Scarlett Johansson has more than proven in Iron Man 2, The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier that she really knows how to kick ass, and although a Black Widow solo film is still toiling in development, Luc Besson has you covered during the interim between Avengers installments. This summer, he’ll unveil Lucy, an action thriller in which Johansson stars as a kidnapped woman who begins to tap into an extraordinary amount of her brainpower after an experimental drug planted inside her by traffickers leaks into her system.
The film is being carried squarely on Johansson’s shoulders, so we’ll see when it opens later this month whether the 2013 Sexiest Woman Alive is a big-enough box-office draw by herself (we doubt that people are going to go see this for co-star Morgan Freeman) to make Lucy a success.
In the first clip for the film, Lucy escapes from her captors using her enhanced intelligence, weapons skills and physical prowess. It’s a cool little scene that displays the film’s take-no-prisoners approach to action, and I’d classify it as just a little NSFW because of some blood. Honesty, the film doesn’t look like any new territory for Besson, instead blending La Femme Nikita with a little bit of Bourne and a large dollop of Limitless. And though seemingly every film that Besson comes out with is based on one of his original ideas, I don’t think anyone is waiting for Lucy to dazzle them with its narrative intelligence. I’ll be queuing up for exactly one reason when Lucy opens on July 25th – to see Johansson kick ass, and look damn good doing it.
From “La Femme Nikita” and “The Professional” to “The Fifth Element,”writer/director Luc Besson has created some of the toughest, most memorable female action heroes in cinematic history. Now, Besson directs Scarlett Johansson in “Lucy,” 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.