Lucy: Scarlett Johansson Expands Her Mind In This Extended TV Spot
This article is more than 2 years old
Luc Besson’s upcoming sci-fi actioner Lucy may be based on questionable scientific knowledge—namely the widely believed myth that humans only use ten percent of their brain—but that aside, this still looks like it could be a pretty fun time. Think Neil Burger’s pharma-thriller Limitless crossed with any of Besson’s more notable flicks like The Fifth Element or La Femme Nikita, and you have a good idea. A new extended TV spot aired during the NBA finals, and now it’s hit ye olde Internet for you to check out for yourself. There’s also a new poster for your perusal.
Scarlett Johansson plays the title character, a young woman who winds up as an unwilling drug mule. A crew of nefarious looking fellows dopes her up, cuts her open, fills her full of some new designer drug, stitches her back up, and sends her on her journey. Along the way, however, she runs into problems when the bag ruptures and the mysterious substance leaks into her body. Whatever it is, the impact is substantial, and all of a sudden she gets real smart, can change her hair color with a sweep of her hand, and basically control everything in the world around her. As you can see in this video, she can even freeze people and apparently stop bullets, which, if people are shooting at you, is a useful tool to have in your arsenal.
Like the last trailer we saw, this footage eschews some of the brutal violence against the heroine that the earlier looks at the film placed front and center and gave some viewers pause. It felt like Besson was fetishizing his lead character being assaulted, something he’s certainly made a habit of in his earlier films. You can understand why they might not include those pieces in an advertisement designed to run during a time slot where families and kids are watching. Make no mistake, this isn’t going to be a warm, cuddly family adventure.
When you have a star the size of Johansson in your movie, odds are she’s going to figure prominently in your marketing campaign, and this poster definitely gives you a grill full of her. It’s like bam, Johansson face. The 29-year old actress is on a good run, with blockbusters like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and esoteric indie features like Under the Skin, and we hope that continues with Lucy.
One thing I’m curious about, however, has nothing to do with the star, I want to see the villain Kang (Choi Min-sik). With movies like Oldboy and I Saw the Devil on his resume, Choi is one of best bad guy/psychopath/twisted-broken-humans currently working anywhere in the world. If Lucy is a success, hopefully he’ll start to gain some wider recognition. He’s the kind of actor that we want to see more and more of, in any capacity.
Lucy recently saw its release date get bumped up from August to July 25. And while we’ve seen some of our more anticipated movies get pushed back—most notably Jupiter Ascending—hopefully this means that Universal thinks the picture will perform well. We’re always in the market for more kick ass science fiction in our movie theaters.
