Expect killing.  Expect kind of cool action scenes with Lucy using her superpowers to destroy all those who wronged her.  There’s a bit of science thrown in there, courtesy of Morgan Freeman to add a few concepts that might make you think.  But it’s not a long film.  It’s pretty condensed and everything flows from A-B quite nicely.  There's some CGI thrown in there towards the end of the movie.  It's not great and it does pull you out of the film a bit, largely because there hasn't been much CGI all the way through, so now it feels like you're watching early test footage from 'Venom.'

Basically, the film is about how humans only need about 10% of their brains to function.  And you certainly won’t need any more than that to understand and appreciate 'Lucy.' Grab the munchies, allocate about 8% of your brain to the film and just enjoy.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that