Lucy is a 2014 English-language French science fiction action film[5] written and directed by Luc Besson for his company EuropaCorp, and produced by his wife, Virginie Besson-Silla.

Although praise was given for its themes, visuals, and Johansson's performance, many critics found the plot nonsensical, especially its focus on the ten percent of the brain myth and resulting abilities.

She is told by the operating doctor that natural CPH4 is produced in tiny quantities by pregnant women during their sixth week of pregnancy to provide fetuses with the energy to develop.

As her abilities continue to develop, Lucy returns to Mr. Jang's hotel, kills his bodyguards, assaults him, and telepathically extracts the locations of the drug mules who are carrying the three other bags of CPH4.

After Lucy speaks with Norman (and provides proof of her developed abilities) she flies to Paris and contacts local police captain Pierre Del Rio to help her find the other three drug mules.

[10] "I live in a country of food, and you can't have a third star in a restaurant (the top Michelin rating) without risk, invention or creativity", Besson said.

"[10] With an estimated budget of 48 million euros, Lucy was the second-largest French film production in 2013,[18] and the biggest ever for EuropaCorp, the company founded by Besson in 2000.

Bluff described Lucy as "really fun because it wasn't a thousand shots of robots or things we typically do," instead relying on short sequences "that required a lot of new ways to problem-solve and to visualize them.

"[30] ILM began work on the project in July 2013, based on concept art provided by Besson's Europacorp, such as Lucy disintegrating and sprouting black tendrils.

[31] Rodeo FX handled the Paris chase scene, Taipei matte paintings, and the visual representation of cell phones' radio waves seen by Lucy's enhanced vision.

[37] It was described as having "hit the Internet with the force of a punch to the head,"[38] with reviewers wrote that it promised "a wild ride with Johansson rendering people unconscious with a flick of her wrist";[39] "awesome" as "the girl who was once exploited becomes very, very dangerous";[40] and "wonderfully insane as Johansson goes from a drug mule at the mercy of her captors to a superhuman with remarkable control over her body and a diminishing capacity for mercy.

"[41] James Luxford of The Guardian said the trailer fit a theme evident in Johansson's past three films: characters who "evolve, mutate or vanish altogether".

[44] In his 2014 book, Great Myths of the Brain, Christian Jarrett dismisses the film's portrayal of the potential for "mastering all knowledge and hurling cars with her mind" as being fully speculative fiction.

[53] Nikki Rocco, president for domestic distribution at Universal Studios, said, "To have a female lead in an original property absolutely made a difference.

[53] Ray Subers of Box Office Mojo stated, "The fact that it even came close, though, is a fairly remarkable feat for this moderately-budgeted original action movie.

He said that this helped Johansson's lead role of Lucy appear to be "a natural extension of the butt-kicking brand she's built" as Black Widow in The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and that "recognizing that audiences were connecting with the material, Universal made the savvy decision to move Lucy up from mid-August," where it instead would have been competing with Guardians of the Galaxy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Expendables 3, a contrast to "this less-competitive late July date.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Enthusiastic and silly, Lucy powers through the movie's logic gaps with cheesy thrills plus Scarlett Johansson's charm – and mostly succeeds at it.

Regarding the positive reception, Danielle Attali wrote in Le Journal du dimanche that "Luc Besson's thriller shows a successful talent to entertain and keep in suspense".

[65] In Le Parisien, Magali Gruet stated, "Some have called this a feminist film, and though we will not go that far, it would be wrong to deny that a woman is portrayed as the source of solutions intended to save the world.

"[65] Libération wrote, "Beyond the success or embellishment which adorns each new scene with a spectacular swagger of violence and improbable turns, there is a strong feeling that Luc Besson now makes films from a position beyond merely marketing considerations.

[66] Justin Chang of Variety called Lucy "a slickly engineered showcase for a kickass heroine whom we instinctively, unhesitatingly root for" and an enjoyable, "agreeably goofy, high-concept" speculative narrative devoid of self-importance because "it pays deft, knowing homage to any number of Hollywood sci-fi head-trip classics, embedding its ideas in a dense labyrinth of cinematic references that somehow end up feeling sly rather than shopworn.

"[70] By contrast, John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter stated that "plenty of films and novels have envisioned what would happen if we gained conscious control over our entire brain," but that "it's hard to recall one whose ideas were more laughable than this one."

"[71] Writing for LA Weekly, Amy Nicholson stated that Besson "must think the audience is operating with even fewer synapses [than the capacity of ten percent].

Here, his style is slick but hand-holdingly literal" and "as the newly bionic Lucy seeks vengeance, Besson even tries to convince us she's a strong female character, which to the majority of male action directors simply means a sexy, silent badass.

[55] Ralph Blackburn of Belfast Telegraph called the notion of only using ten percent of the brain an "often-quoted idea" that "has obvious Hollywood potential," but, according to leading neuroscientists, is "nothing more than an urban myth."

"[8] Chang stated that because Besson "seems more interested in engaging, playfully yet seriously, with the various biological, philosophical and metaphysical riddles that [the film] raises," the story is lacking as an action film and is not "much of a thriller – it's virtually an anti-thriller, devoid of suspense or any real sense of danger due to the fact that its heroine is more or less invincible," and that "at times it's hard to shake the sense that a smarter, more unbridled picture might have found a way to slip the bonds of genre altogether.

[76] Lucy has been compared to various films; common examples include Akira,[77][78] 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Matrix, The Tree of Life, Transcendence, and especially Limitless.

[73] Burr commented that "where a fully juiced cerebellum just made Cooper's character really, really capable, Lucy undergoes a metaphysical makeover that, by the film's midpoint, has started to rearrange time, space, and her body.

[79] Hollywood journalist Nikki Finke reported in a July 2014 post on her film industry blog that: "In August, a Lucy graphic novel will be released online with four chapters appearing every other day for one week.

"[80] The first chapter of the semi-animated graphic novel was published on the international version of the movie's official website and features the same story material as seen in trailers with picture elements that move as scrolling takes place.