Lucy, seen first in Taiwan and played by the magnetic Scarlett Johansson, inadvertently is pressed into carrying a case full of the magic, powdery drug, and when the murderous bad guys, headed by Mr. Jang, played by Choi Min Sik, implant in her a package she is to transport, the situation leads to a cell change in her brains, ever-increasing toward 100 per cent usage, even as the brain power required by an audience for this sort of nonsense plunges to the minimal. Morgan Freeman as a professor solemnly cues us in along the way about the scientific theory in a lecture, as Besson and his team intersperse illustrations dating to the origins of humankind.

The big attraction here is Johansson, as usual compelling to watch. We see her powers increase dramatically. And what does a screenplay do with such ability? There would be the potential for interesting sci-fi applications. But the solution in this film apparently aimed at the summer blockbuster sweepstakes is, with just a partial nod to the potential for human progress, turning her into a kick-ass dame, who, in addition to wielding her acquired superpowers to promote knowledge, can kill or immobilize anyone in the way. And when the scene shifts to Paris, she is a demon driving through the streets, although she had never driven before. I particularly liked her racing through the Rue de Rivoli scattering sidewalk pedestrians, my personal satisfying vengeance for the crowd I had to thread through while walking there on a visit last summer.