'Lucy' film review spoilers: Exploring the concept of increased brain capacity
According to a review over at La Crosse Tribune, Universal Pictures' newly-released "Lucy," which evolves around the premise that humans only use 10 percent of their brain, does not appear to stretch movie goers' brain capacity too much.
Luc Besson's film, which was released on July 23, is rated R for restricted, which is the MPAA's rating for strong violence, sexuality and disturbing images. Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Amr Waked and Min-sik Choi star in the movie.
In the movie, Lucy is a well-known fossilized female skeleton, the owner of which is estimated to have lived about 3 million years ago. Now, this primitive woman has evolved into a student in Taiwan.
Possible spoilers will follow so be warned.
Portrayed by Johansson, Lucy has a boyfriend who is quite a jerk, and who requested her to deliver a mysterious briefcase to a gang boss.
It turns out to be a drug delivery, and the secret item is called "cph4." Lucy and some other people are selected to fly to Europe with the packages inside their stomachs.
Lucy then suffers abdomen blows by thugs, causing the drugs to leak into her body. She starts to wriggle uncontrollably, and things start to get weird.
The overall effect of the drug is to enhance the brain capacity. It started to rise and Lucy suddenly can shoot six guys simultaneously, speak Chinese, as well as hear and feel everything.
She even remembers her infant days, and the taste of her mother's milk. Her condition gives her only 24 hours to live.
While Lucy becomes very intelligent, she begins to unlock the secret of science. She flies to Paris and meets Professor Norman (Freeman), a cerebral capacity expert, who advises her to do useful things with her newfound brain capacity, before she approaches 100 percent usage of her brain capacity and an unfortunate premature death.
Lucy also attempts to recover the drug packets together with a police detective, played by Amr Waked.
"Lucy" has currently earned more than $44 million at the box office.