She might not be getting her own stand-alone Black Widow film any time soon, but that is not going to stop Scarlett Johansson from kicking some serious butt. Her latest outing, in Luc Besson’s action thriller Lucy, gives the actress a chance to exercise her brain as well as her formidable fighting skills.
Johansson is the titular character forced into becoming a mule for an experimental drug that enables its user to access ever greater portions of his or her brain capacity. When the drug begins leaking into her system, Lucy becomes capable of all kinds of exciting things, including telekinesis, high pain threshold, and – apparently – the ability to see the future. How a drug can possibly allow your average human to do all those things has yet to be seen, but perhaps we just need a little willing suspension of disbelief here. Not that it much matters: Lucy is out for revenge, and she’s going to us all her powers to bring those responsible to book.
The latest extended TV spot for Lucy has some nice action featuring Johansson and her enhanced abilities, along with a requisite voiceover provided by Morgan Freeman as he describes what has happened to her. Lucy looks like a smart, fun little action film, with two excellent stars and a director who usually delivers the action goods. I’m sure we’ll get some pseudo-scientific explanation for Lucy’s powers, at least enough to keep us moving along with the action. Plus, Johansson has proven herself to be a great action star as well as actress, a combination all too rare in recent years, so I think we can hold out hope that Lucy will be everything that this TV spot promises it will be.
Lucy expands her mind (and yours) on July 25.