Scarlett Johansson’s Lucy hell-bent on getting in your face

LUCY: When a drug pouch placed inside a student by a sinister trafficking cartel bursts the power unleashed must be seen to be believed (or not).

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Scarlett Johansson in a scene from "Lucy." (AP Photo/Universal Pictures, Jessica Forde)

THE past few months have churned up some clever, exciting and highly entertaining action filmmaking.

The weird, wired and rather wonderful Lucy joins the likes of Edge Of Tomorrow, Dawn Of the Planet Of the Apes and Snowpiercer as movies hell-bent on getting in your face and staying on your mind by any means possible.

What to watch: All the latest movie reviews from Leigh Paatsch

Scarlett Johansson, as the title character, develops some serious brain power in action thriller <i>Lucy</i>.

Scarlett Johansson takes the title role here, and as has been her way in recent times, matter-of-factly steers it towards some frankly freaky places.

Initially, Lucy is an expat American student in Taiwan, more into cruising the clubs than hitting the books. Then one fateful morning after the night before, she is commandeered as a drug mule by a sinister trafficking cartel.

These nasty pieces of work have surgically sewn a pouch of a powerful new designer drug into her lower intestines.

Johansson’s Lucy gets caught up with the wrong crowd in a scene from the film.

What follows should go off without a hitch. Though it will leave a scar.

All Lucy has to do is fly back to the States, where the illicit booty will be removed, and the crisis will be over.

Then, of course, comes the hitch. The pouch bursts, and the chemical cargo enters Lucy’s bloodstream at beyond-overdose levels. She does not die. Instead, a series of hitherto unknown side-effects begin to kick in, big time.

Johansson’s character is transformed from a nightlife-loving expat student into an icily efficient assassin.

Most are too ridiculously convoluted to list here. All that really matters is that Lucy’s brain capacity is expanding at an exponential rate, and the power unleashed by this ever-opening mind can manifest itself in ways that must be seen to be believed.

And just as often, not believed. While it is tough enough buying into Lucy’s radical transformation into an icily efficient assassin, just try to get your head around her ability to bend the laws of physics, engineering and medicine to suit herself.

The only advice I can offer is to go with the gushing, exhilarating flow of it all, or drown in the backwash as this raging torrent of thrills, spills and ground-up pills surges forwards.

Can Morgan Freeman’s brain expert get to grips with Lucy’s fast-growing powers?

Morgan Freeman (as the world’s pre-eminent expert on the brain) does his best to contribute some clarifying commentary, but to no avail.

All that matters is Johansson’s clinical (and subtly comical) reading of writer-director Luc Besson’s mischievous, Nikita-meets-The-Matrix master plan.

Lucy (MA15+)

Director: Luc Besson (The Fifth Element)

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-Sik, Amr Waked

Verdict: Three and a half stars. The thought that counts, and leaves a body count

Originally published as Scarlett Johansson’s Lucy hell-bent on getting in your face