Be all you can be. That’s what the Army recruitment commercials used to tell us. It’s an appealing idea, finding some way to unlock our full potential. In Lucy, although Scarlett Johansen’s character, Lucy, doesn’t actively seek out a way to unlock her full potential, she eventually does thanks to some brutal circumstances and a crazy new drug. Granted, it has the side effect of being potentially lethal, but other side effects include gaining access to amazing Matrix/mutant like powers, instant access to an almost unlimited store of knowledge, the ability to travel through time, and ultimately ascension into godhood. Yeah, pretty sure that’s not quite what the Army recruitment slogan “Be all you can be” had in mind, but it makes for a fun, if trippy, ride in this film.
First, let me warn you that this isn’t some “Black Widow gains mutant powers and kicks butt” movie like the trailers make it out to be. Lucy is much more existential, philosophical, and just straight up weirder than that. I like sci-fi that’s willing to ask some biggest questions, and this one tackles some of the true biggies like “Why Are We Here” and “What is the Meaning of Existence.” The film puts forth two intriguing possibilities; we are here to be immortal or we are here to reproduce. If we are here to reproduce, that means the passing along of knowledge and information. As Lucy’s awakened brain capacity slowly ticks towards 100%, she does indeed gain access to a vast quantity of knowledge (and some nifty super powers as well), and she does find a way to pass that along, but the question lingers as to whether that’s really what life is all about. The movie seems to think that it’s rather obvious that humanity isn’t immortal, and therefore the accumulation of knowledge and the passing along of that information is one of the most important things we can do with our existence. Interestingly enough, the Bible suggests something altogether different.
C.S. Lewis once suggested that every person we encounter is, in fact, already an eternal being. Every person on this planet will live for eternity; the only thing in question is where that eternity will be spent. There are two clear choices for that; one can spend eternity either in heaven or in hell. This is not something we can “opt-out on,” and a non-choice results in the default choice of eternity in hell. God, however, in His great love for us, provided another choice for us through the death and resurrection of His son Jesus. If we actively choose to believe Jesus and all He said, we are then given the option of heaven as our destination for eternity. Now I know some that find that to be a bit narrow, proselytizing, limiting and so on and so forth, but consider the alternatives. We can convince ourselves that life amounts to nothing more than the passing of knowledge and information. Bleak. We can decide not to make any choice about our eternity and find ourselves spending somewhere none of us would want to be. Scary. Or we can accept the gift God has given us through Jesus and make the choice to spend our eternity in heaven with the Creator who made us with purpose and who loves us dearly. Sounds pretty good. Frankly, I don’t see what’s so bad about that given the first two options.
It’s certainly better than the bleak and pointless outlook put forth by the existential ponderings of Lucy. Fortunately, if that kind of philosophical pondering really isn’t your thing, there’s some fun action to enjoy in Lucy as well. To a certain extent, it almost feels like Luc Besson knew that people wouldn’t want to see this film unless it has some sort of gunplay in it, so much of the action-centric plot seems tacked simply to give the movie some action. Lucy quickly reaches a plane of existence where thugs with guns pose absolutely no threat to hear, and so a cop is brought along in the later half of the film to provide someone to exchange bullets with the bad guys. Plus there’s a fun car chase tossed into the works as well because, you know, action.
Make no mistake, though, Lucy is not an action film. If anything, it’s even more philosophical and existential than the Matrix, but with action scenes that are a bit more standard and less inventive. The cast gives solid enough performances, although it seems a waste to have Morgan Freeman play the role of Mr. Exposition and basically tell us the reason for all the stuff happening to Lucy is, you know, science. Of course, the proposition of the film that humans only use 10% of their brain isn’t exactly solid fact (but then, neither is the film’s idea when it comes to origins of life), so it’s not like it’s on solidly believable ground to begin with, so I guess they needed some to explain things were happening because of science. Still, big questions, some really existential ponderings, some intriguing if quirky editing choices, and some decent action all mixes together to make for a passably entertaining film that will get you thinking. Too bad much of it’s spoiled by a real downer of a final line.
