Action aficionados will be happy to hear that Lucy, Luc Besson’s action vehicle for The Avengers actress Scarlett Johansson, has been handed an R rating by the MPAA. Why, you may ask? Well, the official description from the MPAA explains that Lucy contains “strong violence, disturbing images, and sexuality.”
We’ll have to wait until the action thriller opens in July to judge whether the MPAA was right or wrong in giving Lucy that rating, which will make it harder for the film to attract a younger teen audience. However, Besson’s name may prove enough of a draw in of itself. He’s one of the most prolific and well-respected action directors working today. Films under his belt include La Femme Nikita and The Fifth Element, though it’s through his writing and producing that he’s really made an impact on the genre. Besson’s fingerprints are all over such well-received flicks as Taken, The Transporter, District B13 and Colombiana.
Whether Lucy will join their ranks or fade into obscurity remains to be seen, but Johansson’s presence should definitely help to sell the film to moviegoers. In an interesting move from Universal, Lucy was recently shifted from August 8th and July 25th. Now, it will go up against Brett Ratner’s Hercules, the Cameron Diaz-Jason Segel comedy Sex Tape and Lionsgate’s Step Up All In.
For those unfamiliar with the film, the official synopsis for Lucy reads:
Lucy is an action-thriller that tracks a woman accidentally caught in a dark deal who turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic.
That’s not very specific, so allow me to fill in the blanks. When Lucy, an average woman, is kidnapped by drug traffickers, she awakens to find that they have turned her into a literal drug mule, cutting her open and putting an experimental drug inside her. However, the bag breaks and the drug leaks into her system, turning her into a stunningly powerful superhuman. With her new powers, she decides to hunt down her abductors.
Will you be lining up to see Lucy, despite or perhaps because of the R rating, when it opens on July 25th?