Luc Besson has returned with his latest film Lucy. Besson is no stranger to action films with strong female protagonists. He actually helped define the genre with classic films such as La Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional. While he failed to reach the heights of those with Lucy, it is still a relatively entertaining ride.

Scarlett Johansson stars as the title character Lucy. While in Taiwan, Lucy gets in over her head with the mob. The mob boss, played by Min-sik Choi (Oldboy), forces Lucy to smuggle an experimental drug inside her body. However, due to a set of circumstances, she overdoses and the potential of her mind is unlocked. With her ever-increasing mental capacity, she decides to get the rest of the supply of drugs and to learn as much as possible before time runs out.

Johansson has a strong, yet one-note performance, that largely is not her fault. She sells the fear and terror of being kidnapped very well initially. When she does unlock the unused parts of her brain, she becomes detached from humanity due to her higher intelligence. Often gazing off into space or out of windows, seemingly calculating all the information the world has to offer. The problem is that this also detaches the viewer from her perspective. Lucy is our gateway into this dangerous world, yet she has reached a point where she has removed all emotional connections with the outside world.

Johansson’s Lucy is almost machine-like. Highly intelligent, she thinks before she speaks and never gets flustered. It may of helped to have added supporting characters that are more impulsive, witty and humorous. More human. It would have provided more opportunities for situational comedy and may have been another way to illustrate just how far her mind had evolved beyond our own.

Morgan Freeman plays a professor who specializes in the human mind and its infinite potential. Particularly for the first half of the film, Freeman’s presence is as the narrator which is charmingly disguised as a college lecture. He presents Lucy with her ultimate goal. How to pass on the extreme amount of knowledge that she is accumulating. It is a plot point, but turns into an interesting philosophical question about what it means to be human. As well as what our primary responsibility to society is.

Lucy‘s plot is lean and continuously drives forward. However, do not expect a non-stop martial arts-fest, a la Black Widow either. Lucy’s power develops fast and suddenly. She literally becomes omnipotent within minutes into the film by gaining hypnosis, telepathy and telekinesis. She never really feels in actual danger, the tension comes from her completing her mission within a set period of time. At times Besson ventures into the abstract to illustrate themes of the film. Scenes of primitive humans, cheetahs on the hunt and time-lapses of evolution are often spliced to show Lucy’s worldly knowledge of all she encounters.

The film starts strong but begins to lose direction some in the second half. As the resolution becomes clearer to the audience, Besson struggles to find a correct way to end Lucy’s arc. However, the ending certainly doesn’t spoil the performance of Johansson or the meta-physical ideas introduced in creative ways throughout the picture. While it may not be for everybody, Lucy certainly is a fun movie worth viewing.