'Lucy' International Trailer: Luc Besson Enhances Scarlett Johansson

It's a total myth that humans use only 10% of their brains, but where would Hollywood be if action-thrillers were bound to scientific fact? In the new Lucy international trailer, Scarlett Johansson plays a young woman who ingests a drug that allows her to access the other 90% of her mental capacity.

This gives her superpowers, like enhanced strength and agility and the ability to move things with her mind. Which, again, doesn't really make any sense in any scientific sense — but works perfectly as an excuse to have Johansson kick lots of ass for writer-director Luc Besson. Watch the Lucy international trailer after the jump.

Lucy is an original work, but so far it looks a lot like a mish-mash of other recent films. It's technically Johansson's first solo superhero film, even though she's part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it has her playing a sci-fi vixen like in Under the Skin. The druggy premise is straight out of Limitless, and Morgan Freeman's dire warnings could've been copied and pasted from Transcendence. 

Of course, none of that matters as long as the elements come together into an entertaining whole. The trailer gives cause for optimism on that front. It looks like silly summer fun — just the kind of fast-paced escapist fare that allows you to forget for two hours that it's a thousand degrees outside the theater.

Lucy opens August 8.

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.