( EW.com ) -- Three years ago , director Luc Besson tried to do prestige , directing an Oscar-bait biopic about Burmese political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi titled `` The Lady . '' It did n't work out for anyone , but at least Besson is back where he clearly feels more at home : stylized violence punctuated by surreal chaos . In `` Lucy , '' Scarlett Johansson plays an American party girl studying in Taiwan who is kidnapped and forced to be a drug mule for an Asian gangster ( Choi Min-Sik ) . But when the pouch of mysterious blue crystals ruptures in her gut—following a savage beating—the wonder drug begins to expand her human potential at an alarming rate . First , she 's transformed into a sexy Jason Bourne , out for revenge . Then she becomes Neo , a superhero with near omnipotence . And her ultimate destiny , before the high can wear off , might be complete transcendence . On paper , `` Lucy '' is nothing more than a standard Milla Jovovich action movie , but Besson amps it up by going way past the recommended dosage of cinematic insanity . The whiplash imagery and frenetic editing give the audience a contact high of sorts—was that a freakin ' dinosaur ? —transforming what should be ridiculous into genuine bizarro excitement . He has successfully crossbred the superhero film with the Asian-gangster genre , and the film 's car chase through the streets of Paris might be one fetishists celebrate from now on . Lucy is a thinly drawn character , just someone who needs to survive , but Johansson vividly conveys the initial terror of her dire circumstances before shifting into the calculating , almost robotic mode of an alien being flicking away mere mortals . By the time the film exhausts itself—in a brisk 89 minutes—it feels like there 's literally nowhere that Lucy and Besson ca n't go , no boundaries , no laws , no logic . Just go with it . EW Grade : B . See the original story at EW.com . Review : 'Hercules ' needs better Dwayne Johnson . Ben Affleck will be a great Batman , Adam West says . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
Scarlett Johansson stars in the film . It 's directed by Luc Besson . Comment: