Lucy dir. Luc Besson
Sunday watch – Lucy, 5 August 2026
Having watched Astitva on Saturday (4 August 2026), we were not inclined to watch another Hindi film and remain voluntarily immobilized for the 160–180 minutes that an average Bollywood movie demands. Having run/ walked, read or slept through the day; we wondered how to spend the evening away from mobile phone screen time. I was looking for a TV show or a film that did not exceed 90 minutes. Finding a Hindi film of such short duration is almost impossible, so I checked the English titles on Netflix. Lucy caught my fancy, mainly because Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman featured on the poster. Its crisp 90-minute runtime fitted the bill perfectly, making the decision an easy one.
A major commercial success that had a worldwide collection of over 460 Million USD, Lucy is a 2014 English-language French science fiction action film written and directed by Luc Besson. According to Besson, the film was inspired by both Stanley Kubrick's timeless classic 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Christopher Nolan-directed Inception (2010). Its high-energy, visually inventive sci-fi thriller plot showcases Scarlett Johansson in a transformative and action-packed role. While its science is pure fantasy, it offers an entertaining, stylish, and thought‑provoking experience.
Lucy centers on a world run by the drug mafia, drug addicts, and corrupt cops. Scarlett Johansson plays the title character of Lucy, a woman living in Taipei (Taiwan) who is forced to work as a drug mule. A drug implanted in her body inadvertently leaks into her system, which allows her to use more than the "normal" 10% of her brain capacity, thus changing her into a superhuman or even more, an omnipotent entity. As a result, she can absorb information instantaneously, is able to move objects with her mind, and can choose not to feel pain or other discomforts. The plot is essentially nonsensical, especially its focus on the myth that humans use only ten percent of their brain. Every now and then, a nugget of real philosophy is dropped into the screenplay, but it is not coherent and is surrounded by a good deal of blather. But it is fast paced and visually striking and therefore never threatens to become a yawn.
This pseudo-intellectual and pseudo-scientific action flick is all about Johansson, who is in almost every scene and has given a commanding performance. However, the role didn’t demand any emotive performance except for a scene in the beginning when Lucy is captured by a drug trafficking gang and she panics and then once when she is talking to her mother over the phone. In addition to Johansson, the cast of Lucy includes Morgan Freeman as a Professor at the University of Paris who has knowledge of different human capabilities. Other supporting performances feature South Korean actor Choi Min-sik as Mr. Jang, the drug kingpin and Amr Waked as Pierre Del Rio, the honest and sincere French police officer.
In one sentence – Lucy is an absurd pseudo-scientific thriller with striking visuals and impressive action scenes that kept me glued to the recliner for 90 minutes. Curiously, Manju seemed to like the film more than I did, which was surprising because family and social dramas are usually her preferred genre.
