'Limitless' visuals pop in drug drama

It's an action-packed superhero comic book!

It's a cautionary drug-addiction drama!

It's a cynical neo-noir thriller!

It's a ... a ... what the heck is it?

Neil Burger's “Limitless” doesn't defy conventions. It embraces all of them. Then it whips up an incendiary cocktail of ideas and colors sparking and exploding like the synapses of human brain cells after being flooded with LSD.

Super zoom shots rocket down New York streets and sidewalks as if the camera lens suddenly leapt into quasi-hyperspace.

Supersaturated colors radiate from the screen with Geiger-counter measurability.

And then there are Bradley Cooper's blue eyes, twinkling azure orbs that become hypnotically iridescent the moment he pops a revolutionary drug called NZT into his mouth.

“Limitless” opens with an action scene that actually occurs 20 minutes later in the narrative. When this happens, it's usually a sign the filmmakers think they have a boring beginning and don't trust the audience to stay awake through it.

That's the case here.

Cooper plays Eddie, a washed-out wannabe writer who's lost his lover, his motivation and his self-respect.

His eyes are glazed with indifference. His unkempt hair is pulled back into a tail even a pony wouldn't want to be associated with.

He's a loser who can't write a single sentence without second thoughts. And they're worse than the first ones.

One day Eddie has lunch with Vernon (Johnny Whitworth), brother of his ex-girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish). Vernon feels sorry for Eddie, so he offers him a small clear tablet called NZT.

Vernon claims the drug activates 100 percent of human brain cells. Most people don't even use half.

Within minutes after Eddie pops the pill, the grainy, dingy, hand-held camera work abruptly becomes brightened, color-saturated and stable. His dull irises break with boiling blueness.

He calls this highly focused state “enhanced Eddie,” and it enables him to recall every latent piece of information his brain has stored since birth.

It also helps him clean up his crusty apartment, become aware of his appearance, and complete an engaging novel in no time.

He becomes the best version of himself, so much so that Lindy comes back to him.

It doesn't take long before Eddie turns his attention to Wall Street and the stock market, and he makes more killings than the subprime mortgage market before the meltdown.

Eddie evolves into a modern, invincible superhero armed with unabated intellectual powers and drive.

However, he has two weaknesses: 1) he has to keep taking NZT to retain his intellectual edge and 2) he has hooked up with a violent Russian mobster (Andrew Howard with a scary accent) to secure seed money to amass his fortune.

Robert De Niro more or less phones in his role as money mogul Carl Van Loon, the Carlos Slim of NYC. Eddie desperately wants to work with Carl, and eventually to best him at his own game.

But Eddie doesn't realize the long-term side-effects of NZT, such as illness, unexplained loss of time and slow death. Vernon kind of forgot to mention those.

“Limitless” uses Eddie's constant voice-over narration, usually a device employed by lame and lazy screenwriters.

Here, it really works because it recalls the narrative style of classic film noir stories. It's like Eddie has just stepped out of a Raymond Chandler novel wearing his cynicism on his sleeve before foolishly hooking up with the wrong people.

Burger, who directed the live-action “The Illusionist” and the faux documentary “Interview With the Assassin,” squanders a splendid opportunity to comment on our drug-enhanced society rife with Ritalin, Adderall, Vicodin, Valium, plus all the others.

He doesn't know what to make of Leslie Dixon's provocative screenplay (based on “The Dark Fields” by Alan Glynn).

Instead of giving us insight, Burger is content to entertain us with a movie that's as fun and as deep as the blue pinwheels in enhanced Eddie's eyes.

<b>“Limitless”</b>

★ ★ ★

<b>Starring: </b>Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Anna Friel

<b>Directed by: </b>Neil Burger

<b>Other: </b>A Relativity release. Rated PG-13 for drug use, language, sexual situations, violence. 115 minutes.