Lucy (2014) Dir: Luc Besson

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'Don't do drugs, kids'. I think I'd seen about twenty minutes of this film prior to watching it in full. In truth, I had very little interest in watching it, the reviews are very middling, and the description didn't sound hugely exciting. However, I wanted something easy to watch one night, and nothing else was grabbing me, so I decided to give it a go.

I didn't realise that it was directed by Luc Besson, who is a pretty dodgy man, which wasn't the best start to proceedings. That said, he did make 'The Fifth Element' a sci-fi film that I have a lot of sentimental love for, which encouraged me to give this one a chance. Unfortunately, this sci-fi film was not even close to quality of that aforementioned classic.

The film spent so much time trying to concern itself with the grand meanings of life, the brain, and intelligence, but did so in such a corny and dull way. It intercut several scenes with random stock footage of animals and nature, in order to give some scale or depth, but it did not achieve anything more than distracting from its very mediocre action.

My biggest issue with the film though, was that the characters did not react enough to the in-world stimuli happening in front of them. There was some major science fiction events happening in front of them, and most of the people seeing it were extremely nonchalant about it, or became so after about a minute. I understand that it's a sci-fi story, but, being set in the 'real world' means their reactions were not even remotely appropriate or believable.

The film failed to capitalise on the intriguing elements of its premise, instead providing a boring, yet extremely rushed, plot. The climax could have been a fascinating and weird exploration of the human mind, but, instead, it went the most predictable and less thought-provoking direction it could have. It's safe to say I was not particularly entertained.

Scarlett Johansson wasn't too bad, for the most part, though at times she became so wooden that it drained my energy. I wanted her character to be interesting, and for a while she was, but by the end, I was left underwhelmed. Johansson could have done a lot more with her acting, though, of course, direction will have played a part.

None of the supporting cast had any depth beyond even the surface level, but, of those who had relatively significant roles, the most watchable, perhaps predictably, was Morgan Freeman. That said, this was a rather middling performance, by his almighty standards. Choi Min-Sik's villain was devoid of any uniqueness, while Amr Waked was so bland he may as well have been absent from the film. At least the brief appearance of Julian Rhind-Tutt was quite good.

Overall, this was a very forgettable sci-fi action film, which relied on its lead actress to give it any sort of quality. But, even then, there wasn't much to enjoy beyond the mind-numbingly average action sequences and unfulfilled potential of the sci-fi plot developments. This could've been a lit better, if, I would argue, it went a lot further than it ultimately did.