“Life was given to us a billion years ago… what have we done with it?” Scarlett Johansson’s voice introduces a provocative question to open Lucy (2014), directed by Luc Besson, and also starring Morgan Freeman and Amr Waked. It debuted on July 25th and quickly secured its spot as #1 on the weekend box office sales records.
For those that haven’t seen the movie or the trailer, the idea is that humans can only access 10% of their brains. The character Lucy is literally dragged into being a drug mule, forced to carry a package of brain-enhancing narcotics in her stomach, and then sent to an airport to distribute them. Not surprisingly, something goes wrong and she ends up in a Taiwanese prison. After being beaten and kicked repeatedly in the stomach, the package of drugs inside her starts to leak. The drugs course through her body and launch a neurological transformation which leave Lucy feeling less and less human.
Her journey for answers leads her from Taipei to Paris and New York. Along the way, she meets Morgan Freeman’s character, a leading scientist and doctor, Professor Norman, and a confused but helpful French policeman by the name of Del Rio, Amr Waked’s character. As Lucy’s brain struggles to handle the new abilities, she finds herself able to control her body, her appearance, other people’s bodies and minds, metal, and eventually time and space itself. The sci-fi feel of the film grows to a crescendo until the finale leads viewers to believe that Lucy has become “one with the universe”.
As per usual, initial reviews for the film are already online, and the debates have begun! Some argue that the science is diluted by all the action of French policemen and drug lord hit men, while others think the trailer led them to believe there would be more action, resenting the science fiction. Even more people argue that humans can access more than 10% of our brains, and therefore, this movie has gone too far in its scientific leaps.
Of all the critics' fuss, it sounds like the audience to whom the action sequences cater is not happy with the science behind all that action. And vice versa, the audience to whom science sequences cater does not believe that all the fighting is necessary to employ the facts.
They are technically both correct. According to the biggest box office hits of the year, they need each other more than they believe. Of the top ten highest grossing movies of 2014, eight involve, or revolve around, some kind of epic war scene. Movie-goers appreciate a good fight! The films in that top ten list which rely on science for their stories, arguably, already established that science in their predecessors: X-Men: Days of Future Past, Captain America: Winter Soldier, The Amazing Spiderman 2, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
The truth is that science and action need each other to bring in the most revenue so that distributors can continue busting out the latest and greatest. The gun shots may not always please every audience member, nor will the smoking beakers full of strange liquid, but by providing a bit of each, everyone can find something they enjoy. This is what creates a lasting movie experience, and the same is true for Lucy, and the rest of the films on the top ten list.
